Top European rights court finds Russia committed abuses in Ukraine
The European Court of Human Rights, part of the Council of Europe rights body, is tasked with implementing the European human rights convention in signatory countries.
Wednesday's largely symbolic ruling comes after the Council of Europe excluded Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow dropped out of the European rights convention in September that year.
The ECHR however still handles cases against Russia that were brought before that date.
A panel of 17 judges found Russia violated the convention through "extrajudicial killing of civilians and Ukrainian military personnel" outside of combat, "torture", "forced labour", "unlawful and arbitrary detention of civilians" as well as looting.
The judges also ruled that Russia had violated the European rights convention through "the transfer to Russia and, in many cases, the adoption there of Ukrainian children".
The court said Russia "must without delay release or safely return all persons who were deprived of liberty on Ukrainian territory under occupation by the Russian and Russian-controlled forces."
It added that Moscow should cooperate in the establishment of an international and independent mechanism to help identify "all children transferred from Ukraine to Russia and Russian-controlled territory" before September 2022 to restore contact between them and their families, and enable their safe reunification.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said Russia had no intention of complying with the decision of the court, whose rulings it considered to be "null and void".
- 'Historic' -
The court issued its verdict in response to four complaints.
Ukraine had filed three of these over events from 2014 to 2022, and the Netherlands had filed a fourth over the downing over eastern Ukraine of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014.
The UN's aviation agency has blamed Moscow for the tragedy that killed all 298 on board.
The ECHR found that "the suffering of the next of kin of the victims of the downing of flight MH17" violated the right to freedom from torture and punishment.
Ukraine celebrated what it said was a "historic decision".
Its justice ministry said the court's recognition of "systematic and widespread human rights violations committed by Russia" was a "victory on the international stage".
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said it was "an important step toward justice".
"The court has designated Russia as responsible for the downing of MH17 and the death of its passengers, including 196 Dutch nationals," he said.
Piet Ploeg, who lost his brother, step-sister and nephew in the tragedy, said it was an "important day".
"I don't think Russia will pay anything but it is not about money today," he said.
"It is about getting justice and recognition and maybe getting apologies... You never know."
Usually individuals file cases at Europe's top human rights court, appealing to it as a last resort in cases where they have exhausted all domestic legal avenues.
But governments also can file complaints in what are known as inter-state cases.
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Daily Telegraph
16 hours ago
- Daily Telegraph
What it would take for Putin to be fazed by Trump's threats
Don't miss out on the headlines from World. Followed categories will be added to My News. It's been six months since Donald Trump walked back into the Oval Office. This time, four years older, with a batch of felonies under his belt and a slew of shiny new promises. One of which was that he would quickly end Russia's three-year war with Ukraine – hopefully within 'six months'. The deadline was a backtrack from his highly touted campaign promise he would end the conflict in a mere 24 hours. But after hitting the half-yearly milestone this week, Mr Trump's ambitious plan has not panned out as he hoped, and his patience is seemingly wearing more and more thin with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump initially said he would the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty 'Trump thinks because of the aid the United States supplies to Ukraine, he has leverage over Ukraine and because of his own personal relationship with Putin, he has leverage over Putin so he can get the two of them to come together to have a peace deal and that will cement his legacy,' Dr Charles Miller, a senior lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University, told 'So he ties this strategy, puts pressure on Ukraine, makes nice with Russia with the hope that Putin is going to stop at the point where he is at, accept the gains he's already made and end the war for a few years.' But as Mr Trump would soon learn, Mr Putin didn't follow the script. 