Uwazi

Pelajar dan mahasiswa eksodus asal kabupaten Timika, Papua, mengecam dan mengutuk keras tindakan Kepolisian Resort (Polres) kabupaten Mimika membubar paksa aksi demo damai berujung penangkapan yang dilakukan, Jumat (24/1/2020) kemarin, di halaman kantor Bupati Mimika.

Hal tersebut disampaikan ketua posko umum eksodus Papua, Eko Philipus Kogoya, karena dinilainya aparat kepolisian sengaja berupaya mau menggiring aksi damai ke tindakan kriminal.

�Aksi kawa-kawan adalah aksi damai. Maka tindakan aparat, kami kutuk. Heran belum sampai pada pembacaan sikap, masa aksi dibubarkan secara paksa tanpa ada ruang berekspresi sedikitpun dikasih oleh kepolisian Mimika,� ujar Eko, melalui pers release yang diterima suarapapua.com, Jumat.

On 24 January 2020, Johni Jangkup, Silfester, and Isack Jamawe , students, were arrested and beaten by the police for joining a peaceful demonstration against a racist incident in Mimika, Indonesia.

Prasad Purnimal Jayamanne, a journalist based in Wennappuwa in Chilaw was assaulted by group linked to few politicians after he exposed unauthorized filling of a paddy field in Wennappuwa. Mr. Jayamannehas told Free Media Movement that he was assaulted by a group including the son of a former Wayamba Provincial Council member who had taken over the land filling from another former Wayamba Provincial Council member who claims to own the paddy field.

On 17 January 2020, Prasad Purnimal Jayamanne, media worker, was assaulted by a group of persons after he reported an irregularity at the local level in Wennappuwa, Sri Lanka.

Bharatiya Janata Party officials must cease inciting online harassment against journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani, and Indian authorities should ensure that threats against journalists are taken seriously, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Sherwani, a senior editor at the news website The Wire, told CPJ in a phone interview that officials in the ruling party and their supporters are intentionally spreading misinformation about her online and attempting to smear her as calling for the creation of an Islamic caliphate in India. She said she has received death and rape threats on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram in relation to the smears.

On January 26, Amit Malviya, the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s information technology department, shared an edited video clip on Twitter that he alleged showed that Sherwani was discussing a “strategy” for building a caliphate. The video, a 42-second clip of a speech that Sherwani gave at Aligarh Muslim University, was taken out of context so a portion of her speech discussing strategy for secular protests was cast as a strategy for building a caliphate, according to news reports.

The video was also tweeted by other party officials, including spokesperson Sambit Patra, who said Sherwani was trying to set up an Islamic Caliphate, by the party’s official account for Karnataka state, which alleged she had a hidden agenda, and by Priti Gandhi, who runs social media for the official women’s wing of the party, according to social media posts and news reports.

Those posts have been retweeted tens of thousands of times, and the replies include threats and smears against Sherwani, branding her as anti-Hindu and saying that she has no place in India.

“It is extremely irresponsible and dangerous for Bharatiya Janata Party officials to be targeting and distorting journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani’s comments,” said Aliya Iftikhar, CPJ’s senior Asia researcher. “Party officials should not spread misinformation about journalists online, and Indian authorities must ensure that threats made against Sherwani are taken seriously.”

Sherwani, who hosts a video news program for The Wire, told CPJ she thinks she is being targeted because of her large viewership, and particularly because of her reporting and commentary on the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens, which critics allege discriminate against Muslims. She said she thinks she is an “easy target” because of her Muslim name.

She said she has faced online harassment frequently in recent years, and that such harassment has intensified since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reelection in May 2019.

Malviya, Patra, and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national spokesperson for media, Anil Baluni, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment via email.

On 26 January 2020, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, media worker and WHRD, was victim of a smear campaign and subsequent online attacks inclding death threats by nationalist social media users over false allegations spread by the ruling party in New Delhi, India.

The Myanmar authorities should immediately and unconditionally release four activists who have been convicted and sentenced to one month in prison simply for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Civil Rights Defenders said today.

On January 17, 2020, the Myawaddy Township court in Kayin/Karen State, south eastern Myanmar, sentenced four activists – Naw Ohn Hla, Maung U, U Nge (aka) Hsan Hlaing, and Sandar Myint – to one month in prison after finding them guilty of protesting without authorization under Article 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law. The law officially only requires notification of a protest but in practice, authorities treat the notification requirement as a request for permission. It has frequently been used to target peaceful activists, in particular those campaigning for justice for communities affected by human rights violations and abuses.

Police charged the four activists after they participated in a peaceful demonstration organized by residents of the Shwe Mya Sandi housing project in Kayin/Karen State on April 19, 2019. Residents had been protesting against demolition of their homes in February 2019, after the government declared that the land used for the project had been acquired unlawfully and began demolishing their homes. Protest organizers Maung U, U Nge (aka) Hsan Hlaing, and Sandar Myint had notified authorities of their intention to march along the Myawaddy road. Naw Ohn Hla was not involved in organizing the protest, however she joined in a show of solidarity. All four were arrested soon afterwards and charged under Article 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law. The court sentenced each of them to one month in prison. They are currently detained in Hpa An prison, Kayin/Karen State.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Civil Rights Defenders consider all four activists to be prisoners of conscience, imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. All three organizations call on the Myanmar authorities to release them immediately and without conditions, and quash their convictions.

The rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are enshrined in Articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Under international human rights law and standards, certain restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly may be imposed, but only in narrow, clearly defined circumstances. Such restrictions must be provided by law; be limited to certain specified purposes such as national security, public order or respect of the rights or reputation of others; and be necessary and proportionate to the

achievement of one of those permissible purposes. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Civil Rights Defenders are concerned about a number of laws in Myanmar – including the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law – which are incompatible with the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and which are used to arrest, prosecute and imprison human rights defenders and other peaceful activists. Our organizations urge the Myanmar authorities – in particular Parliament – to take immediate action to review and repeal or amend all such laws to bring them into line with international human rights law and standards.

Human rights defenders play a vital role in the protection and promotion of human rights, and it is crucial that they are able to speak out freely on human rights violations, including those committed by the military against civilians in areas of armed conflict, without fear of repercussions. Under Article 2 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, each state has a duty to create the conditions necessary to defend human rights within their jurisdictions. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Civil Rights Defenders call on the Government of Myanmar to ensure an environment in which it is possible to defend human rights without fear of reprisal or intimidation.

On 17 January 2020, four community-based HRDs including one WHRD were arrested for having hold a peaceful protest in April 2019 against community's housees demolition by the local court in Myawaddy, Myanmar.

West Sumatra Police reportedly arrested an activist from Inter-Community Studies Center (Pusaka) Sudarto for allegedly spreading hate speech through social media regarding Christmas celebration in Dharmasraya Regency.

“He is arrested at his house,” West Sumatra Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Stefanus Satake Bayu Setianto verified in Padang, Tuesday, January 7. He said Sudarto was secured at 1:30 p.m. at his house located on Jalan Veteran, Purus.

Stefanus explained that Sudarto deliberately distributed information that triggered individual or group hostility based on ethnicity, religion, and race (SARA) and hoax news via Facebook.

Sudarto, he added, was still undergoing examination at the police headquarters.

Sudarto faced charges of Article 45 (A)2 in conjunction with Article 28 of Law No. 19 of 2016 on the amendment of Law No. 11 of 2008 on Electronic Information and Transaction or ITE Law and Article 14 (1) and (2) of the 1946 Criminal Code.

“He has been named a suspect and will undergo the further process,” Stefanus said.

Previously, the head of a youth group Pemuda Jorong Kampung Baru of Nagari Sikabau, Harry Permana, filed a police report on December 29 against Sudarto for allegedly spreading false information in light of the ban on Christmas celebration in the region. Sudarto made the post on December 14-15.

Harry clarified that Nagari Sikabau had never restricted the Christmas celebration but rather prohibited people from outside the region to hold or celebrate it in the area.

Human rights communities condemned the arrest of Sudarto. Deputy chief of Setara Institute Bonar Tigor Naipospos said the case was a new strategy from intolerant groups to silence critical people on social media. "Unfortunately, the law enforcers tend to favor the majority group," Bonar said.

On 7 January 2020, Sudarto, FoRB activist, was arrested by the police and charged for allegedly spreading hate speech online in Padang, Indinesia.

Police in eastern China told the lawyer of a civil rights activist on Friday that his client was being investigated for alleged incitement of subversion as part of a government crackdown on dissent that started late last year.

Lawyer Peng Jian, who represented Ding Jiaxi, said he was told by police in Yantai, Shandong province, that the 53-year-old activist was officially under investigation and that his request to meet Ding had been rejected.

Ding is being held under “residential surveillance” – a form of secretive detention – and is barred from contacting his family or lawyer. According to Peng, if Ding is finally charged and convicted, he could face a jail term of up to 15 years since it was his second run-in with the law in five years. The activist was sentenced to 3½ years in prison in 2014 for disrupting public order and was released in October 2016.

“He is now held for the second time in five years,” Peng said. “If he is convicted again, he may face a stiff sentence.”

Calls to Yantai police for comment were not answered.

Ding was among a number of dissidents – including Zhang Zhongshun, Dai Zhenya and Li Yingjun – who were taken away by the authorities in the last week of December after attending a private dinner for about 20 people in Xiamen, Fujian province. After the detentions, police searched the flat of Xu Zhiyong, a Beijing-based civil rights activist , and interrogated his girlfriend, Li Qiaochu, prompting him to go into hiding, Xu wrote on Twitter.

Ding was a lawyer specialising in human rights cases before he was jailed and stripped of his licence in 2014. He was also a key figure in the New Citizens’ Movement, a group that advocates working within the system for political change, including urging officials to publicly disclose their wealth.

According to Ding’s wife, Luo Shengchun, her husband has continued his activism to raise public awareness of civil rights since his release in 2016.

Luo, who lives in the United States with the couple’s two daughters, said the rejection of Peng’s request to meet his client had raised concerns that Ding might have been tortured in custody.

“He believes that democracy and freedom are the fundamental human rights of a person,” Luo said.

“I can’t understand – how can a man of such moderate ideas be accused of inciting subversion?” she said. “This shows how fragile the authority is as it cannot tolerate even the mildest, most rational and peaceful expression of civil rights.”

Neither Ding’s family members in China nor Peng have received the official documents notifying them of Ding’s detention or arrest.

Zhang and Dai are also under residential surveillance but Li’s status is not known.

Zhang, a former university lecturer in Shandong, was accused of inciting subversion after police claimed to have found 245 bullets at his home, according to his daughter Zhang Mofei.

Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, denounced the crackdown on the activists.

“If discussing the need for official transparency over a meal is now considered ‘inciting subversion of state power’, then a lot of officials should be investigated as well … To accuse them of serious crimes and deny them the basic rights to a fair trial is a powerful statement about President Xi [Jinping]’s rule,” Richardson said.

On 10 January 2020, Ding Jiaxi, pro-democracy defender, was put under de facto house arrest while investigated by the police in Yantai, China.

Ms. Jagriti Rahi is a social activistand engaged on issues related to women and children at national and state levelsfor the last 20 years. She has been a member of several regional/district level committees for protection of women and child rights in Uttar Pradesh. She is a member of Juvenile Justice Board for the last 3 years. She is also a member of National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM)state committee and Sajha Sanskriti Manch working on environment issues such as Ganga and sisterrivers.She also worked for the Gandhi 150 (150thbirth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi) with childrenandyouth and was part of more than 40 Sadbhavna Sangams organised in eastern Uttar Pradesh against hatred and communal agenda.

According to information received,on January 29, 2020,anon bailable warrant has been issued by the Special Chief Judicial Magistrate, Varanasi against Ms. Rahiin case no: 09/2020 registered under IPC sections 147, 148, 149, 188, 332, 353, 336, 114, 120 B and Section 7 of Criminal Law (Amendment) Act (CLA).On January 23, 2020,Uttar Pradesh Police filed a FIRin Varanasi’s in the Chawk Police Station (case no: 09/2020) naming 32 persons and 500 to 600 unknown personsfor protests on January 23, 2019. Though Ms. Rahi is not named as an accused in the FIR, the note in the FIRhas her referencein relation to the anti-CAA/NRC protest. The note accusesMs. Rahi for inciting violence andsocial disharmony during the protest dharna organised at Beniyabag ground earlier on December 19, 2019,in Varanasi. On January24, 2020,Ms. Rahi came to know this through newspapers and administrative sources that her name is also now being associated with the dharna programme organisedon 23 January, 2020. Ms. Rahi informed the HRDA that a media portal with the name ‘Amritprabhat’ also published her photograph in an attempt to spread alarming false rumourand perpetuate misunderstanding,claiming this to be a part of an organisedconspiracy against her. Ms. Rahi also informed that she had no participation in either the protest demonstration held in Beniyabag, Varnasi on December 19, 2019 or in any its preparatory meetings. She has neither been named nor there is any reference of her participation in any FIR related to the December event. Her name has been referred in thenote of theFIR filed on January23, 2020,at the Chawk police station in Varanasi whereas on that very day she was present in her office till 5 pm. Ms. Rahi had no connection whatsoever with the incidents of either on December 19, 2019 or incident of January23, 2020.Ms. Rahi is being targeted by the police administration and other non-state actors in a smear campaign which is aimed at attacking her reputation, credibility and harass and criminalise her work. Reference of her name in police FIR and smear campaign against Ms. Rahi are an effort to slander the woman human rights defender in order to silence her. Sheis facing the threat of her arrest and judicial prosecution due to false charges being levelled against her by the Uttar Pradesh Police.After the non-bailable warrant issued on January 29, 2020,Ms. Rahi is facing the threat of her imminent arrest and detention.

On 23 January 2020, a FIR was filed against Ms. Jagriti Rahi, community-based WHRD, followed by an arrest warrant and a smear campaign, related to a former protest she did not attended in Varanasi, India.

Policy research group Ibon Foundation on Thursday, January 30, condemned the "persistent raid-baiting" of the Duterte administration instead of addressing the issues raised by progressive groups.

