'Defending human rights worldwide'

by Paul Harris

19 April 2003

The title of this article is the slogan of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based organization dedicated to, well, defending human rights worldwide. I wholeheartedly support the intent, the methods, the dedication of HRW but on this one incident I am about to describe, I think they speak out of both sides of their mouths.

HRW recently issued a message to its mailing list about a series of convictions in Cuba that sentenced non-violent "criminals" to lengthy prison terms. These "criminals" are guilty under Cuban law of subversion; at least one was also convicted of treason. HRW has some serious, and justified, concerns about the fairness of the legal process and whether the complaints about these particular individuals even really fit the confines of Cuban law, let alone international norms. These criminals are what most of us would call "dissidents" and they have received sentences ranging from twelve to twenty-seven years.

The Cuban authorities also began a crackdown in mid-March that has so far seen the arrests of more than 80 people. Coincidentally, the crackdown and these harsh sentences come just as the United Nations Commission on Human Rights is busy in Geneva debating the issue of human rights in Cuba. Over the past eleven years, the Commission has already issued ten declarations condemning Cuba's human rights practices.

Just about one year earlier, in April 2002, James Sabzali was convicted in Philadelphia of violating America's 1919 Trading with the Enemy Act. Sabzali is a Canadian citizen, born in Trinidad, and working in the United States where he was convicted along with two American citizens and is presently awaiting sentencing, a year after his conviction.

So far, he is the only foreign national to be prosecuted for violating the U.S. government's 40-year embargo of Cuba. He was convicted of twenty counts of trading with the enemy and one count of conspiracy; at least seven of the charges on which he was convicted are for trades he made while living in Canada where the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act forbids Canadians from complying with the U.S. embargo.

If Sabzali receives the maximum penalty under U.S. law, he faces a possible 205 years in prison and $5 million dollars in fines; prosecutors are said to be willing to settle for 62 months in prison. The sentencing has been repeatedly pushed back and at this stage, he continues to await his fate.

An official from the U.S. Attorney General's office has commented that "This case was never about commerce between Canada and Cuba. It's about commerce between the United States with Cuba. We know Canada trades with Cuba. We don't have a beef with that." One wonders, therefore, why he was charged with offenses which occurred in Canada, where the trade did not involve the United States, and where it was a requirement of law that he ignore the American embargo.

Sabzali's crime was selling water purification systems to Cuban hospitals.

Perhaps if you can get 205 years in the slammer for that, twenty-seven years for conducting activities that you know your government considers to be treasonous or seditious doesn't seem so bad. Otherwise, there isn't much explanation for why Human Rights Watch has never so much as raised an eyebrow over James Sabzali.

And go ahead, enter "James Sabzali" into a search engine and see if you can locate any U.S.-based media that covered this story.