'Putin more or less rejects any of the overtures that Trump has made to try and end the war … (Trump) has kind of put himself out for Putin and Putin's kind of rejected him,' Dr Miller said. It's been more than three years since Mr Putin announced a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Picture: Kristina Kormilitsyna/Pool/AFP 'A useful idiot' Even before returning to office in January, Mr Trump and Mr Putin had a complicated relationship, with the US President taking a relatively tough approach on Moscow during his first term and claims that Mr Putin had sought to help Mr Trump in the 2016 election later sparking a number of investigations - an issue which has recently been brought back into the spotlight. A 2021 US intelligence later stated Mr Putin had authorised a campaign to assist Mr Trump in the 2020 election - won by former President Joe Biden. Mr Trump also hasn't been shy about publicly praising Mr Putin over the years. He described Mr Putin as a 'big hero in Russia', defended him against accusations that he was a killer and called his move to declare two regions of eastern Ukraine as independent states 'genius'. While some have used the term 'bromance' to describe Mr Trump and Mr Putin's relationship, Dr Miller argues it is much more 'unequal'. While Mr Trump shows an 'admiration' for Mr Putin, he believes the Russian leader views Mr Trump with more 'amusement and bemusement'. 'There's a sense that perhaps he has himself a useful idiot, basically. So I don't think there's very much in the way of admiration,' Dr Miller said. '(Trump's) the kind of person that you don't really get so much in Russia. He's a very American kind of character. He's very individualistic, flamboyant, almost camp in a certain sense, and that's just not the kind of person that you really find in Russian culture. 'So, I think he's kind of baffled him … I don't think that he really admires him or respects him to any great degree.' Mr Trump and Mr Putin's dynamic is 'unequal', Dr Miller says. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP Others have also pointed out the relationship imbalance, with John Bolton, who served as the national security adviser to Mr Trump from 2018-2019, saying Mr Putin sees Mr Trump as an 'easy mark'. 'Trump thinks Putin is his friend. He trusts Putin,' Mr Bolton told the Kyiv Independent newspaper in March. 'As a former KGB agent, Putin knows exactly how to manipulate him, and I think that's what he's been doing since the inauguration, if not before.' Trump's recent shift towards Putin After Mr Trump's inauguration, the President said he shared a rare 90-minute phone call with Mr Putin in February to discuss a possible ceasefire in Ukraine. It was the first confirmed direct conversation between Mr Putin and a sitting US President in two years. 'We both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,' Mr Trump posted to Truth Social at the time. 'President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, 'COMMON SENSE.' We both believe very strongly in it. We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other's nations.' Mr Putin sees Mr Trump as an 'easy mark', commentators say. Picture: Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo/AP Later that month, things looked more favourable for Russia when Mr Trump sensationally clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a heated Oval Office row – an interaction former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul called a 'gift to Vladimir Putin'. 'That is not in our national interest to be on that side,' he toldNBC News. But by March, Mr Trump was singing a different tune, telling NBC News he was 'p***ed off' with Mr Putin when he criticised the credibility of Mr Zelensky's leadership. 'I was very angry – p***ed off – when Putin started getting into Zelensky's credibility, because that's not going in the right location, you understand?' Mr Trump said. 'But new leadership means you're not gonna have a deal for a long time, right?' Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky clashed in the Oval Office of the White House on February 28. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP But Dr Miller said the real shift in actions towards Russia has taken place in 'the past couple of weeks' – during which time Mr Trump has also stepped up rhetoric against the Russian leader, saying 'I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy' and declaring the US 'get a lot of bulls**t thrown at us by Putin' among other remarks. Dr Miller said one sign of the shift was the White House's announcement on July 1, US time, that it had stopped the shipment of some air defence and precision-guided weapons that were on track to be sent to Ukraine – a decision that was reversed days later. 'This was interpreted as being obviously something that's very damaging and an intention towards Ukraine and it absolutely was but then we saw a reversal of that policy,' he said. The following week, Mr Trump said he was 'very, very unhappy' with Mr Putin and warned Russia it would face massive new economic sanctions if it did not end the war within 50 days. 