"The public deserves the truth and to be informed about the issues that matter to them the most," the group said. "Instead, the government is red-baiting critical voices to silence opposition and to hide the real situation of the country."

The statement comes after an episode of One News' The Chiefs where Ibon research head Rosario Guzman and Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy discussed the numbers cited by the Duterte Legacy campaign. (READ: Making sense of the ‘Duterte Legacy’ infographic)

Ibon presented its own fact-checking of the data. Badoy, however, accused the group of being part of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

According to the group, Badoy's action is "symptomatic of the administration’s wholesale attacks on independent groups," in line with the government's counterinsurgency campaign.

"Usec Badoy’s behavior is being done to hide the worsening economic situation, prevent the radical reforms needed to develop the country, and promote its self-serving agenda," Ibon said.

"Under the pretext of ending the armed Communist rebellion, the Duterte administration cast its net wide and is attacking every group that is critical of its anti-people economic policies and authoritarianism," it added.

The Duterte government has been widely criticized for its treatment of human rights defenders and activists in the Philippines. According to rights group Karapatan, at least 2,370 human rights defenders have been charged by the government from 2016 to 2019, the biggest number in more than a decade. (READ: Duterte's war on dissent)

Ibon, a policy group focused on socioeconomic issues founded in 1978, was previously tagged by the Philippine government as among groups whose funding was allegedly being used by the CPP. It has previously experienced cyberattacks against its website.

The group vows to push forward with its work amid greater attacks by the government.

"As with activists and other groups, we are undeterred and will continue to support the efforts of the people’s movement to reclaim the economy from the elites that have taken it over," it said. "We will also be taking measures to show that we do not condone the people’s money being used for a self-serving political agenda."

On 27 January 2020, IBON, a NGO, was falsely accused of being part of the Philippines Communist Party by a representative of the President's Office during an online show in Manila, the Philippines.

A field reporter of Radyo ni Juan based in Tagum City, Davao del Norte was harassed by police in Carmen town as he covered a protest by banana workers Jan. 21, according to an alert released by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).

Radyo ni Juan reporter Glenn Jester Hitgano was covering the strike of workers of banana company Philippine Dream Farm Development when policemen cut short his interview and took took him to the police station, where he was held for an hour. The policemen also attempted to confiscate his phone and ordered him to erase his interview, but the reporter asserted his rights as a journalist.

“They subjected me to psywar and harassed me, saying I was not allowed to carry out interviews,” Hitgano said.

National alternative media group Altermidya denounced the intimidation and arrest of Hitgano.

“Altermidya condemns this attack on our colleague, who was clearly being coerced into silence by state forces who were uncomfortable with the truth. The arrest and intimidation of journalists like Hitgano is a blatant violation of media’s task of exposing the truth to the public,” the group said in a statement.

Altermidya said members of the Carmen police should be held accountable.

On 21 January 2020, Glenn Jester Hitgano, journalist, was temporarily detained and threatened by the police for covering a workers strike in Tagum City, the Philippines.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Monday, January 20, condemned the "brutal" killing of a local peasant leader in Northern Samar.

In a statement, the CHR said 35-year-old Jennifer Tonag is just one of the many victims who have "faced reprisals due to exposing state-perpetrated human rights violations and demanding for justice and accountability."

"The CHR calls for justice for the death of Tonag and all the human rights defenders in the country and around the world who sacrificed their lives to create a better future for everyone, especially for the marginalized, vulnerable, and disadvantaged segments of our society," CHR spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia said.

Unidentified men killed Tonag, organizer of the Northern Samar Small Farmers Association (NSSFA), while she was on her way home from a seminar sponsored by the Department of the Interior and Local Government last Friday, January 17.

She sustained two gunshot wounds, one on her hand and chest, and was declared dead on arrival at the Northern Samar Provincial Hospital.

Tonag leads the NSSFA, a group helping farmers defend their land rights and other issues, in Lope de Vega, Northern Samar.

The CHR's regional office has already dispatched a quick response team to conduct an independent probe into Tonag's killing, De Guia said.

Call for repeal of EO

The CHR "amplified the clamor" for the government to repeal Executive Order No. 70 which created a national task force that sought to address causes of armed conflict with communists at the local level.

Human rights groups have said that EO No. 70 only led to massive red-tagging as well as threats and harassment under the guise of a counterinsurgency program.

"The commission reiterates its call to the government that it must desist from all forms of violence and harassment against human rights defenders," De Guia said.

"These attacks are in the context of increasing number of reported extrajudicial killings in rural areas alongside the intensified counterinsurgency program of the government," she added.

More than 100 human rights defenders have been killed since July 2016, data from rights group Karapatan showed. Many of the killings were in provinces that have long had conflicts related to land, with victims mostly coming from the farming sector. The killings exist alongside other incidents of legal harassment against activists by the Duterte administration."We strongly urge our legislators to prioritize the enactment and full implementation of a Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill that will give legal recognition and protection of the rights of defenders in the conduct of their work," De Guia said.

On 17 January 2020, Jennifer Tonag, WHRD and peasant leader, was shot dead by unidentifeid men in Lope de Vega, the Philipines.

A court in Tanintharyi Region issued warrants Monday for the arrest of lawyer U Kyi Myint and poet U Saw Wai for failing to appear in court for a case over their remarks on Myanmar’s constitutional amendment process.

The Myanmar military filed the case in Tanintharyi’s Kawthaung Township against three prominent political activists—U Kyi Myint, U Saw Wai and former Myanmar army captain Nay Myo Zin—for remarks they made in April about charter amendment, suing the three activists under Section 505 of the Penal Code for allegedly defaming the military and military leadership.

The Kawthaung Township Court began hearings in the case on Jan. 20 after sending summons letters to the defendants.

On Monday, only Nay Myo Zin, who is already serving a one-year prison term in Insein Prison on the same charge from another military lawsuit, appeared in court. The military’s plaintiff also did not appear in court on Monday.

Poet U Saw Wai, a former political prisoner, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant goes beyond what is allowed under the law, as he has not received any legal summons letter from the court.

“There has never been justice and there never will be as the judiciary is in the hands of the military. That is why we talked about supporting amendments to the charter,” said U Saw Wai.

Lawyer U Kyi Myint told reporters that he did not attend the court hearing because police haven’t conducted a proper investigation into the case, as required under Criminal Procedure Code Section 202.

On Thursday, U Kyi Myint told The Irrawaddy that he had already reported to the Kawthaung Township Court and police force that, due to the warrant, he will appear in court for the next hearing, scheduled for Feb. 3.

U Saw Wai added that the defendants will hold a press conference in Yangon on Saturday.

Section 505(a) of the Penal Code carries a penalty of up to two years in prison for making, publishing or circulating statements, rumors or reports intended to cause military officers to mutiny, or to fail in or disregard their duties. Anyone sued under Section 505(a) must be arrested and detained, as it is a non-bailable offense.

In November, 130 Myanmar civil society groups released a joint statement condemning the military’s attempt to prosecute the three activists and calling on the military to drop the case immediately.

Over the past four years, the military has filed 47 lawsuits against 96 people, including 51 activists, 19 individual citizens, 14 journalists, five religious representatives, four artists and three members of political parties, according to a recent report by Athan, a group advocating for the right to freedom of expression in Myanmar.

Of the military’s 47 lawsuits, most have been filed by the military as a way to take action against its critics, the report said. Athan has also called on the military to drop its lawsuits and stop suing those that criticize it.

On 20 January 2020, a lawyer and a community-based defender received arrest warrants for failing to appear before the court by the local Court of Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar.

Three land rights activists say they were beaten at the Banteay Meanchey provincial military police headquarters alongside a fellow detainee who later died after being transferred to the provincial prison.

Tuy Sros, 34, and four others were arrested on December 28 amid a protest in front of the provincial hall over a land dispute. Four days later, on January 1, Sros died while being transported from the prison to a hospital, according to local authorities and his family.

The provincial administration, in a statement dated January 1, claimed Sros had died from alcohol withdrawal.

But three of the four surviving detainees — An Ruon, Nov Noeun and Him Kiry — have since asked rights group Adhoc for legal help so they can take the military police to court, alleging violence at the hands of officers.

The five activists were “handcuffed and pushed into a car, and beaten, and pushed, necks twisted and beaten in the face,” Noeun told VOD on Sunday. “All five of us were pushed into a car and then dropped off in front of a flagpole. I supposed that we would stand to honor the national flag. We were made to sit in front of the flagpole. Then they lined us up and started kicking each of us three or four times. Me, they kicked three times and they added another punch and I lost a part of my tooth.”

Ruon, another of the activists, told VOD that the military police’s deputy provincial commander, Sar Bunsoeung, had ordered his subordinates to beat all five for answers. Noeun and Kiry made the same claim.

“They beat me repeatedly, bleeding all over my head. I got a cut on my eyelids from the beatings. They kneed me, kneed on the spine and dragged and beat me on the head, and then put a helmet on me, then dragged and twisted my neck,” Ruon said.

Sros’s wife Buy Kimlak and Yib Mak, the fifth detainee, could not be reached about why they had not joined the three others in seeking legal representation.

Kimlak, however, earlier told VOD that her husband’s corpse had bruises all over it. She had also visited him in prison after he was transferred from the military police headquarters to the provincial prison on December 31, and he was weak and barely conscious, she said.

She denied that he was unhealthy or an alcoholic, as the provincial administration claimed.

“He was a good man and very smart. He didn’t have any problems. He was working in business every day, buying chickens every day. And he went on patrol and patrolled every day because he was a village security guard,” Kimlak said.

Authorities passed responsibility between each other.

National military police spokesman Eng Hy denied the abuse accusations, saying the provincial military police headquarters had nothing to do with the alleged violence.

“I’ve already said that this case is not within the jurisdiction of the military police. This case is within the jurisdiction of the provincial authorities and therefore the provincial authorities can explain it,” Hy said.

Ung Siphan, director of the provincial prison, said Sros’s death had nothing to do with his prison.

Prison was not a place for forcing answers out of suspects; prison was just a place to hold people while waiting for court processes, he said.

“No, brother. We didn’t touch him. Frankly, we have thousands of prisoners coming in and out, and till now there’s no such history — we’ve never touched any prisoner,” Siphan said.

Provincial police chief Ath Khem said police were not involved in the case.

Bunsoeung, the deputy commander accused of ordering the violence, could not be reached for comment. Born Bin, provincial military police commander, could not be reached over five days. Banteay Meanchey governor Um Reatrey also could not be reached.

Adhoc provincial coordinator Soum Chankea said he had received the request for legal help from the three activists and would be preparing legal representation for them.

On December 28, about 200 protesters from Changha commune in O’Chrou district gathered in the provincial capital to claim that security forces had burned down villagers’ homes two days earlier. Sros’s wife, Kimlak, said about 200 families had been accused of encroaching on state land and were facing violence at the hands of authorities.

However, the provincial hall statement of January 1 said authorities had visited the families on December 16 to educate them that they had been cheated by brokers and were occupying privately owned land held by several different individuals. On December 26, the administration sent security forces “to crack down on the anarchic group and dismantle huts (which did not have people living in them, and were not houses).”

The group began to protest on the 27th and continued the next day, it said.

The five arrested activists were charged with intentional violence, with the four surviving men released on bail earlier this month.

On 1 January 2020, five detained community-based and land rights defenders were beaten by the military police, one was beaten to death while in custody in Banteay Meanchey Province, Cambodia.

At about 12:30 p.m. today, in Bishkek, the capital, three unidentified men stopped Temirov, chief editor of the independent news website Factcheck, which has recently covered allegations of official corruption, while he was on his way to work, hit him from behind, pushed him down, and kicked him and stole his phone, according to a statement posted to Facebook by his employer and news reports.

Temirov was briefly hospitalized following the attack and was treated for a concussion, said one of his colleagues, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns. Temirov lost a tooth in the attack and suffered bruises over his face, the colleague said.

“Kyrgyz authorities should conduct a swift and thorough investigation into today’s assault of journalist Bolot Temirov, and determine whether it was related to his work,” said CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, Gulnoza Said. “Authorities must prioritize journalists’ safety, especially for reporters covering sensitive issues like corruption.”

Bishkek police have opened an investigation into the incident, according to a report by Azattyk, the Kyrgyz-language service of U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Last month, Factcheck and several other news websites experienced cyberattacks after they published investigative reports on alleged corruption and the lavish lifestyles of a former custom official’s family members, according to Azattyk. Temirov’s colleague said that, because of the general response to Factcheck’s corruption reporting, they believed today’s assault was related to Temirov’s work.

On December 20, 2019, CPJ sent a joint letter to the Kyrgyz government urging authorities to investigate attacks against journalists covering corruption. CPJ called the Bishkek police today for comment but no one answered the phone.

On 9 January 2020, Bolot Temirov, journalist, was physically assaulted and had his phone stolen by unknown men, allegedly in response of his investigative work in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Police officers from Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security have kidnapped Hanoi-based activist Nguyen Thuy Hanh for interrogation for hours about their assistance given to land petitioners in Dong Tam commune, My Duc district.

On the afternoon of January 20, Mrs. Hanh and her husband Huynh Ngoc Chenh went to the Vietnam Bank for Commerce (Vietcombank)’s branch in Ba Dinh district to question the bank for freezing her account with around VND528 million ($22,500) of donations for the family of Mr. Le Dinh Kinh, a 84-year-old resident of Dong Tam who was killed by police during the raid on January 9.

During a meeting with the bank’s representatives, Mr. Chenh recognized that plainclothes policemen were deployed in the office, probably the bank branch informed police for the presence of the couple.

After receiving unsatisfied answers from the bank’s representatives, the couple left the office to return home with their motorbike. Not far from the bank, they were stopped by police officers in plainclothes who said Hanh must to go with them to their office for “working.” Hanh was forced to go in their car and the vehicle went to the Security Investigation Agency under the Ministry of Public Security at Nguyen Gia Thieu street, Hanoi where many activists were interrogated and beaten.

