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Round-up of news stories from across the EU 11.4.16

01 April 2016

EU: 26/11 ‘Mumbai bomber’ enters Europe in ISIS plot: Report (The Indian Express, link): "A Pakistani bomb-making expert linked to the 2008 Mumbai attack is among scores of trained terrorists who slipped into the EU posing as refugees to join the Islamic State’s plot to commit atrocities in Europe, a media report said on Sunday.

Muhammad Usman Ghani, who is linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terror groups, is being held in Austria on charges of participating in a terrorist organisation, The Sunday Times said."

EU: New Reports On Terror Attacks Underline Why Crypto Isn't A Serious Problem: It's Hard To Use And Easy To Get Wrong (Techdirt, link): "As Techdirt has reported, politicians (and some journalists) haven't waited for the facts to be established before assuming that encryption is to blame for recent terrorist attacks. But as detailed information starts to appear, it becomes clear once more that the bombings and shootings did not succeed because things had "gone dark," but largely because intelligence agencies in both Europe and the US missed numerous clues and hints about the bigger picture. This emerges most powerfully from a long article in The New York Times, which charts the rise of ISIS over many years, and how the authorities were slow to catch on"

EU-TURKMENISTAN: NGOs call on the European Parliament to postpone approval of EU-Turkmenistan treaty (IPHR, link): "Twenty-nine NGOs from 15 different countries call on the European Parliament to postpone approval of the new EU-Turkmenistan Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) until Turkmenistan’s government meets the Parliament’s human rights benchmarks. A letter with this message was sent to members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs ahead of its planned consideration of the EU-Turkmenistan PCA on 11 April 2016 (postponed from 4 April 2016). The letter was also sent to members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Development, its Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, as well as its Sub-Committee on Human Rights.

For nearly 15 years, ratification of the EU-Turkmenistan PCA has been delayed over grave human rights concerns in Turkmenistan."

UK: EXPLAINER: What Is Mass Surveillance And What Does It Have To Do With Human Rights? (RightsInfo, link): "As the Investigatory Powers Bill continues to progress through Parliament, RightsInfo takes a look this week at some of the key human rights issues raised by the Bill – privacy, big data, and mass surveillance. Today we explore the theme of mass surveillance.

From the Snowden leaks in mid-2013 to the interest surrounding a US court’s ruling that Apple de-crypt a terrorist’s iPhone, the words ‘mass surveillance’ are commonly used to describe many kinds of privacy infringement. In this post we ask ourselves the question – what exactly is mass surveillance and how might it interfere with our human rights?"

UK: Jean Charles de Menezes and the limits of human rights (Media Diversified, link): "Last week, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or Court) handed down its judgment in the case of Armani da Silva v UK. The case was brought by Patricia da Silva, the cousin of Jean Charles de Menezes, a young Brazilian electrician living in Tulse Hill who was killed by Metropolitan Police Specialist Firearm Officers at Stockwell tube station on July 22 2005. The killing came in the wake of the 7/7 bombings, in which 52 had people lost their lives, and the attempted 21/7 attacks, in which a number of bombs were discovered on public transport by police, having failed to detonate. Jean Charles de Menezes lived at 17 Scotia Road; Hussain Osman, one of the 21/7 suspects, lived at number 21. Both properties used the same doorway to access the street. In the course of a surveillance and containment operation Jean Charles was mistaken for Hussain Osman – “it would be worth someone else having a look,” said one officer. By the time forces trained in conducting armed stops had arrived, a ‘Code Red’ had been declared, and Jean Charles had taken a bus to Stockwell tube station. Shortly after he entered a train and sat down, officers ‘Charlie 2’ and ‘Charlie 12’ discharged 7 bullets into his head and ended his life. His death was one of the 58 fatal police shootings that have taken place between 1990 and 2015. Not one of the officers responsible has been convicted."