March 17 Photo Brief: St. Patrick’s Day, Pancake Week, Somali journalist freed, 25th anniversary of the chemical attack on Halabja
St. Patrick’s Day, Pancake Week in Kazakhstan, Somali journalist freed, 25th anniversary of the chemical attack on northern Iraqi city of Halabja and more in today’s daily brief.
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- A parade goer wears a shamrock patch on their jacket during St Patrick’s Day festivities in Dublin on March 17, 2013. More than 100 parades are being held across Ireland to mark St Patrick’s Day, the feast day of the patron saint of Ireland, with up to 650,000 spectators expected to attend the parade in Dublin. Ireland has high hopes that the festivities will bring a much-needed boost to the economy. (Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A reveller with his face painted the colours of the Irish flag attends St Patrick’s Day festivities in Dublin on March 17, 2013. More than 100 parades are being held across Ireland to mark St Patrick’s Day, the feast day of the patron saint of Ireland, with up to 650,000 spectators expected to attend the parade in Dublin. Ireland has high hopes that the festivities will bring a much-needed boost to the economy. (Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A man in fancy dress takes part in a charity event to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day and raise money for local charities in the town of Portstewart, County Londonderry March 17, 2013. (Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)
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- A man carries children down the street during the St Patricks Day Parade at Boat Quay on March 17, 2013 in Singapore. Singapore’s Irish community gathered at Boat Quay for a three-day-long St Patrick’s Day Street Festival which featured street performances, buskers, and Irish food and drink. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
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- A man climbs up a smooth wooden column to win a contest during the celebrations of Maslenitsa, or Pancake Week, at the Bobrovy Log ski resort on the surburbs of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, March 17, 2013. Maslenitsa is widely viewed as a pagan holiday marking the end of winter and is celebrated with pancake eating, while the Orthodox Church considers it as the week of feasting before Lent. (Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)
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- A child stands near Cossacks who are standing in a line during the celebrations of Maslenitsa, or Pancake Week, outside Almaty March 17, 2013. Maslenitsa is widely viewed as a pagan holiday marking the end of winter and is celebrated with pancake eating, while the Orthodox Church considers it as the week of feasting before Lent. The participants are from the Cossack Union of Semirechye, which translates as “seven rivers territory”, which is located in the south-eastern part of Kazakhstan. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)
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- A woman holds a picture of her son, who was one of the victims of the 1988 chemical attack, as she attends a ceremony commemorating the victims in the Kurdish town of Halabja, near Sulaimaniya, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad, March 16, 2013. Iraqi Kurds on Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of the chemical attack on the northern Iraqi city of Halabja by Saddam Hussein’s forces. Up to 5,000 people may have been killed by chemical gas, villages were razed and thousands of Kurds were forced into camps during the 1988 Anfal genocidal campaign against Iraqi Kurds. (Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters)
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- An Iraqi Kurd resident visits the cemetery for victims of the 1988 chemical attack in the Kurdish town of Halabja, near Sulaimaniya, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad, March 16, 2013. Iraqi Kurds on Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of the chemical attack on the northern Iraqi city of Halabja by Saddam Hussein’s forces. Up to 5,000 people may have been killed by chemical gas, villages were razed and thousands of Kurds were forced into camps during the 1988 Anfal genocidal campaign against Iraqi Kurds. (Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters)
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- Somali journalists carry their colleague Abdiaziz Abdinur after the high court freed him in the capital of Mogadishu, March 17, 2013. A Somali judge on Sunday freed Abdinur who was jailed last month for interviewing an alleged gang-rape victim in a case that sparked international condemnation over how Somali authorities treat victims of sexual violence and press freedom. (Feisal Omar/Reuters)
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- Two protesters hug after hearing the verdict in the trial of Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond outside the juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio, March 17, 2013. Two high school football players from Ohio were found guilty of raping a 16-year-old girl at a party last summer while she was in a drunken stupor in a case that gained national exposure through social media. Mays, 17, and Richmond, 16, two members of Steubenville’s “Big Red” football team, were found delinquent in the sexual assault of the girl in the early morning of Aug. 12 when witnesses said she was too drunk to move or speak. (Jason Cohn/Reuters)
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- A slum dweller throws her belongings amid the remains of her hut that was burnt in a fire which broke out in a slum area on the outskirts of Kolkata March 16, 2013. Hundreds of huts were burnt in a fire early Saturday morning, and no injuries or casualties were reported, local media reported. (Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)
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- A nun holds a candle as she takes part in a march ahead of the 33rd anniversary of assassination of the late Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero in San Salvador March 16, 2013. Romero was murdered by a right-wing hit squad while preparing for mass at the Divina Providencia Cancer Hospital in San Salvador on March 24, 1980. (Ulises Rodriguez/Reuters)
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- A picture taken on March 16, 2013, shows Kazakh farmer Kuandyk Bekitayev displaying what he calls the body of three-eyed and eight-legged lamb that was born three days ago at his farm in outskirts of the city of Pavlodar in north eastern Kazakhstan.The blue spot on back of the lamb’s head is the animal’s third eye Bekitaev said. The media quoted Bekitayev as saying that the mutation was caused by poor environment situation in the region. The lamb did not survive Bekitaev said. (Vladimir Bugaye/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A man kisses his camels in front of tourists at the Giza Pyramids plateau as he awaits for them to take a ride, March 17, 2013. (Asmaa Waguih/Reuters)
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- A tattoo artist works on the leg of a client at the Israel Body Art Society Festival in a Tel Aviv club March 16, 2013. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)
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- A man holds a fishing pole into a hole on the frozen Oster-Jansjon lake as he participates in an ice fishing contest in Are, Sweden on March 17, 2013. (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A moose calf runs through the snow at a moose farm in Duved, Sweden on March 17, 2013. (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)
Somali court frees reporter jailed for interviewing rape victim
Feisal Omar | Reuters
11:04 a.m. EDT, March 17, 2013
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – A Somali judge on Sunday freed a journalist who was jailed last month for interviewing an alleged gang-rape victim in a case that sparked international condemnation over how Somali authorities treat victims of sexual violence and press freedom.
Human rights groups said the February trial of gang rape victim Luul Ali Osman and freelance journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur was politically motivated, aimed at covering up rampant sexual abuse of women by the security forces.
Abdinur never published his interview with Osman but both were sentenced to one year in jail after the judge found them guilty of making up the story to besmirch the Somali government, a verdict that was heavily criticized by the U.S.
The U.S. State Department said the verdict sent “the wrong message to perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence” and voiced concerns of witness intimidation during the trial.
Osman was released on appeal earlier this month but Abdinur’s sentence was upheld, though reduced to six months, triggering protests from Somali journalists.
The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that verdict was a “direct assault on press freedom” in Somalia, a country recovering after two decades of civil war and Islamist insurgencies.
Aideed Abdullahi Ilkahanaf, chairman of the Somali High Court which freed Abdinur on Sunday, told reporters: “We have no evidence to support his charges.”
Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Saaid has promised to reform the country’s armed forces and the judiciary once the trial has concluded, acknowledging “deep-seated problems” with both institutions.
After the verdict was announced, Abdinur thanked the international community and fellow journalist for helping secure his release.
“I’m happy to be free,” smiling Abdinur told reporters.
(Writing By Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Sophie Hares)
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