During the three-hour interrogation, five police officers questioned about the 50K Fund she established last year for assisting prisoners of conscience and activist-at-risks, and the donations from Vietnamese in the country and abroad for Mr. Kinh’s family after the bloody police raid on January 9.

During the interrogation, police officers said they would arrest some other activists, including land petitioner and human rights defender Trinh Ba Phuong for his covering news on the brutal police attack in Dong Tam on January 9, Hanh said.

The abduction and the interrogation against Mrs. Hanh were made few days after her account in Vietcombank was suspended. On January 13, the Ministry of Public Security said on its website that the ministry had ordered local banks to freeze accounts of some activists, including Mrs. Hanh who have been receiving donations for persecuted Dong Tam residents. The ministry said the financial aids from people can help Dong Tam citizens purchase weaponry to deal with the government.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese activists continue to call for a boycott of Vietcombank’s service and ask the Japanese Mizuho to reconsider its investment in the Vietnamese bank. Currently, the Japanese side owns 15% stake in Vietcombank.

On 20 January 2020, Nguyen Thuy Hanh, WHRD, was temporarily kidnapped interrogated and threatened by police officers from Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security for organisign a crowdfunding activity in Hanoi, Viet Nam.

Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), the largest commercial bank in communist-ruled Vietnam, has frozen a bank account of Hanoi-based activist Nguyen Thuy Hanh after she receives a large sum of donations for deceased elderly leader Le Dinh Kinh, who was killed by police in Hanoi on January 9.

On January 17, Mrs. Hanh went to the bank to withdraw the money gift for the family of the Dong Tam commune’s moral leader, the bank told her this account has been frozen. Asked for the reason, the bank refused the answer. It only gave her a copied document, showing VND525.45 million ($22,000) have been frozen.

Hanh, who is managing the 50K Fund for assisting prisoners of conscience and activists-at-risks, called on Vietnamese in the country and abroad to make donations for the family of Mr. Kinh after the deadly raid of Vietnam’s police on January 9 in which they killed him and destroyed his house. In addition, police arrested his two sons and two grandsons as well as his adopted daughter and charged them with “murder.”

After the call, Hanh has received more than thousands of small donations from Vietnamese across the globe. She had been placed in de facto house arrest for more than a week and plainclothes agents were deployed near her private residence in Hanoi until Friday.

Meanwhile, prominent dissident and political writer Pham Doan Trang has alerted that Vietnam’s security forces have been pressuring those people who had sent money support to Dong Tam villagers to admit that they are members of a certain political party when they provided “financial support” to Dong Tam villagers.

The police’s sinister goal is to try with all their might to create the existence of a group of terrorists in Dong Tam, and use that as an excuse to “attack, destroy the terrorists,” with aim to cover up their crime of having mounted a large-scale, organised attack against Dong Tam residents on January 9, said Trang, who has been among activists who established the “Dong Tam taskforce” to compile, verify and announce publicly all information relating to the police brutal attack in the location.

After Mrs. Hanh announced Vietcombank’s act, hundreds of activists have called for a boycott of the bank’s services and urged people to withdraw their money from the bank. They urged the bank to reconsider its decision in Mrs. Hanh’s case otherwise it will face a widespread boycott.

This is the second case of freezing activists’ accounts of Vietcombank. In 2015, it made the same act against prominent political dissident Nguyen Thanh Giang. However, it reopened his account after receiving a threat of boycotts of activists in the capital city at that time.

In response to the call for the boycott against Vietcombank, Deputy Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang said the bank’s move was requested by the ministry in a bid to deal with terrorism. He said many contributors to Mr. Kinh’s family have admitted that their donations are for purchasing weapons against Vietnam’s police.

On its website, the ministry has requested people not to send donations for Mr. Kinh’s family. It also admitted that it ordered Vietcombank to freeze the bank account of Mrs. Hanh.

On 17 January 2020, Nguyen Thuy Hanh, WHRD, got her bank account frozen upon order of Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security, after being held under de facto house arrest for over a week by the police in Hanoi, Viet Nam.

Vietnam’s communist regime has postponed the first-instance hearing to try eight members of the unregistered group Hiến Pháp (Constitution) on the allegation “disruption of security” under Article 118 of the country’s Criminal Code” for their intention to participate in a peaceful demonstration in early September last year, Defend the Defenders has learned.

The People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City made the decision to delay the trial on January 13, one day prior to the scheduled date, saying the postpone was due to the request of Mr. Le Quy Loc, one of the defendants, for summoning witness(es).

The court has not set the new date for the trial but it would be within 30 days from the day of canceling.

Some observers have linked the delay with the bloody attack of police in Dong Tam in which land rights activist Le Dinh Kinh was killed by riot police. The communist regime is willing to reduce social dissatisfaction which rose to its peak in the recent day so they don’t want people to get more anger from lengthy sentences which would be given for the group members.

According to the court’s announcement, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh and Mrs. Hoang Thi Thu Vang are charged with the allegation of “disruption of security” under Clause 1 of Article 118 of the Criminal Code with imprisonment of between five and 15 years in prison. Six others named Mr. Do The Hoa, Mr. Ho Dinh Cuong, Mr. Tran Thanh Phuong, Mr. Ngo Van Dung, Mr. Le Quy Loc and Ms. Doan Thi Hong are subjected to the allegation under Clause 2 of the same article with imprisonment of between two and seven years if are convicted.

All of them were kidnapped by HCM City’s police on September 2-4, 2018 and held incommunicado for months. Their families had not been informed about their detentions and charges for months after they went to different state agencies and police stations to ask for their status and found out that they were kept by the city’s police.

Hiến Pháp (Constitution) is a group of activists working to educate the public about the human rights they are entitled to under Vietnam’s 2013 Constitution by disseminating the country’s 2013 Constitution among citizens. Its members were active during the mass demonstration in HCM City on June 10, 2018 in which tens of thousands of Vietnamese rallied on streets to protest the communist regime’s plan to approve two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cybersecurity.

In order to prevent similar protests in early September 2018, Vietnam’s security forces launched a big campaign to persecute local dissent and all members of the Hiến Pháp group became their targets. Two other members of the group named Huynh Truong Ca and Le Minh The were arrested and convicted of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and “abusing democratic freedom,” respectively while three others were forced to relocate in Thailand to avoid being arrested.

Defend the Defenders considers eight jailed members of the group as prisoners of conscience and the accusations against them are groundless.

On 13 January 2020, eight HRDs detained for a peaceful protest held in Semptember 2018 got their trial postponed by the Court of Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.

Vietnam’s authorities have freed prisoner of conscience Tran Thi Nga but forced her to live in exile in the US.

Ms. Nga, who was arrested in February 2017 and sentenced to nine years in prison and five years of probation on charge of “conducting anti-state propaganda,” was taken from Gia Trung prison camp in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai to Noi Bai International Airport during the midnight of January 10 where she and her two sons and husband were taking a flight to Atlanta (Georgia, the US). The United States had granted her asylum.

She has always refused to recognize her guilt so she was being subjected to psychological torture, death threats and physical violence by fellow inmates and prison guards.

On 10 January 2020, Tran Thi Nga, WHRD, was released from prison but taken to the airport by the police upon court order and forced to leave to the US in Hanoi, Viet Nam.

Vietnam’s communist regime has detained the second Facebooker so far this year, accusing him of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the country’s Criminal Code.

On January 11, authorities in the Mekong Delta’s economic hub of Can Tho detained a local resident named Chung Hoang Chuong, 43, for his online activities. He will be held incommunicado in next three days for preliminary investigation and the pre-trial detention would be kept longer for months.

According to a notice of Ninh Kieu district’s police, Mr. Chuong has conducted online activities which “Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, lawful rights and interests of organizations and/or citizens.”

His family told Defend the Defenders that he was detained at his cell phone shop in Ninh Kieu commune. Police also came to his private residence to confiscate his wife’s laptop and camera set.

Chuong’s detention came after he wrote and shared a number of articles on his Facebook account Chương May Mắn regarding numerous issues of Vietnam, including human rights abuse, serious nationwide environmental pollution, systemic corruption and the government’s weak response to China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea). His latest statuses on his Facebook page were about the military attack in Dong Tam commune carried out by the Ministry of Public Security and the Hanoi Police Department in the early morning of January 9 in which police killed at least two civilians.

Mr. Chuong has been the second Facebooker being detained for their online activities amid increasing crackdown on the local dissent.

On January 9, authorities in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong arrested Mr. Dinh Van Phu on allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code. Mr. Phu, 47, will be held incommunicado in the next three months and face imprisonment of between seven and 12 years if is convicted.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s government reportedly has pressured Facebook to remove articles criticizing the communist regime.

Since the Cyber Security Law become effective in early 2019, Vietnam has arrested nearly two dozens of Facebookers on allegations of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and “abusing democratic freedom” in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code, and sentenced 17 of them to between one and 11 years in prison, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics.

On 11 January 2020, Chung Hoang Chuong, blogger, was arrested by the police as result of his online activities in Can Tho, Viet Nam.

Vietnam’s authorities continue its crackdown on Facebookers for the second year after implementation of the Cyber Security law, arresting the first activist on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code.

State media has reported that on January 9, police in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong arrested local resident Dinh Van Phu for his online activities and will keep him for at least three months for investigation. He will likely be held incommunicado during the pre-trial detention similar to other political cases.

According to the police, Mr. Phu, 47, was used several Facebook accounts such as “Jimy Nguyễn,” “Vinh Nguyễn Jimy,” and “Nguyễn Vinh” to disseminate articles and conduct live streams with content to distort policies of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam and its government as well as defaming its leaders.

He is accused of triggering social dissatisfaction and calling for street demonstrations to protest the communist government regarding human rights violations, environmental pollution, systemic corruption as well as a weak response to China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea).

Police also mentioned that Mr. Phu participated in the peaceful demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. The first was considered to provide privileges for Chinese investors amid Beijing’s increasing aggressiveness in the East Sea while the second aims to silence the local dissent. He was reportedly arrested, beaten and fined with VND750,000 for “causing public disorders.”

Along with targeting groups in order to prevent the formation of political parties and civil society organizations, Vietnam’s communist regime is striving to crack down on online activists. Last year, it arrested 21 Facebookers, 14 of them were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” and five of them with “abusing democratic freedom” in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code. As many as 12 Facebookers were sentenced to between five and 11 years in prison on allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda,” significant lengthier sentences compared to the same allegation in other cases in the previous decade.

The ruling communist party is preparing its 13th National Congress scheduled in early 2021 and it will tighten social life. It is expected more arrest and harassment against local dissent in coming months.

On 9 January 2020, Dinh Van Phu, blogger, was arrested and detained as result of his online sharing by the police in Dak Nong Province, Viet Nam.

Lawyer and human rights activist Jalila Haider was released on Monday after being detained by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for seven hours at the Lahore airport.

Haider, while talking to Dawn, said she was stopped by airport authorities when she was boarding a flight to the United Kingdom, where she had to attend a conference on feminism arranged by the University of Sussex. When she asked why she was being stopped from boarding the flight, she was told that her name was on the no-fly list because of her "anti-state activities".

Haider said she was made to wait for seven hours but no one came to see her, after which authorities returned her passport and told her that she can book another flight to the UK.

The activist said she will not leave until she meets her mother, who was worried since news of her detention spread on social media. She added that she had not been involved in any "anti-state activity".

Haider hails from Balochistan and belongs to the minority Hazara community. She is an advocate and the founder of We The Humans — a non-profit organisation which works to lift local communities by strengthening opportunities for vulnerable women and children.

She is also vocal about the persecution of the Hazaras in the country. In 2018, she went on a hunger strike, demanding the state to address the violence against the people of the Hazara community, who she said faced persecution due to ethnicity and sectarianism. Haider had demanded Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa to visit Balochistan and console the thousands of widows and orphaned children left by the killing of Hazaras in Pakistan over the past two decades.

Last year, she was listed as one of the 100 most inspiring and influential women across the world by the BBC.

News of her detention spread on social media after the activist posted on her Facebook page that she had been stopped at the Lahore airport. Her sister — who had come to see her off — and social media activists gathered at the airport, demanding Haider's release and holding placards.

"[I was] not told the reasons behind it (placement of her name on the no-fly list), but they said that it was because of my anti-state activities. I said 'I haven't been involved in any anti-state activity'," Haider told BBC Urdu. "Anyway, they [...] impounded my passport and CNIC and told me to sit down and that they'll hold further investigation and try to find out who placed my name on the list and why."

The activist said that only names of people who are suspected in a case and are named in a first information report can be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL). She further said that people whose names are placed on the ECL should be served with a show-cause notice, adding that she was not issued one.

Haider's lawyer Asad Jamal, who said he was not allowed to meet her while she was being detained, called it "an act of harassment", AFP reported.

Pakistan's interior ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment by AFP.

On 20 January 2020, Jalila Haider, WHRD, lawyer and minority rights defender, was stopped by the airport police and impeded from travelling abroad to attend a feminist event in Lahore, Pakistan.

Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) chief Manzoor Pashteen was sent to Peshawar's Central Jail on a 14-day judicial remand by a magistrate hours after he was arrested from the city's Shaheen Town on Monday.

The PTM leader was produced before a magistrate in Judicial Complex, Peshawar, where strict security arrangements were made prior to his arrival.

The court will hold a hearing tomorrow to decide whether a transitory remand can be granted in order to move Pashteen to Dera Ismail Khan, where a first information report (FIR) has been registered against him.

According to police, a case was registered against the PTM chief at the City Police Station in DI Khan on Jan 18 under sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 124 (sedition), and 123-A (condemning the creation of the country and advocating the abolishment of its sovereignty) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, Pashteen and other PTM leaders had attended a gathering on Jan 18 in DI Khan where the PTM chief had allegedly said that the 1973 Constitution violated basic human rights.

The FIR added that Pashteen also made derogatory remarks about the state.

Police had also arrested nine other PTM workers who were identified as Muhammad Salam, Abdul Hameed, Idrees, Bilal, Mohib, Sajjadul Hassan, Aimal, Farooq and Muhammad Salman.

Tahkal police station official Shiraz Khan had confirmed the arrests.