'We're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per cent,' Mr Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on July 14. He further threatened 'secondary tariffs' targeting Russia's remaining trade partners and announced a deal whereby the US would send 'top of the line weapons' to NATO to support Ukraine. Reacting to the news, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov initially told reporters 'the US president's words are very serious' and said Russia needed time to 'analyse what was said in Washington'. But former President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, simply brushed off the threats. 'Trump set a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world trembled in anticipation of the consequences, Europe was disappointed – and Russia doesn't care,' he wrote in a statement on X. Meanwhile, senior Russian diplomat Sergei Ryabkov warned 'any attempts to make demands, especially ultimatums, are unacceptable to us'. 'If we cannot achieve our goals through diplomacy, then the SVO (war in Ukraine) will continue … This is an unshakeable position,' he said. Russia 'doesn't care' about Mr Trump's threats, former President Dmitry Medvedev said. Picture Brendan Smialowski/AFP Dr Miller also isn't confident Mr Trump's threat was enough to pressure Mr Putin, suggesting 'it's quite possible Putin has considered that he's just bluffing'. 'The problem that Trump has is that if he's going around threatening people with tariffs and then giving them a deadline and then not doing anything and then reversing the tariffs and changing his mind, he makes it really really difficult for anybody to really take him seriously.' Instead, he said it will be pressure on the battlefield rather than Mr Trump's ever-changing threats that could prompt Russia to make a deal with Ukraine. What it would take to actually faze Putin? Dr Miller said Mr Trump would have to follow up his words with 'more serious action' such as secondary sanctions or send more aid to Ukraine, for there to be a 'reason for Putin to genuinely be fazed' by the US President. 'There have been many times when Trump has appeared to shift against Putin and then not do something … I think that the key thing to look out for is not necessarily what Trump says but what Trump does,' he said. Dr Miller said if Mr Trump followed through with his threat of secondary tariffs, it would be 'very damaging' for Russia. 'If you were a Chinese company, then you're basically faced with a choice to either do business with the United States or with Russia. In that kind, of situation, I think most Chinese companies would choose to do it with the United States and cut Russia off because it is simply not as lucrative as a market. So that would hurt Russia.' Dr Miller said if Mr Trump followed through with his threat of secondary tariffs it would be 'very damaging' for Russia. Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty He said a change in Mr Trump's administration, such as the replacement of the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard – who has alleged former President Barack Obama created a false assessment of Russia's role in the 2016 election – would also be a clear sign of a change in Mr Trump's focus. 'I think that's a big sign especially if she's replaced by a more conventional Republican figure. Also if there are other people from the prior Trump administration who come back in who are more conventional Republicans,' Dr Miller said. He added it's possible Mr Trump could turn on Mr Putin – even if he did still admire him. 'When your think about the people that Trump has been involved with over the course of his life, there's a great pattern of instability in his personal relationships … he's had close business partners and close political friends that he then chucks out. 'So the idea that he could turn on Putin eventually for some reason is not implausible at all.' As for Mr Trump's big campaign promise to end the war, Dr Miller said it's possible Russia and Ukraine will reach a ceasefire before the next US election in 2028, but that doesn't mean Mr Trump will be the one behind it. 'There are plenty of other countries that could, Turkey, for example, could mediate the ceasefire. Already both of those countries are talking to Turkey, they've met in Istanbul. 'So, maybe it will ultimately be (President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan rather than Trump who gets the credit for ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.' Originally published as Expert reveals what it would take for Putin to be fazed by Trump's threats
News.com.au
18 hours ago
- News.com.au
Expert reveals what it would take for Putin to be fazed by Trump's threats
