Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007 Forcible return of asylum seekers On 2 March AI wrote to the Office for Repatriation and Foreigners in Warsaw regarding a Chechen citizen of the Russian Federation and her family members, applying for asylum in Poland. AI expressed concern that were they to be forcibly returned to the Russia they would be at a high risk of torture and other ill-treatment, and that therefore their forcible return would be in breach of the principle of nonrefoulement. It was reported that the woman's son died in detention in Russia as a result of torture, and that she has faced threats because of her efforts to seek justice in Russia and at the Council of Europe. This case was one highlighted by AI in its report Russia/Chechen Republic: "Normalization" in whose eyes (AI Index EUR/46/027/2004). The asylum claim was rejected in April, but at the time of writing the forcible return had not taken place. Lustration law Under the new Lustration Law passed in February (which supersedes the earlier, and less extensive, 1998 law) everyone born before 1972 in “public positions” 5 would have to make a declaration as to whether they co-operated with state security organs of the Polish People’s Republic from 1944 to 1990. This declaration would then be verified by the Institute of National Remembrance (INR). Where there were any doubts as to the truth of the declaration, court proceedings could be brought in the 5 Defined by the law as judges, lawyers, tax advisors, certified accountants, court enforcement officers, journalists, diplomats, municipal officials, university teachers, heads of public and private educational institutions, heads of state controlled companies, and members of the management and supervisory boards of companies listed on the stock exchange are included. Amnesty International 87 Lustration Court (Warsaw Court of Appeal), which could result in the person losing his or her job. A refusal to submit a declaration could also result in losing one’s job for up to 10 years. The law was estimated to apply to about 700,000 people. The new law on lustration was examined by the Constitutional Court, after a motion against it was brought by the Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej) party. The court decided on 11 May that the law was partially unconstitutional and ruled that the law would have applied collectively to entire groups of people considered to be "people filling public functions". The court also ruled that vetting would have to be carried out on a case-by-case basis. Among the clauses rejected by the court were those which would have required journalists, managers of listed state-owned firms, and principals of private schools to submit declarations stating whether they had collaborated with the communist-era secret police. The court also said it was unconstitutional to have allowed the names of all former "informal collaborators" with the communist secret police to be published on the Internet. The ruling was not welcomed by the government. On 14 May the Prime Minister made accusations “that the Constitutional Court is anti-vetting and its members are part of the conspiracy of former communists who have too strong an influence on society and business.” As response to the ruling, he called for a new law which would open secret service files on Polish citizens to the public. PORTUGAL Police ill-treatment and shootings On 16 January a policeman who shot and killed a man in Porto in 2002 was sentenced to a 720 euro fine for negligent homicide. After firing a shot into the air when attempting to detain the suspect (driving a stolen car) the officer did not secure his gun properly. It went off and killed the man while he was being restrained. The AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007