Taking to Twitter, senior PTM leader and MNA Mohsin Dawar said: "This is our punishment for demanding our rights in a peaceful and democratic manner. Manzoor's arrest will only strengthen our resolve. We demand the immediate release of Manzoor Pashteen."

He urged PTM workers and supporters to remain calm in the wake of the arrest. "We will devise a strategy after consultations. We are up against those who are most troubled by demands for constitutional rights, and we will continue doing that."

He announced that PTM will hold an emergency press conference at the Islamabad Press Club at 3pm and urged party workers to show their support. PPP, senators call for immediate release

The PPP, in a statement today, demanded that Pashteen be released immediately and that a dialogue be initiated between the government and the youth of tribal areas. The statement said that PTM's demands were "legitimate" and "will not be swept aside by arresting Manzoor Pashteen".

The statement, issued by General Secretary of PPP's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter Faisal Kundi, said that "political arrests only aggravate the situation and [do] not help resolve political issues"

"It is most foolish and highly condemnable that the voice of tribal youth is being silenced through brute state force at a time when there is urgent need for a dialogue," the statement read. Kundi further said that Pashteen was arrested just days after Defence Minister Pervez Khattak offered to hold dialogue with the activists.

Senators Usman Kakar and Hasil Bizenjo, during the Senate session today, demanded the release of Pashteen.

"Manzoor Pashteen is an internationally popular leader," Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party's Kakar said. "His arrest will garner a major reaction."

Kakar said that for the past two years, Pashteen had carried out a "democratic struggle" for "democratic demands".

Following Pashteen's arrest, #ReleaseManzoorPashteen started trending on Twitter with various politicians and human rights activists calling for his release.

Human rights group Amnesty International also called for Pashteen's "immediate and unconditional" release.

Taking to Twitter, the group said: "Manzoor Pashteen has been arbitrarily detained for exercising his human rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. He must be released immediately and unconditionally." PTM movement

PTM is a rights-based alliance that, besides calling for the de-mining of the former tribal areas and greater freedom of movement in the latter, has insisted on an end to the practices of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions, and for their practitioners to be held to account within a truth and reconciliation framework.

The party has been critical of the state's policies in the country's tribal belt, where a massive operation against terrorists was conducted in recent times leading to large-scale displacement and enforced disappearances.

PTM's leaders, in particular its elected members to the National Assembly, have come under fire for pursuing the release of individuals detained by authorities without due process. The army alleges the party of running an anti-national agenda and for playing into the hands of the state's enemies.

Last year, two of PTM's MNAs — Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir — were arrested by police after a protest gathering in Kharqamar for allegedly using violence and clashing with army personnel. The party while rejecting these allegations, insisted that theirs is a peaceful struggle for the rights of people from the country's tribal belt.

On 26 January 2020, Manzoor Pashteen, minority rights defender, was arrested by the police and charged by the local court for an assembly he participated the week before in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Masked men wielding sticks, rods and sledgehammers terrorised Jawaharlal Nehru University for close to three hours on Sunday evening, entering hostels, attacking students and teachers and leaving 26 injured.

Eyewitnesses and many of those injured said the men, who as per some estimates numbered around 100, were mostly outsiders and belonged to the ABVP — a charge the RSS student outfit denied. Eyewitnesses also accused police of failing to stop the mob from entering the campus or ending the violence sooner, despite calls from JNU as well as frantic students and teachers.

Among those injured were 22 students, including JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh, two teachers and two guards, who have been admitted to AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah ordered the Delhi Police to hold an inquiry, as the HRD Ministry condemned the incident, blaming outsiders for it, and said “anarchy will not be tolerated”. Several Union ministers and JNU alumni, such as Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, criticised the violence.

The chaos started around 6:30 pm when a ‘peace march’ called by the JNU Teachers’ Association on campus was wrapping up. Teachers had gathered to call for calm a day after the campus had seen a scuffle between activists of the ABVP and Left outfits. The campus has been seeing protests against hostel fee hike for around three months. Police finally arrived outside the campus only around 7.30 pm, and said it held flag marches inside at regular intervals. By Sunday night, over 700 policemen were present on the campus.

The ABVP claimed it had no link to the violence and its members were, in fact, attacked by Left outfits. While all Opposition parties condemned the violence, blaming “fascist” forces, the BJP called it “a desperate attempt by forces of anarchy, who are determined to use students as cannon fodder, create unrest to shore up their shrinking political footprint”. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited the injured students at AIIMS.

While tweeting his “pain and anguish” over the injured students, Vice-Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar attached a press note by the Registrar talking about the protests over the fees hike and expressing regret that “a group of students with their violent means of protests are preventing thousands of non-agitating students from pursuing their academic activities”. According to eyewitnesses, the crowd of masked men first gathered at Periyar Hostel, a couple of hours before the attacks started. Soori Krishan, an SFI activist, was among the first to get hit. “A large crowd with covered faces abused us in Hindi. When I started retorting, they hit me with a metal rod on my head. I’ve received two stitches and my hands are injured too,” said the MA student who was taken to AIIMS.

The teachers said on seeing the group “of around 100 men with their faces covered, sticks and stones in hands” marching towards them, they approached them in a bid to placate them, but were attacked instead. One teacher said “the stones were big enough to crack a skull”.

Professor Shukla Sawant said she was hit on the head and back. “They just starting pelting huge stones at us and beating everyone,” she said. Professor Atul Sood said, “Police were at the JNU gate while all this was happening and nobody stopped this mob. For the next two hours they went from hostel to hostel.”

A Masters student told The Indian Express over the phone around 9.45 pm: “When the mob began attacking, many of the women ran towards the women’s wing of Sabarmati Hostel. Around seven of us have been locked inside a room for three hours now. There are people with head injuries here.” Students said at least seven hostels — Periyar, Sabarmati, Tapti, Mahi Mandavi, Lohit, Koyna and Kaveri — were targeted. Doors were broken, windows smashed and students’ belongings were trashed as the men went from one corridor to the next, ignoring pleas by women hostellers. One video showed a group of women asking the mob to back off, and the men rushing at them with weapons.

A resident of the men’s wing of Sabarmati Hostel said the attackers asked him if belonged to any Left group. “At around 6:30 pm, around 20 masked people entered the hostel. They were carrying sticks, iron rods and some liquid in glass bottles. I live on the second floor and could see what was happening… I waited in my room and they pushed me and asked me if I belong to any Left party. I said I’m not, even though I am. They looked around my room for a while and then left,” he said.

He spoke to The Indian Express around 10:30 pm and said no security guard or police personnel had come to the hostel till then.

JNUSU president Ghosh was injured near Sabarmati Hostel and taken to AIIMS. Nikhil Matthew, who was with Ghosh and her sister at the time, said they “begged” the mob not to hit them. With blood flowing down her head, Ghosh said, “I am not in a condition to talk.” Doctors said she had lacerations on her forehead.

In a statement, the JNUSU blamed “ABVP goons, mostly from outside campus” for the violence. “The Bajrang Dal and members of other such outfits outside the main gate are asking for students to be shot. Why is police not ensuring that JNU remains a safe space for all students?” it said.

On 5 January 2020, a group of students was severely beaten up by masked men after holding a peaceful march inside their university campus in New Delhi, India.

Hong Kong police have been accused of violating international law and making arbitrary arrests after three human rights observers were among hundreds detained en masse following a march on New Year’s Day.

But the force denied the accusation and said that no one – including journalists, first-aiders and observers – had the right to stay in a “riot”. More than a third of those intercepted by police in Causeway Bay on Wednesday were released.

Civil Rights Observer on Thursday confirmed three of its volunteers were arrested the night before and said that the move violated the Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, which stated monitors should not be denied access to areas when they believed a violation of human rights was being committed.

“It is the first time any of our observers have been arrested since the team was set up in 2018,” the group said. “We strongly condemn police for these indiscriminate arrests.”

Tam Man-kei, director of Amnesty International Hong Kong, also said the targeting of independent monitors was “especially disturbing” as they were essential to ensure full accountability.

On Wednesday, a march organised by the Civil Human Rights Front was cut short three hours after it started, with police citing violence in a branch of HSBC.

The violence then escalated as radical protesters spilled out into Causeway Bay, Wan Chai and Central, where they vandalised more bank branches, set fires and barricaded roads.

Later, police made mass arrests outside Sogo department store, where at one point around 70 people were seen being made to squat on the ground as they were searched and processed.

Some complained they had done nothing wrong, but were trapped after police cordoned off a sizeable area.

A total of 464 people were intercepted in Causeway Bay, of whom 287 were arrested for unlawful assembly, according to the police. The other 177 were released.

A 12-year-old primary school student and an 81-year-old citizen were among the 420 people arrested on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Eric Lai Yan-ho, deputy convenor of the front, said it was unreasonable to detain people without sufficient evidence then release them hours later.

“They were forced to kneel on the streets. It is unacceptable.”

Chief Superintendent Kwok Ka-chuen on Thursday said they had given repeated warnings for everyone to leave the scene.

“No one has the privilege to stay in a riot,” Kwok said. “You can claim to be a first-aider [or] a human rights observer. But this does not exempt you from the legal liability of taking part in a riot.”

Ng Lok-chun, senior superintendent of Hong Kong Island, denied police had made arbitrary mass arrests.

“When we had our first dispersal operation yesterday, rallygoers left. Those who came out again deliberately blocked roads,” Ng said.

Police had set up a cordon as they could not be sure whether the arrestees posed a risk to others and also to prevent any attempts to snatch arrested people away, Ng added.

Lai also attacked the force for its “unprecedented and disproportionate” decision to cut short the march, setting an “impossible” time frame of 45 minutes for the huge crowd to leave. He said it had risked a stampede.

“Many people didn’t know how to leave safely and didn’t take the trains for fear of arrest even though they only marched peacefully.”

Organisers were told at 5.30pm to call off the march, but were initially given 30 minutes – then an additional 15 minutes – to disperse the crowd.

“It was the first time a march of the scale of 1 million people was cut short,” Lai said. “With only 100-odd helpers and many people still stuck in Victoria Park, it was impossible to disband a procession like this.”

The group estimated more than 1.03 million people took part in the march, while police put the turnout at 47,000 in the procession and another 13,000 at the park.

Ng stressed police had only started advancing on Arsenal Street at 6.30pm and fired tear gas at around 7pm, which was 90 minutes after the ending time of the march.

But police had fired the first round of tear gas at protesters at around 5pm, shortly after the HSBC branch on Hennessy Road was vandalised.

In response to an incident during which a police officer forcibly removed the protective goggles of lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung and pepper-sprayed him in Causeway Bay on Wednesday night, Senior Superintendent Kelvin Kong Wing-cheung said that Hui had ignored repeated orders to get back on the pavement.

“He refused to cooperate and resisted. My colleagues issued warnings that pepper spray might be used. I don’t know if it was because he was wearing goggles, he was not afraid,” Kong said. “So my colleagues removed his goggles and used pepper spray to make the dispersal effective.”

Hui on Thursday vowed to launch legal action.

On 2 January 2020, three volunteers of a local CSO were arrested by the police while monitoring the ongoing protest in Hong Kong, China.

A veteran television journalist has lodged a police report over death threats he received following a segment he produced on a Kuala Terengganu-area tahfiz (religious) school that was allegedly failing to provide its students with basic necessities.

Mohd Ishak Abdillah Ngah’s news report, broadcast on Malaysia’s most widely-watched news network, TV3, accused the school of lacking basic amenities including electricity and water for their primary students in the town of Wakaf Mempelam.

Speaking to national newswire Bernama, Mohd Ishak said that the threats originated on Facebook in relation to a post about the story, but have since escalated to real-world confrontations.

“I was criticized with harsh words and murder threats. Besides that, some people even posted abusive comments that they wanted to smack my face as well as to destroy property,” he told reporters at the Kuala Terengganu district police headquarters.

“At 5:15pm on Jan. 1, I was approached by a man who was dissatisfied with the news reports and claimed that he was the Kawasan Cabang Tiga [area] leader.”

He added that his decision to file the police report was made in order to ensure the safety of himself and his family.

Facebook user Nurul Hana Mamat posted to her social media account, claiming to be a parent of one of the students, and stated that while amenities were lacking at the school, she had been informed of the situation. She added that only one parents complained, sparking the report from TV3.

Following the reports of young students paying to study in amenity-less facilities, Terengganu state’s chief minister, Dr. Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, maintained that the school — identified as Sekolah Rendah Islam Darul Iman (SRIDI) Wakaf Mempelam — had indeed experienced a cut in electricity and water, but they had since been restored.

No explanation was offered as to why the students had been studying under the adverse conditions.

On 1 January 2020, Mohd Ishak, journalist,was online harassed and received death threats from an unknown person, after an investigative report was put o n air in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.

Mr. Pawan Rao Ambedkar Pawan is a known Ambedkarite activist in Uttar Pradesh.He is a lecturer based in Rai Bareily in Uttar Pradesh. He has been actively working against rising social and economic equality and caste discrimination in society.

According to the sources on December 19, 2019Mr. Pawan Rao Ambedkar was arrested by Uttar Pradesh during the protestsagainst Citizenship Amendment Act at Parivartan Chowk in Lucknow. The said protests were termed illegal due to imposition of Section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure in the city.A case against Mr. Pawan Rao Ambedkar Pawanwas filed in Hazratganj police station in Lucknow with Case no 600/2019 under sections 147, 148, 149, 152, 307, 323, 504, 506, 332, 353, 188, 435, 436, 120 B, 427 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), sections 3 and 4 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. Section 7 of Criminal Law (Amendment) Act (CLA). He has been chargedfor rioting, unlawful assembly, attempt to murder, wrongful constraints, criminal intimidation, criminal assault on public servant etc.Mr. Pawan RaoAmbedkar had claimed that he had been falsely implicated in the matter and that he had nothing to do with the alleged protests, the State had argued that he was involved in harmingproperty and assaulting police personnel, for which he was arrested from the spot. Mr. Pawan RaoAmbedkar’sbail application was rejected on December 23, 2019 by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate,Lucknow. He was granted bail onJanuary 4,2020 by Additional District and Sessions Court no1, Lucknow.The court called into question Lucknow police’s contention that the people brought before it were directly involved in inciting violence. Hehas to wait for two-day as the formalities for hisrelease could not be completed after the bail orders.He had to spend close to 15 days in jail.