It's been six months since Donald Trump walked back into the Oval Office. This time, four years older, with a batch of felonies under his belt and a slew of shiny new promises. One of which was that he would quickly end Russia's three-year war in Ukraine – hopefully within 'six months'. The deadline was a backtrack from his highly touted campaign promise he would end the three year conflict in a mere 24 hours. But after hitting the half-yearly milestone this week, Mr Trump's ambitious plan has not panned out as he hoped, and his patience is seemingly wearing more and more thin with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'Trump thinks because of the aid the United States supplies to Ukraine, he has leverage over Ukraine and because of his own personal relationship with Putin, he has leverage over Putin so he can get the two of them to come together to have a peace deal and that will cement his legacy,' Dr Charles Miller, a senior lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University, told 'So he ties this strategy, puts pressure on Ukraine, makes nice with Russia with the hope that Putin is going to stop at the point where he is at, accept the gains he's already made and end the war for a few years.' But as Mr Trump would soon learn, Mr Putin didn't follow the script. 'Putin more or less rejects any of the overtures that Trump has made to try and end the war … (Trump) has kind of put himself out for Putin and Putin's kind of rejected him,' Dr Miller said. 'A useful idiot' Even before returning to office in January, Mr Trump and Mr Putin had a complicated relationship, with the US President taking a relatively tough approach on Moscow during his first term and claims that Mr Putin had sought to help Mr Trump in the 2016 election later prompting a number of investigations - an issue which has recently been brought back into the spotlight A 2021 US intelligence also stated Mr Putin had authorised a campaign to assist Mr Trump in the 2020 election. Mr Trump also hasn't been shy about publicly praising Mr Putin over the years. He described Mr Putin as a ' big hero in Russia ', defended him against accusations that he was a killer and called his move to declare two regions of eastern Ukraine as independent states 'genius'. While some have used the term 'bromance' to describe Mr Trump and Mr Putin's dynamic, Dr Miller argues it is much more 'unequal'. While Mr Trump shows an 'admiration' for Mr Putin, he believes the Russian leader views Mr Trump with more 'amusement and bemusement'. 'There's a sense that perhaps he has himself a useful idiot, basically. So I don't think there's very much in the way of admiration,' Dr Miller said. '(Trump's) the kind of person that you don't really get so much in Russia. He's a very American kind of character. He's very individualistic, flamboyant, almost camp in a certain sense, and that's just not the kind of person that you really find in Russian culture. 'So, I think he's kind of baffled him … I don't think that he really admires him or respects him to any great degree.' Others have also pointed out the relationship imbalance, with John Bolton, who served as the national security adviser to Mr Trump from 2018-2019, saying Mr Putin sees Mr Trump as an 'easy mark'. 'Trump thinks Putin is his friend. He trusts Putin,' Mr Bolton told the Kyiv Independent newspaper in March. 'As a former KGB agent, Putin knows exactly how to manipulate him, and I think that's what he's been doing since the inauguration, if not before.' Trump's recent shift towards Putin Shortly after Mr Trump's inauguration, the President shared a rare 90-minute phone call with Mr Putin to discuss a possible ceasefire in Ukraine. It was the first known direct conversation between the pair in two years. 'We both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,' Mr Trump posted to Truth Social at the time. 'President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, 'COMMON SENSE.' We both believe very strongly in it. We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other's nations.' The following month, things looked more favourable for Russia when Mr Trump sensationally clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a heated Oval Office row – an interaction former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul called a 'gift to Vladimir Putin'. 'That is not in our national interest to be on that side,' he told NBC News. But by March, Mr Trump was singing a different tune, telling NBC News he was 'p***ed off' with Mr Putin when he criticised the credibility of Mr Zelensky's leadership. 'I was very angry – p***ed off – when Putin started getting into Zelensky's credibility, because that's not going in the right location, you understand?' Mr Trump said. 