On 19 December 2019, Pawan Rao Ambedkar, social rights activist, was detained for joining a mass protest by the police in Lucknow, India.

Mr. SR Darapuri (75 yrs) is a well-known ambedkarite and human rights activist. He served as an IPS Officer for more than 3 decades and was also a former IG. Darapuri has been an untiring campaigner of human rights, especially Dalit rights.After retiring fromthe police service, Darapuri had joined the All India People’s Front (Radical), a political outfit. He had also contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Robertsganj.He has been a part of a number of fact-findings in cases of human rights violations of Dalits, Muslims and members of downtrodden communities, public hearings on the implementation of various social welfare schemes like food security etc.

According to information received, theUP police wascamping before the house of Mr. SR Darapuri located at Indra Nagar since 8 am on December 20, 2019 morning.Around 11:45 am, police personnel from the nearby station came in a jeep and took Darapuri with them saying that they would let him leave after some questioning. But when he did not return for 2-3 hours and he could not be reached, the family filed a complaint by calling the police helpine. After some time, his son received a call from the adjacent Ghazipur police station that Darapuri is there and that he can come and meet him. When the family members went to meet him, they came to know that the police didnot let Darapuri eat food throughout the day. At about 5 pm, he was given food and medicines brought from home. His son, Ved Kumar later got to know that he was shuttled between Gazipur and Hazratganj police stations.Darapuri was brought to Hazratganj police station, Lucknowat 1 am mid night (on December 21, 2019) when his son went again to give him food and medicine.Mr. Darapuriwas scheduled to address the press at 3 pm regarding the detentionof lawyer Mohd. Shoaib, but he was himself detained by thepolice before he could speak to the media. He has been falsely charged under sections 147, 148, 149, 152, 307, 323, 504, 506, 332, 353, 188, 435, 436, 120-B, 427 of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 3, 4 of the Public Property Loss Prevention Act 1984 and Section 7 of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 1932. These include allegations ranging from inciting people to violence to murderous assault on the police.Lucknow Sessions Court on January 4, 2020 granted bail to Darapurifor his alleged role in violence during protest against the amended Citizenship law on December 19, 2019. The Uttar PradeshPolice could not produce evidence against himwhen asked by the court. However Darapuricould be released only three days later as some formalities could not be completed.

On 20 December 2019, SR Darapuri, communty-based HRD, was detained by the police before a scheduled meeting with the press about other detained activist in Lucknow, India.

Mr.Robin Verma is a social activist and has been teaching at Shia Post Graduate College, Lucknow. Hehas been helping thehuman rights group Rihai Manchwith its workin the state of Uttar Pradesh.He has been actively involved in the struggle against caste discrimination and communal divides.

According to the sourceson 20 December, 2019 Mr.Robin Verma was picked up by the police along with journalist Omar Rashid from a place near Darul-Shafa, Lucknow. According to the information providedby Omar Rashid, both Robin Vermaand he weredetained by four men in plain clothes on December 20, 2019when they were having their meal at a eaterylocated at Lalbagh. They werewaiting to get the information about the press conference to be held by the Uttar Pradeshgovernment.Then they bothwere taken to the Hazratganj police station. According to the informationreceived,the policemen who arrested them did not identify themselves and used abusivelanguageagainst them. They said that they wanted to inquire about something and took theminto their police jeep. The policemen threatened both sayingthey would book themunder Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code. Within seconds from their arrival at the police station, cops, who were already stationed there, started thrashing Robin with a thick leather belt and slapped him many times. Although Omar Rashid was released after a fewhours,but Robin Verma was sent to jail. According to the police FIR, his arrest has been shown on 21December2019 from behind Begum Hazrat Mahal Park in Lucknow.According to the police, Robin Vermaalong with others violatedsection 144 of Criminal Procedure Code. He was falsely shown as arrested on several charges, including rioting, attempted murder and assault on public servants, during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Lucknow on December 19, 2019inCase no 600/2019 under sections 147,148,149, 152, 307, 323, 504, 506, 332, 353, 188, 435, 436, 120 B, 427 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), sections 3 and 4 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. Section 7 of Criminal Law (Amendment) Actwas also slapped on him.Bail application of Robin Verma was rejected by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Lucknow on December23,2019.Then it was moved to the Sessions Courtand he was granted bail by the Sessions Court on 7 January, 2020. Hehasspent close to 17days in jail during harsh weather.HRDA would like to point out that apart from illegal arrest, detention and custodial tortureonRobin Verma, hewas alsosuspended from his jobas a Professor on contractual basis at ShiaPost Graduate College, Lucknow. Illegal arrest and detention of Robin Verma highlightsthe treatment being meted out to human rights defendersarrested in the aftermath of anti-CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh.

On 20 December 2019, Robin Verma, HRD, was beaten and detained on falsce charges by the police for his participation to a protest in Lucknow, India.

Vyapam scam whistleblower Ashish Chaturvedi is said to have been threatened for taking up the issue of illegal colonies in certain parts of the state.

The anti-graft activist, known for his noted exposures in the Vyapam scam has lodged a complaint with Jhansi Road police following which an inquiry was lodged into the matter.

The Vyapam case refers to irregularities in exams held by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, also called Vyavasayik Pareeksha Mandal or Vyapam for admission in professional courses and state services.

Sources said an anti-mafia squad, formed by Gwalior collector, has also taken cognizance of the threat issued to the activist.

Chaturvedi told News18 he came across some documents that suggested several colonies were built on encroached land by a group of builders. Soon after, he had served legal notices to the builders through his lawyer and wanted to know about the colonies and unsuspecting buyers.

On Saturday, he said he received a call on his cellphone and the caller asked him about the notice he had served to the builders.

When the activist told the person to instead make a written reply to the notice, the unidentified caller started abusing him and even threatened to eliminate him. A case has been lodged against the unidentified caller under sections 292, 506 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Recently, the Kamal Nath-led government had announced to take action against the Mafiosi prevalent across the state, following which officials in Indore, Gwalior and Bhopal swung into action.

On Saturday, a restaurant owned by local BJP leader Pravin Sharma in Gwalior was razed down and dismantled a garden built over a nullah. The garden was owned one Abdul Razzaq.

In Gwalior, officials demolished the fourth floor of a building owned by a builder.

In Bhopal, the Economic Offence Wing of the MP Police lodged a case against Ghanshyam Rajput and 24 others in an illegal land acquisition case of Rohit Housing Society. The society has been under the authorities’ lens for years for alleged land irregularities.

On 13 December 2019, Ashish Chaturvedi, whistleblower, received death threats via phone call by anonymous persosn linked to local criminal groups after he reported illegal operations in Gwalior, India.

Dr. Anoop Shramik isa Dalit rights activist and human rights defender. He is the Convener of Rashtriya Inquilabi Dalit Adivasi Manchwhich is a network of Dalit rightsactivists.He obtained his PhD degree from Poorvanchal University, Jaunpurin Uttar Pradesh for his research work onsexual harassment of Dalit women at workplaces.He was also associated with Dalit Foundation as its Regional Coordinator for North. He has been socially active for over more than 15 years. He has been taking up issues related to violence against women, rights of people engaged in, or employed for any sanitation workand health rights of the children of disadvantaged section of the society.Dr. Anoop Shramik also works with National Forum for Special Component Planfor Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.He has been awarded by the President of India in 2003 for leadership as a best cadet on behalf on Bharat Scouts and Guides, New Delhi.

According to information received,on December 19, 2019 Dr. Anoop Shramikwas arrested from Beniyabag ground in Varanasi around 12. 30 pmby the Uttar Pradesh policeduring the peaceful protest march against CAA and NRC.He was taken to the police lineand was booked under section 151 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)for violatingSection 144 of the CrPCand for charges of breach of peace. Around 4.30 pmhealong with others weresent to jail. A case was filed against Dr. Anoop Shramikin Chetganj police station in Varanasi by the police and he wasbooked undersections147, 148, 149, 188, 332, 341, and 353of the Indian Penal Code(IPC). The police also slapped charges under the 7Criminal Law Amendment(CLA) Acton him.The sections range from violent rioting with deadly weapons to assaulting a public servant.HRD Dr. Anoop Shramik’sfamily was not provided the copy of the First Information Report (FIR). For 3 days in the jail no body from the family was allowed to meet him. HRDA was informed that on the bail application the Sub Divisional Magistraterefused to put signature. The family were told that on theverbal order of the government of Uttar Pradesh, the District Magistrate has put a ban on the legal proceduresto be followed in the case by the family or friends of the defender. Family members and friends of Dr. Anoop Shramikwere not allowed to visit him in jail and they were prevented outside. On the day of hearing on bail, hewas put up in the lock up by the police without informing the court. Among 56 people arrested by the policein Varanasion December 19, 2019, 53 were granted bail on January1, 2019 and released from jail. Dr. Anoop Shramikwas not granted bail. Instead Varanasi police filed anotherfabricated case against him in Lanka police station under sections 153 Aand 153 Bof IPCwhich criminalizes promoting enmity between social and religious groups.The case relatesto a pamphlet distributed to oppose NRC in which the contact number of HRD Dr. Anoop Shramikwasmentioned.According to media reports, HRDs are being threatened to be booked under draconianand repressiveNationalSecurity Act (NSA).Dr. Anoop Shramikwaslodged in Chokaghat Jail in Varanasi. He was finally granted bail by Additional Sessions Judge, Court number 07, Varanasi on 6 January, 2020. Hehasspent close to 19days in jail. His arbitrary arrest and detention is a thinly-veiled attempt by the Indian authorities to discourage peaceful dissent in the country.In Uttar Pradesh the government is misusing several repressive laws toharass, criminalize and detainhuman rights defenders and silence dissent.Cases have also been reported of torture and ill-treatment of activists by the police.

On 19 December 2019, Anoop Shramik, minority rights activist, was arrested ahead of a peaceful protest and detained for 19 days by the police in Varanasi, India.

Arrested Assam RTI activist Akhil Gogoi alleged he was subjected to “torture” in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

“I am being tortured. I appeal to the people to not suspend the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) but continue them,” he told journalists while being produced in a court of the NIA in Guwahati on Tuesday.

He was brought to the city in a flight from Jorhat for production in the NIA court. The court remanded him in ten days’ NIA custody.

The RTI activist, who is also a leader of peasants’ body Krishak Mukti Sangram Samitee, was charged with sedition, intention to cause riot against national integration, punishment for criminal conspiracy and unlawful association under the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Gogoi was arrested by the police on Thursday from Jorhat. Two days later, he was handed over to the NIA in a case registered against him earlier by the Chandmari police station in Guwahati. The case pertains to his alleged link with the CPI Maoists.

The protestors of CAA said by arresting Gogoi, the government was trying to muzzle the voices of protest. They demanded his immediate release.

Prior to the violent incidents in Guwahati and elsewhere in Assam surrounding the CAA, Gogoi was spearheading the protests. He had then appealed to people to come out of their houses and stage the protests. He had told them that 1.9 crore “Hindu Bangladeshis” would come to Assam and this would pose a grave threat to the state’s land, language, culture among others.

On 12 December 2019, Akhil Gogoi , RTI activist, was arrested and allegedly tortured in custody by the police for joining a protest in Guwahati, India.

Two activists arrested by authorities in Kazakhstan last week were likely detained because they challenged government plans to deport a pair of ethnic Kazakh Chinese nationals who fled persecution in neighboring China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), according to fellow rights campaigners.

Qaster Musakhanuly and Murager Alimuly, ethnic Kazakh resdents of Dorbiljin (in Chinese, Emin) county and Chochek (Tacheng) city in the XUAR’s Tarbaghatay (Tacheng) prefecture, fled across the border to Kazakhstan and arrived in Almaty on Oct. 8, before holding a press conference at the office of the Atajurt rights group two days later, calling for asylum.

Alimuly said he had been subjected to persecution in the XUAR, while Musakhanuly claimed he had spent years in one of an estimated 1,300-1,400 internment camps in the region, where authorities are believed to have held 1.8 million ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas since April 2017.

On Oct. 14, the two men were formally accused of illegally entering Kazakhstan and placed in pretrial detention, and earlier this month Darkhan Dilmanov, the deputy chief of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee, announced that they will be deported, despite the objections of Atajurt’s activists, who say the pair will “definitely” face torture and possible death if sent home.

On Dec. 9, Atajurt members Kapar Akhat and Zhumamurat Shamshi—both Kazakhstan nationals—held a press conference in which they recommended that the Kazakh government reconsider plans to deport Musakhanuly and Alimuly.

The press conference came a week after Akhat and Shamshi had called on Kazakh activists and members of the public to write letters to the delegation of the European Union to Kazakhstan, and had also themselves written multiple letters to the U.S. Embassy and other Western consular missions, urging them to stop the deportation.

A day after the Dec. 9 press conference, on International Human Rights Day, Kazakh national security officials detained Akhat and Shamshi, but did not a give a reason for their arrest.

Speaking to RFA’s Uyghur Service, an Atajurt official named Guljan said that the two members of her group, which works to highlight the plight of ethnic Kazakhs held in internment camps in the XUAR, were likely detained because they had publicly protested the refusal to grant Musakhanuly and Alimuly asylum, and the decision to deport them to China.

“Kapar Akhat is one of the most important people working for Atajurt in [the capital] Nur-sultan (formerly Astana),” she said.

“He speaks very openly and forcefully about what’s happening, and it’s likely because of that [that he’s been detained]. He speaks to governments and all kinds of organizations, and on multiple occasions he has spoken onstage at events about the trials of Serikzhan and other activists,” she added, referring to Atajurt founder Serikzhan Bilash.

Bilash faced seven years imprisonment for “inter-ethnic incitement” after calling for an “information Jihad” against China’s policies in the XUAR, but accepted a plea bargain during his trial in his hometown of Almaty on Aug. 16 that restricts his activism in exchange for his freedom.

Guljan said that while there are “many reporters in Kazakhstan,” few people are willing to hold the country’s government to account for its actions in cases like that of Musakhanuly and Alimuly, so Shamshi decided to highlight the issue at two high profile conferences.

“He spoke passionately about the stories of these two men who fled to Kazakhstan, so it is maybe for this reason [that he was detained],” she said.

Guljan acknowledged that Atajurt “[doesn’t] know for sure” the reason for the arrests of Akhat and Shamshi, but said that the two men “don’t have access to lawyers.”

Orunbasari Bekzat Mahsutkhan, who has operated Atajurt in Bilash’s absence, told RFA that his organization has retained lawyers for the two and plans to file a formal lawsuit over their detention in a court of law.

“Kazakhstan national security … They’re making a lot of excuses, but there are no grounds for what they’re doing [to Akhat and Shamshi],” he said.

“They locked them up and they have yet to be released.”

Neighbors under fire

Kazakhstan and other Central Asian nations have come under fire in recent years for targeting activists who have spoken out about, and Chinese nationals who have fled, Beijing’s policy of mass incarceration in the XUAR.

The situation is particularly sensitive in Kazakhstan, where nearly half a million ethnic Kazakhs now live after escaping persecution in the Chinese region.

Serikzhan Bilash had been under house arrest since being detained in March and flown to Nur-Sultan amid accusations from Chinese officials that he had "fabricated" the cases of fellow ethnic Kazakhs in XUAR camps he was documenting, in an arrest that was widely seen as having been made at Beijing's behest.

Speaking to RFA’s Uyghur Service in August, Bilash said that Kazakhstan was forced to make an arrangement with regards to his case that satisfied both Beijing and the Western governments and rights groups that had called for his release since his detention earlier this year.

The plea bargain during his trial was a compromise, he said, adding that he believes the Kazakh government is likely to have secured financial assurances from Beijing for targeting him.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in August that Kazakhstan’s decision to force an internationally respected activist to limit his own freedom of expression “speaks volumes of the authorities’ disrespect for justice and rule of law” and demonstrates the country’s “readiness to sacrifice human rights to maintain good relations with its neighbour, China.”

The group called for authorities to drop the conditions on his release and urged Kazakhstan to “think beyond its ties with China to its obligations to respect and comply with international human rights law.”

On 10 December 2019, Kapar Akhat and Zhumamurat Shamshi, social rights activists were arrested by the police in response to a human rights conference they held the day earlier in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan.

Chinese police have launched a nationwide operation detaining at least eight people and questioning others, following a Dec. 13 meeting of liberal-minded activists and lawyers in the southeastern province of Fujian.

Authorities in the eastern province of Shandong set up a police task force after the meeting in the Fujian port city of Xiamen, and had detained eight people in Fujian, Shandong, Beijing, Hebei, Sichuan, and Zhejiang by Jan. 1.

The overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network said a similar gathering took place one year ago in Shandong, which could explain the leading role of the Shandong police.

Rights lawyers Ding Jiaxi and Huang Zhiqiang and activists Dai Zhenya, Li Yingjun, and Zhang Zhongshun were among those detained.

Rights lawyer and university professor Liu Shuqing, 43, was detained by police in Shandong's provincial capital Jinan on Dec. 31, on suspicion of "subversion of state power."

"Police used force to kick open the door of his residence without any warning," CHRD said, adding that Liu had recently undergone cardiac surgery. Liu was allowed back home on Jan. 1, the group said.

In the eastern city of Hangzhou, veteran activists Zhu Yufu, Wu Zexi, Xin Zhongcheng, Mao Lijun, and Tang Xiaoyun were detained and interrogated for a day on Dec. 29 after they had dinner with someone who attended the Dec. 13 meeting, CHRD said.

The rights website Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch said many of the activists were detained on suspicion of "incitement to subvert state power."

CHRD called on the ruling Chinese Communist Party to release all the detainees immediately, as their right to freedom of peaceful assembly is protected under international human rights treaties.

Others also held

Rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, 52, was detained in his hometown of Beijing on Dec. 26 by Shandong police, and police searched his home and confiscated belongings without a search warrant, it said.

Ding's wife Luo Shengchun said her husband had likely attended the meeting in Xiamen.

"He said he was going to meet friends for a meal," Luo said. "I've asked all [the other families], and they all said it seems that their husbands went to Xiamen."

On the same day, university professor Zhang Zhongshun was detained on suspicion of subversion at his home in Yantai, Shandong, despite not having attended the Fujian meeting.

Xiamen-based Dai Zhenya, 46, was meanwhile detained on similar charges. He is being held under "residential surveillance at a designated location" that hasn't been disclosed, CHRD said.

Zhang's wife Yang Hongni said the family had planned to visit relatives in the United States on the Jan. 15 and had tried to get police to rescind her husband's travel ban.

"I have no news of Zhang Zhongshun," Yang said. "It's probably because he went to Xiamen."

Going to a cold place

Lin Yanping, wife of Dai Zhenya, said she was told her husband would need warm winter clothes where he was going.

"In the living room, they told us that they were from the Xiamen police department, and told us to get some very warm clothes for him, because he'd be going to a cold place for investigation," Lin said.

"A police officer told us that the [other officers] were from Shandong and that he might be taken to Shandong, allegedly for inciting subversion of state power," she said.

Lin said the family has been unable to find out any more about Dai since.

"We have no information," Lin told RFA. "We went to that police station and asked which police agency in Shandong took him away."

"They wouldn't tell us, so we are very worried now. I don't know about this Dec. 13 taskforce. I just want to know where he is," she said.

Activist Li Yingjun, a factory worker from Fujian's Zhangzhou city, was also held on the same day, while lawyer Huang Zhiqiang, 47, was detained on Dec. 29, in the eastern province of Zhejiang on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge often leveled at peaceful critics of the regime.

Meanwhile, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, police detained businessman-turned-activist Wei Xiaobing, 42, after he distributed T-shirts printed with slogans supportive of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

No clear theme

An employee at the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch website said the latest crackdown was unusual in that there was no clear theme connecting all of the detentions.

"In the past, they would divide the opposition into categories, so you would get waves of crackdowns on activist websites, or on lawyers, or the one-off crackdown on the New Citizens Movement," the employee said.

"This time it was very complicated."

Zhu Yufu's U.S.-based son Zhu Xi said his father is still under close surveillance by the state security police, and that the additional security will likely continue at least until after the annual parliamentary sessions in March.

"This time around it has been quite strange: I think a lot of people are very nervous," he said.

Repeated calls to the Shandong provincial police department went unanswered during office hours, while calls to the political department of the ministry of public security in Beijing were met with the sound of a fax machine.

An official who answered the phone at the political department of the Xiamen police department declined requests for an interview.

"We don't know the situation you asked about ... so you have to ask the department that is handling the case," the official said. "I can't answer you about the legal matters. You will have to ask a lawyer."

'China can't go on like this'

New Citizens' Movement founder Xu Zhiyong is currently on the run after penning a New Year's message to China's citizens, calling on them to think about whether they want to carry on with an authoritarian government or movement towards democratic constitutionalism, an idea that President Xi Jinping has said has no place in his vision for China.

"We are sadly seeing that the Chinese economy is deteriorating, while the stability maintenance regime is depleting national wealth accumulated over more than three decades, and stagnation and poverty are looming," Xu wrote.

"China cannot go on like this. Think about it, people! What kind of China do we want to leave for future generations?"

On 29 December 2019, eight pro-democracy activists and human rights lawyers were interrogated and detained by the police of Shandong Province, China, for joining a liberal event on 13 December.

Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have rejected to grant a passport for former prisoner of conscience Le Cong Dinh, denying his right to freely travel abroad.

Mr. Dinh, who was imprisoned five years in 2009-2013 on the charge of subversion, applied for a new passport in the Immigration Management Division of HCM City’s Police Department on December 4. Two weeks later, on December 16, he received a denial announcement from an officer from the division who refused to point out the reason for the refusal.

In August last year, the city’s police also rejected his application.

The US-educated lawyer is among the leading pro-democracy activists in Vietnam. He was arrested in 2009 and initially charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” and later changed into “subversion” in the same case of prominent activist and entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc and Nguyen Tien Trung.

He continues to work for promoting human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam after being released in 203. This year, he is among the three activists winning annual prizes of the US-based Vietnam Human Rights Network.

Dinh is among more than 100 Vietnamese activists being barred from international travel. The Ministry of Public Security often uses government decree No. 136 to prevent political dissidents and human rights activists from going abroad with the common controversial reason “national security.” The communist regime has used a number of ways to halt their international travel by denial of granting passports, blocking at national border gates or confiscating their passports.

On 16 December 2019, Le Cong Dinh pro-democracy activist, was denied of being granted with a new passport by the Immigration Office in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.

Eight journalists and camera crew of Kerala-based TV channels, who had interviewed relatives of those killed in the December 19 police firing during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, were released seven hours after being detained by police in front of the Government Wenlock hospital on Friday, sources said.

The scribes were taken to Thalappady bordering Kerala from Mangaluru south police station where they were kept till late in the afternoon, they said.

Journalists from News 24, Media One, Asianet, News18 and Mathrubhumi were prevented from reporting in Mangaluru, taken into custody and kept in a van for three hours after which they were taken to Mangaluru south police station, the sources said.

Cameras and mobile phones seized from them were returned after they were taken to Thalappady.

A top police officer told the scribes that only those with Karnataka accreditation should report from there. The news channels had interviewed the relatives of the two men killed on Thursday during the protests against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Mangaluru Police Commissioner PS Harsha had earlier issued a statement, saying that a few people did not have accreditation cards issued by any authority and were being questioned.

Karnataka Home Minister Baswaraj Bhomai in Bengaluru blamed the violence in the city on groups from Kerala. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan strongly condemned the detention and said the onslaught on media freedom was indicative of a fascist mind set.

On 21 December 2019, eight journalists were temporarily detained after interviewing relatives of victims, and their equipment was seized by the police in Mangaluru, India.

A woman journalist alleged that police personnel broke her phone, hurled abuses and pulled her hair when she was covering a protest against the citizenship law outside Jamia Millia University here on Sunday night.

"I came here for BBC's coverage. They (police persons) took away my phone and broke it. They hit me with a baton," journalist Bushra Sheikh told ANI here.

She alleged that a policeman also pulled her hair.

"When I asked them for my phone they hurled abuses at me. I didn't come here for fun. I came here for coverage," she added.

A police person also sustained injuries as the protest turned violent outside the university.

According to police, protestors pelted stones at policemen who were deployed to control the situation.

On Friday, 12 policemen sustained injuries in the students' protest.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act grants citizenship to refugees of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

On 15 December 2019, Bushra Sheikh, female journalist, was allegedly beaten by the police while covering a protest in New Delhi, India.

A reporter for the Urdu-language newspaper Nai Baat, Nasrullah Chaudhry received the jail sentence from an anti-terrorism court in the southern city of Karachi on 26 December. He was also fined 15,000 rupees.

After his arrest in the night of 9 and 10 November 2018 in alleged possession of documents “inciting religious hatred and Jihad,” Chaudry was accused of links with the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. He has always denied any connection with terrorist activists or possessing documents inciting hate crimes.

“After an investigation lasting more than a year, the prosecution was unable to produce any evidence of Nasrullah Chaudhry’s guilt,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

“We call on Karachi’s courts to quash this grossly unfair conviction and, in the absence of any additional supporting evidence, to dismiss all further proceedings against him. The best way to prevent any acts of terrorism is to allow journalists to do their investigative reporting.”

Ever since his arrest, he has accused the authorities of fabricating the case against him. He has worked as a journalist for 20 years and has the unanimous support of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the Karachi press club.

Pakistan is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

In 26 December 2019, Nasrullah Chaudhry, journalist, was sentenced to five-year prison term for fabricated terrorism charges by a court in Karachi, Pakistan.

According to our sources, on December 10, 2019, MASUMorganised an event,on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day at the Ranu Chhaya Mancha, in front of Academy of Fine Arts, Cathedral Road, Maidan in Kolkata.This place falls under the jurisdiction of Hastings Police Station. MASUM has been celebrating the International Human Rights Day by organising a human rights fair for the past 22 years. Various dignitaries, lawyers, human rights activists, academics, cultural performers and CSOs actively participated inthe said fair this year.The cultural programme was initiated at around 12 noon with an inaugural song,followed by a speech by Mr. Dipyaman Adhikary, the Assistant Secretary of MASUM. At around 12.45 PM, a few policemen in plain clothes arrived at the venue and stated that they are from Hastings Police Station. They however produced no identity of who exactly they were. They asked Mr.Roy to stop using the microphone in the event as no prior permission to use plugged sound hadbeen taken. The HRDsinformedthemthat an email seeking permission to organise the event was sent to the Commissioner, Joint Commissioner, Deputy Commissioners and Hastings Police Station of Kolkata on November 28, 2019. However, no response was received from any of the officers. The policemen (who were without their uniform) who had not produced their identity cards then said that they will not allow the HRDsto continue with the event by using microphone without the written permissionof the police. However,they allowed the use of megaphone provided the members visit the Hastings Police Station immediately and submit a written application regarding the usage. The members of MASUM refused to go to the police station.As according to requirements of Section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, there should be a registration of FIR and a proper notice should be served if a police officer requires attendance ofwitnesses in the police station. The police personnel then backed off a little andaskedthe HRDsto write an application there itself, which they wouldtake to the police station andpermission to use microphone wouldbe granted subsequently.As a token of protestand given that MASUM had already communicated on November 28, 2019,members of MASUMrefused to submit the application and decided to continue the event without plugged sound. The event was initiated again with a megaphone and continued till 6:30 PM. HRDA would like to mention that at the same time two other events were also going on where loud sound was played; one just across the road at 'Mohor Kunja' and another behind the arena of victims at'Nandan' premise.The Human Rights Fair organised by MASUM is a prestigious event organised every year with an aimto bring together various civil society organisations, dignitaries and professionals to display their publications. Justice (retd.) Asok Ganguly, former judge of the Supreme Court of India,also inaugurated two of his books during the event. Under the present circumstances,we strongly protest the autocratic and tyrannical actions of the police in order to suppress a human rights eventon exactly the International Human Rights Day. It is anirony that a peaceful human rights event was hampered on the auspicious occasion of Human Rights Day by the state forces. The action of the police is violative of fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression and freedom of peaceful assembly as provided by Article 19 of the Indian Constitutionand upheld in all the recent standards developed by the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

On 10 December 2019, some staff from MASUM, a propmient NGO, was hindered by the police from holding a human rights event in Kolkata, India.