'But new leadership means you're not gonna have a deal for a long time, right?' But Dr Miller said the real shift in actions towards Russia has taken place in 'the past couple of weeks' – during which time Mr Trump has also stepped up rhetoric against the Russian leader, saying 'I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy' and declaring the US 'get a lot of bulls**t thrown at us by Putin'. Dr Miller said one sign of the shift was the White House's announcement on July 1, US time, that it had stopped the shipment of some air defence and precision-guided weapons that were on track to be sent to Ukraine – a decision that was reversed days later. 'This was interpreted as being obviously something that's very damaging and an intention towards Ukraine and it absolutely was but then we saw a reversal of that policy,' he said. The following week, Mr Trump said he was said he was 'very, very unhappy' with Mr Putin and warned Russia it would face massive new economic sanctions if it did not end the war within 50 days. 'We're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per cent,' Mr Trump said during an Oval Office meeting. He further threatened 'secondary tariffs' targeting Russia's remaining trade partners and announced a deal whereby the US would send 'top of the line weapons' to NATO to support Ukraine. Reacting to the news, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov initially told reporters 'the US president's words are very serious' and said Russia needed time to 'analyse what was said in Washington'. But former President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, simply brushed off the threats. 'Trump set a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world trembled in anticipation of the consequences, Europe was disappointed – and Russia doesn't care,' he wrote in a statement on X. Meanwhile, senior Russian diplomat Sergei Ryabkov warned 'any attempts to make demands, especially ultimatums, are unacceptable to us'. 'If we cannot achieve our goals through diplomacy, then the SVO (war in Ukraine) will continue … This is an unshakeable position,' he said. Dr Miller also isn't confident Mr Trump's threat was enough to pressure Mr Putin, suggesting 'it's quite possible Putin has considered that he's just bluffing'. 'The problem that Trump has is that if he's going around threatening people with tariffs and then giving them a deadline and then not doing anything and then reversing the tariffs and changing his mind, he makes it really really difficult for anybody to really take him seriously.' Instead, he said it will be pressure on the battlefield rather than Mr Trump's ever-changing threats that could prompt Russia to make a deal with Ukraine. What it would take to actually faze Putin? Dr Miller said that until Mr Trump follows up his words with 'more serious action' such as secondary sanctions or sends more aid to Ukraine, then there would be a 'reason for Putin to genuinely be fazed' by Mr Trump. 'There have been many times when Trump has appeared to shift against Putin and then not do something … I think that the key thing to look out for is not necessarily what Trump says but what Trump does,' he said. Dr Miller said if Mr Trump followed through with his threat of secondary tariffs, it would be 'very damaging' for Russia. 'If you were a Chinese company, then you're basically faced with a choice to either do business with the United States or with Russia. In that kind, of situation, I think most Chinese companies would choose to do it with the United States and cut Russia off because it is simply not as lucrative as a market. So that would hurt Russia.' He said a change in Mr Trump's administration, such as the replacement of the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard – who has alleged former President Barack Obama created a false assessment of Russia's role in the 2016 election – would also be a clear sign of a change in Mr Trump's focus. 'I think that's a big sign especially if she's replaced by a more conventional Republican figure. Also if there are other people from the prior Trump administration who come back in who are more conventional Republicans,' Dr Miller said. He added it's possible Mr Trump could turn on Mr Putin – even if he did still admire him. 'When your think about the people that Trump has been involved with over the course of his life, there's a great pattern of instability in his personal relationships … he's had close business partners and close political friends that he then chucks out. 'So the idea that he could turn on Putin eventually for some reason is not implausible at all.' As for his big campaign promise to end the war, Dr Miller said it's possible Russia and Ukraine will reach a ceasefire before the next US election in 2028, but that doesn't mean Mr Trump will be the one behind it. 'There are plenty of other countries that could, Turkey, for example, could mediate the ceasefire. Already both of those countries are talking to Turkey, they've met in Istanbul. 'So, maybe it will ultimately be (President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan rather than Trump who gets the credit for ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.'