According to the information received on 10 December, 2019 Uttar Pradesh police registered an FIRagainst 20 namedand 500 other unnamed student human right defendersof Aligarh Muslim University in Civil Lines police station, Aligarh in connection with their protest against the passage of the controversialCitizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Indian Parliamentand the proposed implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country.On 10 December, 2019 evening, the AMU students took out apeaceful protest march from the University Library totheBab-E-Sayyed gate, varsity's designated spot for protests and public meetings.According to the AMU studentstheir protestwas totallypeaceful and it’s their democratic right to raise voice against Citizenship Amendment Bill(CAB)which is not just against the letter and spirit of the Constitution but is designed to polarise Indian people on communal lines and divide the country.Students were demanding the immediate withdrawal of the bill.According to the police,casesagainst the students werefiled for defying prohibitory orders under Section 144 which prohibits gathering of more than four people, and holding a protest near Faiz Gate in the campus.According to the police the students had violated this provision by marching up to the University Circle and trying to disturb the peace.The Police FIR saysthe provisions ofSection 144 had been in effect since November 8, 2019, and thestudents had beencharged under Sections under Section 144 (Joining unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon), 147 (Punishment for rioting), 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of Indian Penal Codeby the District Administration.Sources informed that one of the coordinators of the peaceful protest march Mr. Sharjeel Usmani was threatened by the local police and he was told that he would be charged under National Security Act (NSA) if he fails to withdraw himself from the student activism.The controversial Citizenship Bill has sparked protests and agitations across the country, with many calling it "unconstitutional" and against the secular idea of India. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, was passed with a majority of 311 votes against 80 votes in Lok Sabha, the Lower House of Indian Parliamenton December 9, 2019.The Bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Zoroastrian communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who entered Indiaon or before December 31, 2014. It thereby extendsan opportunity for grant of citizenship to select minority communities of select neighbouring nations. According to the protesting students the Citizenship Amendment Bill’s blatant exclusion of a community is discriminatory and divisivebecause the bill leavesout refugees such as Rohingyas from Myanmar or Tamils from Sri Lanka or Ahmadiyyas from Pakistan. The amendments by giving special privileges to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jain, Parsis and Christians from these three countries, single out Muslims for exclusion.Students say the focus on only three countries shows as if these constitute the only possiblesources of asylum-seekers. By distinguishing illegal immigrants on the basis of religion, the bill violates the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution —including Articles 14,15, 16 and 21 which guarantee the right to equality; equality before the law; and non-discriminatory treatment by the Indian state.

On 10 December 2019, over 500 students were sued by the police for orgainsing a peaceful protest in Aligarh, India.

A former reporter for Voice TV in Thailand was sentenced to two years’ jail by a Lopburi court on Tuesday, December 24, for tweeting about the exploitation of workers at a local poultry farm in 2017. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the Thailand court ruling and demands charges to be dropped.

Suchanee (Cloitre) Rungmuenporn was sued by Thammakaset Co, a poultry supplier to Thai agribusiness giant Betagro. Following the verdict, she was granted bail and will appeal the verdict. Cloitre is one of more than 20 journalists, workers and activists targeted and sued by the company in legal proceedings.

Suchanee, who worked for Voice TV at the time, posted a retweet post former Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN) advisor Andy Hall in September 2017 that detailed an order by Thailand’s Supreme Court for the owners of Thammakaset to provide compensation of THB 1.7 million (USD 56,000) to 14 workers from Myanmar. Her post appeared together with a copy of the verdict by Thailand’s Appeals Court, with the word 'slavery' added to the post.

In 2016, Thammakaset sued some of its workers after they reported they had been forced to work up to 20 hours a day without a day off, for at least 40 days in a row. The workers also received below minimum wage and were not paid overtime compensation. In order to restrict the movement of the workers, the company also allegedly confiscated the workers’ identity documents. Thammakaset also sued a labor activist and two workers after they used time cards as evidence in the case against it. The company subsequently lost both cases. The Department of Labor Protection and Welfare of Thailand has already ordered Thammakaset to pay compensation amounting to THB 1.7million (USD 56,000).

Thammakaset’s lawyers filed the case against Suchanee, citing in its defence that the company had paid compensation and that the journalist’s use of the word 'slavery' caused harm and had defamed the company.

The Lopburi provincial court released Suchanee on a bail of TBH 75,000 (USD 2,500) after the sentence was handed down. Her lawyer said journalist, who is mother of an 8-month-old son, would appeal the verdict.

On 24 December 2019, Suchanee Rungmuenporn, journalist, was sentenced to 2-year jail term for online posting by the Provincial Court of Lopburi, Thailand.

A blogger in Kyrgyzstan who wrote about corruption on social media is facing charges of inter-regional incitement, Human Rights Watch said today. The blogger, Aftandil Zhorobekov, was detained on November 24, 2019 by Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security (GKNB) and held in pretrial detention until being placed under house arrest on December 5, with the charges against him still standing.

The national security agency said that Zhorobekov, the 34-year-old administrator of a Facebook page called “BespredelKG” – “lawlessness” in Russian – had posted “knowingly false and provocative information meant to discredit the current authorities,” which “resulted in the agitation of hateful feelings” among visitors to the page. Incitement carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison. The Kyrgyzstan authorities should drop the charges against him.

“The authorities in Kyrgyzstan are using bogus incitement charges as a pretext to punish Zhorobekov for his controversial posts about government figures,” said Laura Mills, a Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “His arrest sets a dangerous precedent that anyone could be held criminally liable for criticizing public figures, or for the offending speech of others.

A court-issued warrant published by media outlets said that Zhorobekov first attracted law enforcement attention for a post in which he accused the president and his allies of corruption. Separately, the national security agency sent media outlets various screenshots pertaining to the case, which included snapshots of posts about Kyrgyz politicians as well as comments posted by visitors to the page.

Law enforcement agencies’ repeated references to Zhorobekov’s writing about government figures underscore concerns that, since the claims of incitement are unsubstantiated, their real intent is to muzzle a critical voice. Politicians in Kyrgyzstan regularly target critical journalists or media outlets with damaging lawsuits, but defamation appropriately carries no criminal punishment. In this case, the authorities are holding Zhorobekov criminally liable for the actions of others – those who posted offensive comments on his Facebook page.

The charges against Zhorobekov violate Kyrgyzstan’s human rights obligations, including as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which protects freedom of expression. The ICCPR allows for certain restrictions on expression, including in response to “incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.” But any laws restricting freedom of expression must comply with the principle of legal certainty, in that they are sufficiently clear and precise to ensure people are able to reasonably foresee the consequences of their actions and regulate their conduct in relation to the law. Restrictions can also only be imposed to the extent that they are a proportionate and necessary response to protect the interest at stake. The misuse of incitement charges against Zhorobekov to achieve an ulterior, impermissible motive – that of silencing a critic – fails to meet these criteria.

The charges against Zhorobekov demonstrate how Kyrgyzstan’s broad definition of incitement can be used to chill freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said. In March, the authorities detained a couple who held up posters condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin outside the Russian Embassy in Bishkek and charged them with inciting national hatred, though the charges were later dropped. A teacher accused of incitement for anti-Russian comments online was acquitted in May.

Zhorobekov’s family said that they were unaware of any previous expression of concern from the authorities regarding the content on his social media pages. They said his apartment was searched in the days after his arrest.

“The ability to express critical opinions is fundamental to freedom of expression,” Mills said. “The authorities in Kyrgyzstan should immediately drop the criminal charges against Zhorobekov, lift his house arrest, and ensure the statute on incitement isn’t used abusively again in the future.”

On 5 December 2019, Aftandil Zhorobekov, blogger, was put under house arrest by the police while facing criminal charges for online posting in Kyrgyzstan.

Sath Chanbuth, a Rasmei Kampuchea Daily and Apsara TV journalist, appeared for questioning on Monday at the Mondulkiri provincial court on allegations of incitement and defamation in line with a lawsuit filed by Lieutenant Colonel Sophat Serivuthy.

The defendant was questioned by Mondulkiri provincial court prosecutor Eang Sokun over a video he released where he interviewed about 10 indigenous families of O’Raing district’s Dak Dam commune who accused Serivuthy of planting fence posts in an attempt to grab their land.

“The court must conduct a proper [and fair] investigation. I disseminated correct information and have a reliable source from among the residents,” Chanbuth said.

Mondulkiri provincial court prosecutor Mam Vanda said the questioning was a primary procedure to collect further evidence regarding the allegations filed by the plaintiff.

“We questioned him because we wanted to collect evidence regarding the complaint. We allowed relevant parties to show evidence. The defendant can testify and the plaintiff has the burden to prove the defendant’s guilt.

“A summons is a procedure of the court. But I don’t know yet when the court will summon him. We’ll have to check his testimony first,” he said.

The plaintiff’s lawyer Seng Singheng told The Post on Monday that in July this year, Chanbuth allegedly disseminated false information accusing his client of land encroachment. Serivuthy was said to have asked Chanbuth to amend his report and take down the video but the latter refused to do so.

“I expect the court will process it in accordance with the legal procedure,” he said.

Alliance of Cambodian Journalists (CamboJa) founder May Titthara said the plaintiff should have issued a statement to correct the report instead of taking the matter to court.

He said legal action against journalists posed a threat to freedom of the press.

“As a journalist, he [Chanbuth] must find relevant documents and credible sources to support his allegations [against Serivuthy]. He should also seek legal advice from a lawyer,” Titthara said.

Serivuthy could not be reached for comment.

On 2 December 2019, Sath Chanbuth, journalist, was summoned for questioning after reporting a land grabbing case affecting IP by the Court of Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia.

Aluthgama Police were yet to arrest the suspects identified in connection with the assault of Daily Mirror /Lankadeepa Aluthgama Correspondent Thusitha Kumara de Silva and his wife on Friday night, over an alleged exposure of artificial toddy mafia in the Kalutara District.

A large number of Kalutara District journalists representing mainstream print and electronic media organisations staged a silent demonstration yesterday afternoon demanding Aluthgama Police to bring the culprits of this attack to book without delay.

Thusitha Kumara and his wife who had been rushed to Aluthgama Base Hospital in a traumatic condition with assaults to their heads and body with clubs on Friday night had later been transferred to Kalutara General Hospital in Nagoda on Saturday. The journo and his wife who were away from home on a personal matter had rushed back hearing that an armed gang had stormed their house and was attacking it around 7.00 p.m. Friday (06). Their son was the only occupant at home during the incident. When the couple reached the scene about 10 to 15 men armed with clubs had started attacking them with threatening “you were the one who wrote about the artificial toddy industry in newspapers and exposed us”.
The gang had soon left the scene leaving the wounded couple behind who were rushed to the hospital by the neighbours.
Thusitha Kumara had lodged a complaint with the Aluthgama Police regarding the assault and had given details of five of the gang as identified to be residents of the same area. His mobile phone and cash amounting to Rs.4,800 had also been missing in the attack.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, National Organiser of Independent Media Foundation of Kalutara Suresh Wijeyarangana said the district journalists gathered in solidarity to demand justice to Thusitha Kumara and his wife.

He said Thusitha was renowned for his brave reporting against illegal artificial toddy manufacturers in the area, where several large scale detections were made by the Police Special Task Force (STF) personnel a few months back and seized 40,000 litres of chemical toddy in Aluthgama.

The demonstration was held to urge the law enforcement authorities to secure the lives of journalists who fight against this illegal and artificial toddy industry in the area carried out by the goons of top politicians and some leading underworld figures of Kosgama area.

Meanwhile, the Aluthgama Police had searched the houses of the five identified suspects who had reportedly fled the area.

A special police protection has been given to journo Thusitha Kumara and his wife at the hospital as well as to their smashed house in Hettimulla. JVP Parliamentarian Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa also took part in the demonstration.

On 6 December 2019, Thusitha Kumara de Silva, journalist, and his wife were brutally beaten and threatened, and their house was raided by a group of armed men as result of investigative reporting in Kalutara, Sri Lanka.

An Indonesian prosecutor charged five men and a woman with treason on Thursday, accusing them of organizing a protest in Jakarta demanding independence for the easternmost province of Papua.

The peaceful protest of about 100 people had been held outside the presidential palace and military headquarters on Aug. 28 and followed a period of unrest in Papua.

Prosecutor P. Permana read out the indictment in the Central Jakarta court saying the six defendants had organized a rally demanding the Indonesian government allow a vote in Papua to let it separate from Indonesia One of the six waved the "Morning Star" flag, while dancing and singing, the indictment said. The flag is a banned symbol of Papuan nationhood.

"The action by the defendants is treason with the aim to separate Papua province and West Papua province from the unitary state of Indonesia," said Permana.

There was a small protest outside the court on Thursday held by pro-Papuan activists calling for the release of the six.

The six could face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.

A hearing for the defense is due on Jan. 2, but the six have said it was their constitutional right to participate in the rally.

Resource-rich Papua was a Dutch colony that was incorporated into Indonesia after a controversial U.N.-backed referendum in 1969. The region has since endured decades of mostly low-level separatist conflict.

On 19 December 2019, six indigenous people, including 5 male HRDs and one WHRD, were charged with treason for organising a protest by a prosecutor in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Uttar Pradesh Police assaulted activist Deepak Kabir and imprisoned him in Lucknow on Friday after he went to a police station to inquire about some people missing since an anti-Citizenship Act protest the day before, his wife Veena Rana has claimed. The 48-year-old was arrested on charges of rioting and preventing public servants from performing their duty, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday, quoting a relative.