News.com.au
19 hours ago
- News.com.au
'Welcome to hell': Freed migrants tell of horrors in Salvadoran jail
Mervin Yamarte left Venezuela with his younger brother, hoping for a better life. But after a perilous jungle march, US detention, and long months in a Salvadoran jail surviving riots, beatings and fear, he has returned home a wounded and changed man. On entering the sweltering Caribbean port of Maracaibo, the first thing Yamarte did after hugging his mother and six-year-old daughter was to burn the baggy white prison shorts he wore during four months of "hell." "The suffering is over now," said the 29-year-old, enjoying a longed-for moment of catharsis. Yamarte was one of 252 Venezuelans detained in US President Donald Trump's March immigration crackdown, accused without evidence of gang activity, and deported to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. According to four ex-detainees interviewed by AFP, the months were marked by abuse, violence, spoiled food and legal limbo. "You are going to die here!" heavily armed guards taunted them on arrival to the maximum security facility east of the capital San Salvador. "Welcome to hell!" The men had their heads shaved and were issued with prison clothes: a T-shirt, shorts, socks, and white plastic clogs. Yamarte said a small tuft of hair was left at the nape of his neck, which the guards tugged at. The Venezuelans were held separately from the local prison population in "Pavilion 8" -- a building with 32 cells, each measuring about 100 square meters (1,076 square feet). Each cell -- roughly the size of an average two-bedroom apartment -- was designed to hold 80 prisoners. - 'Carried out unconscious' - Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele built the prison to house the country's most dangerous gang members in deliberately brutal conditions, drawing constant criticism from rights groups. Trump's administration paid Bukele $6 million to keep the Venezuelans behind bars. AFP has unsuccessfully requested a tour of the facility and interviews with CECOT authorities. Another prisoner, 37-year-old Maikel Olivera, recounted there were "beatings 24 hours a day" and sadistic guards who warned, "You are going to rot here, you're going to be in jail for 300 years." "I thought I would never return to Venezuela," he said. For four months, the prisoners had no access to the internet, phone calls, visits from loved ones, or even lawyers. At least one said he was sexually abused. The men said they slept mostly on metal cots, with no mattresses to provide comfort. There were several small, poorly-ventilated cells where prisoners would be locked up for 24 hours at a time for transgressions -- real or imagined. "There were fellow detainees who couldn't endure even two hours and were carried out unconscious," Yamarte recounted. The men never saw sunlight and were allowed one shower a day at 4:00 am. If they showered out of turn, they were beaten. Andy Perozo, 30, told AFP of guards firing rubber bullets and tear gas into the cells. For a week after one of two riots that were brutally suppressed, "they shot me every morning. It was hell for me. Every time I went to the doctor, they beat me," he said. Edwuar Hernandez, 23, also told of being beaten at the infirmary. "They would kick you... kicks everywhere," he said. "Look at the marks; I have marks, I'm all marked." The detainees killed time playing games with dice made from bits of tortilla dough. They counted the passing days with notches on a bar of soap. - 'Out of hell' - An estimated eight million Venezuelans have fled the political and economic chaos of their homeland to try to find a job in the United States that would allow them to send money home. Yamarte left in September 2023, making the weeks-long journey on foot through the Darien Gap that separates Colombia from Panama. It is unforgiving terrain that has claimed the lives of countless migrants who must brave predatory criminal gangs and wild animals. Yamarte was arrested in Dallas in March and deported three days later, without a court hearing. All 252 detainees were suddenly, and unexpectedly, freed on July 18 in a prisoner exchange deal between Caracas and Washington. Now, many are contemplating legal action. Many of the men believe they were arrested in the United States simply for sporting tattoos wrongly interpreted as proof of association with the feared Tren de Aragua gang. Yamarte has one that reads: "Strong like Mom." "I am clean. I can prove it to anyone," he said indignantly, hurt at being falsely accused of being a criminal. "We went... to seek a better future for our families; we didn't go there to steal or kill." Yamarte, Perozo, and Hernandez are from the same poor neighborhood of Maracaibo, where their loved ones decorated homes with balloons and banners once news broke of their release. Yamarte's mom, 46-year-old Mercedes, had prepared a special lunch of steak, mashed potatoes, and fried green plantain. At her house on Tuesday, the phone rang shortly after Yamarte's arrival. It was his brother Juan, who works in the United States without papers and moves from place to place to evade Trump's migrant dragnet. Juan told AFP he just wants to stay long enough to earn the $1,700 he needs to pay off the house he had bought for his wife and child in Venezuela. "Every day we thought of you, every day," Juan told his brother. "I always had you in my mind, always, always." "The suffering is over now," replied Mervin. "We've come out of hell."