Rana met Kabir in the prison on Sunday and posted an update on Facebook. She said she had no information about Kabir till Saturday. Rana claimed Kabir’s phone was snatched away, he was beaten up in the name of interrogation, and was sent to jail late on Friday night.

Rana said Kabir rarely takes medicines, but in jail he asked her for a painkiller.

The relative The Telegraph talked to said Kabir was assaulted with “batons and rifle butts” by six policemen. The police allegedly asked him why he was concerned about “criminals”. The activist’s bail plea will be heard on Tuesday.

Dhirendra Kushwaha, the station house officer at Hazratganj, alleged that Kabir was “involved in violent protests and created a scene while we were working.”

However, according to The Times of India, Kabir was among several persons who were arrested on the basis of interrogation of three suspected office-bearers of Islamic fundamentalist outfit Popular Front of India. On Sunday, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma had blamed the organisation for the violence in Lucknow.

Lucknow Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani told reporters that those arrested initially, including the group’s state President Wasim Ahmad, had confessed to their involvement in the violence. “Based on their confessions, we have arrested a few others who mobilised crowds for the protests and perpetrated violence,” he added.

On the arrests made later, including that of Kabir, Naithani said: “Their call data records and messaging apps showed that they were in regular touch with PFI’s UP unit office-bearers since December 8 and mobilised crowds for the protests using social media.”

Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav tweeted that Kabir had joined a peaceful protest on December 19 in Hazratganj. He shared a copy of a first information report in which Kabir’s name was added at the end by hand in a list of accused booked under several criminal charges.

Kabir, who is a poet and theatre actor, organises the Kabir Festival in Lucknow every year. Social activists Robin Verma and Sadaf Jafar have also been arrested by the state police.

On 20 December 2019, Deepak Kabir, social activist, was arrested after inquiring about missing activists, and was allegedly beaten by the police in Lucknow, India.

Despite widespread outrage over the arrest of actress, politician and activist Sadaf Jafar during Thursday's massive protest against the amended Citizenship Act in Lucknow and allegations of severe assault in the custody, the police have claimed that they have "enough proof" against her.

Ms Jafar was arrested from Lucknow's Parivartan Chowk where a government bus, media vans and private vehicles were set on fire after the protests spiraled out of control. She was live on Facebook, showing the destruction in the area, when cops caught her.

In the video that she shared on Facebook, Ms Jafar is heard asking why only a few cops were on duty in the area despite a huge turnout of protesters.

A woman constable can be seen forcefully grabbing her. "Aap mujhe kaise giraftaar kar rahe hain... jinhone pathar phenka hai unko to tum pakad nahin paaye (Why are you arresting me.... Those who were throwing stones, you could not arrest them)," she can be heard asking the cop. "Tumhare saath they na woh buddhe (Those old men were with you. Weren't they?)", the constable then asks her.

Ms Jafar's family has alleged that she was taken to a police station in the area, assaulted by cops and then sent to the prison after a medical examination. "I saw her in so much pain. She was hurting because she was beaten with batons, kicked in belly... she had started bleeding," her sister Naheed said in a statement after visiting her in prison.

The UP Police have denied assault and said they have "enough proof" against her. "She was with the rioters and we arrested her from the site of protest. We followed protocol and got her medical test done. We have enough proof against her and allegations against the police are baseless," senior police officer Suresh Chandra Rawat said in a statement released on Twitter.

Acclaimed director Mira Nair also demanded the release of "A Suitable Boy" actress. "This is our India now - Appalling: our #SuitableBoy actress, Sadaf Jafar, beaten and jailed for peaceful protest in Lucknow! Join me in demanding her release," she wrote on Twitter.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also tweeted about her arrest, accusing the police of oppression. "Our party worker Sadaf Zafar was telling the cops to catch unruly elements, but the UP Police beat her up badly and arrested her. She has two children. This is high-handedness (zyaadtee) and this type of oppression will not work," she tweeted last night.

Among others arrested in Lucknow over Thursday's clashes include Mohd Shoaib, a 76-year-old human rights lawyer, and SR Darapuri, a former IPS officer and noted theatre artist Deepak Kabir.

Multiple reports have emerged of the police picking up bystanders in the protests and those who were protesting peacefully.

"My brother, 22-year-old Faiz Ahmed Khan, was picked up by the police along with two other friends - Syed Fahad and Mohd Saifal - when he was returning from the protests at the Parivartan Chowk in Lucknow on Thursday. He and his friends were demonstrating peacefully. They did not resort to any violence . When they were returning, a policeman asked them for their names. They were then forcibly arrested... they had no stones or any weapon on them. We are trying to get legal help," said Noor Saba, sister of one of the protesters.

On 19 December 2019, Sadaf Jafar, WHRD, was arrested and beaten by the police for live streaming a protest in Lucknow, India.

Lucknow based senior lawyer and president of human rights group Rihai Manch, Mohammad Shoaib, has gone untraceable in police custody, claimed his family members and close friends. He was detained by the UP police ahead of the scheduled nationwide protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

“First, he was put under house arrest, later he was detained by the police. However, the police kept misleading us about his whereabouts. They have not disclosed his location yet,” said his colleague Rajiv Yadav of Rihai Manch over the phone on Friday morning.

“Police have not named Shoaib in any FIR. Some said he was taken to the Qaisar Bagh station, while others said he was detained at the Cantonment Police station or at the Hazratganj station,” added Yadav.

According to Yadav, Shoaib was detained around 11.45 pm on Thursday night. Two police personnel were also sent to his house a few hours later to collect his medicines.

Along with Shoaib, activist Sadaf Jafar and scores of other activists were arrested by the police. “She is also untraceable. We don’t know anything about her despite her arrest,” said Yadav who is also facing a case for protesting against CAA. Apart from Shoaib, Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey and retired IPS officer SR Darapuri were also under house arrest by UP police.

The Uttar Pradesh police had on Wednesday issued notices to more than 3,000 people across the state, cautioning them to not participate in protests against the CAA.

“I am asked not to move out and three policemen are at my gate,” Shoaib was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times. Shoaib along with 3000 people was served with a notice by police, advising them not to take part in anti-CAA protest.

On 19 December 2019, Mohammad Shoib , senior lawyer, was detained by the police in an undisclosed location ahead of a protest in Lucknow, India.

The Cambodian authorities should immediately drop fabricated incitement charges against two former Cambodia Daily journalists, Human Rights Watch said today.

On December 13, the Rattanakiri provincial court set December 25 as the first trial date for Aun Pheap, 55, and Zsombor Peter, 41. Neither currently live in Cambodia. Their lawyer said he had never received notification from the court that the investigation had been completed and a trial was imminent.

“The decision to take Pheap and Peter’s case to trial seems intended to intimidate all of Cambodia’s journalists,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Prosecutors should drop these bogus charges and the government should end its efforts to restrict press freedom by criminalizing independent reporting.”

On August 28, 2017, the Rattanakiri provincial prosecutor filed “incitement to commit a felony” charges against both journalists. If convicted under articles 494 and 495 of Cambodia’s criminal code, they face up to two years in prison. Aun Pheap had been working as a reporter and Zsombor Peter as a reporter and associate editor at the Cambodia Daily. Both left Cambodia because of fears of being arbitrarily arrested and detained.

The case arose out of Pheap and Peter’s interviews with registered voters in Rattanakiri province prior to the Pate commune council elections on June 4, 2017. In 2012, Pate had been the only commune in the province that elected opposition political party candidates, leading local officials to tell journalists not to interview local residents. When Pheap and Peter refused the demand, the officials accused them of inciting voters to support the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

In June 2017, Pheap and Peter won the Excellence in Investigative Reporting award from the Society of Publishers in Asia for their reporting on military involvement in Cambodia’s illegal timber trade. Both had frequently written about illegal logging and government corruption in Rattanakiri and other provinces in Cambodia.

Government harassment of independent journalists has increased over the past two years, Human Rights Watch said. In July, Rattanakiri provincial authorities issued a letter demanding that all journalists report to them with identification and inform officials of their intentions before reporting on any stories in the province, VOD reported.

Two Radio Free Asia journalists, Uon Chin and Yeang Sothearin, continue to face baseless espionage charges, after being arbitrarily arrested and detained in 2017. While they were released under judicial supervision, the charges have not been dropped. On October 3, a judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to convict them, but instead of dismissing the case, sent it back for re-investigation. On January 20, 2020, the Court of Appeal will hear Chin’s and Sothearin’s appeals of that decision.

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government has attacked and shut down independent media outlets. In September 2017, the Cambodia Daily, one of the country’s longstanding independent local newspapers, was forcibly shut after being handed a dubious unpaid tax bill of US$6.3 million. In May 2018, the government coerced the sale of the last independent local newspaper, the Phnom Penh Post, to a Malaysian businessman with reported ties to the Cambodian government by imposing a similarly questionable unpaid tax bill of US$3.9 million. The newspaper was subsequently transferred to a ruling Cambodian People’s Party member.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) closed its office in Phnom Penh in September 2017, after 20 years of operations in Cambodia, citing threats to its staff. A few days after RFA’s office closure, the Interior Ministry threatened journalists who had worked for RFA with legal action if they continued reporting for RFA.

“Cambodia’s persecution of journalists is sending a message that independent, investigative reporting is not only unwelcome, but could get you thrown in jail,” Robertson said. “The European Union and other foreign governments should publicly call for these charges to be dismissed and urge the government to allow journalists to do their jobs without harassment.”

On 13 December 2019, two former journalist were scheduled the first trial date of a criminal case on fabricated charges by the local court of Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia.

The Maldivian Democracy Network has challenged the government’s “arbitrary and unilateral” decision to ban the human rights NGO over content in a 2016 report that was deemed slanderous and contrary to the tenets of Islam.

The community empowerment ministry de-registered MDN on November 5 and instructed the rights group to settle its debts and matters related to its property within 45 days. The formal dissolution was announced last Thursday with the ministry saying MDN did not respond at all within the 45-day period.

But MDN called the claim “a blatant untruth” in a statement on Friday. The NGO said it had sought clarification on several legal issues a day after the announcement and informed the ministry that it could not comply with the de-registration directive without an explanation.

MDN contended that the directive was illegal and a “gross violation” of constitutional rights to be informed of allegations and to reply and defend itself, accusing the ministry of denying “basic fairness and procedural propriety.”

The unprecedented move to ban an NGO came after the Islamic ministry and police concluded that MDN’s ‘Preliminary Assessment of Radicalisation in the Maldives’ mocked Islam and Prophet Mohamed. The 2003 associations law prohibits NGOs from contradicting tenets of Islam or undermining religious unity, the community empowerment ministry said in November.

Religious scholars launched a campaign to ban MDN in early October after screenshots of the report were widely shared on social media. More than 140 out of 200 local councils backed the calls and protest marches took place on several islands. On October 10, the government suspended the NGO after the Islamic ministry asked police to investigate but the campaign continued unabated and opposition parties seized upon the cause with protests of their own.

The decision to formally dissolve MDN has been welcomed by Jumhooree Party leader Gasim Ibrahim, Maldives Reform Movement leader and former president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and religious scholars from the Adhaalath Party – three partners of the ruling coalition led by the Maldivian Democratic Party of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Parliament Speaker Mohamed Nasheed.

In its statement, MDN urged the authorities to share a copy of the investigative report produced by the police and Islamic ministry “in order to contest this apparent unfair treatment and violation of the inalienable right to freedom of association.”

Alleging the presence of radical elements within the police and Islamic ministry, MDN argued that there was a “high conflict of interest when the government’s decision to ban MDN followed a social media smear campaign by radical and extremist religious groups, followed by a complaint filed against MDN at the police by the Islamic Ministry, the investigation having been conducted by the police jointly with the Islamic Ministry, with the exclusion of MDN, to review the content of the report without due process and an absolutely silent government when asked to explain.”

It added: “MDN has worked to protect and promote democracy and the fundamental rights of the people of the Maldives for the past fifteen years, and believe that the Government of Maldives has colluded with radicalised religious groups to eliminate the organisation due to our legitimate efforts to advocate for human rights and counter violent extremism in the Maldives.”

On 19 December, the prominent human rights NGO Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN) was formally dissolved by the Government in response of a report published in 2016 in Malè, the Maldives.

On 09 December 2019, around seventy heavily armed rangers raided human rights defender Arfan Wattana’s house in the Narathiwat Province of Thailand at 12:30am. Arfan Wattana was present at his home along with his family when the incident took place. Four days later, the grounds for the raid have still not been communicated.Arfan Wattana is a prominent Patani leader and human rights defender predominantly working in the region of Patani, one of the most militarized regions in Asia which has been under martial law for the past 15 years. He currently works as assistant of foreign affairs at an NGO, The Patani organisation. In his capacity, Arfan Wattana advocates for Patani issues at the international level. He is a vocal critic of Thailand’s assimilation policies in Patani and the recipient of the Young Southeast Asia Leaders Initiative scholarship.On 9 December 2019, a little after midnight, Arfan Wattana’s house was raided while he and his family of nine were at home. About 70 rangers in fifteen cars surrounded his house and asked the human rights defender and his family to exit the house. The raid was led by the 48th ranger forces regiment along with the Department of Special Investigations. All of the family, including two young children and his ailing older parents were asked to leave the house while it was being raided. The human rights defender requested that the children be allowed to sleep, but no regard was given to the request. The officers then began to photograph Arfan Wattana and in return, the human rights defendertook photographs of the officials, at which point one of themsnatched his phone away and deleted all the photos on it. Arfan Wattana was further threatened that he would be taken to the military base if he tried to resist the raid. The raid took place over a two hour period and ended with the human rights defender having to sign a few documents. In addition to this, the officers also took copies of his and his family’s ID. Due to the Martial Law in place in the region, the military have been able to exercise their authority with no checks. According to Section 8 of the Martial Law Act, “the military authority shall have full power of search, compulsory requisition, prohibition, seizure, staying in, destruction or alteration of any place and turning out of persons”. Police and military officers can also “cordon off, search, arrest and detain persons without having to establish search warrants or arrest warrants issued by the Court”.This is not the first time that Arfan Wattana’s house has been raided. Since 2007, Arfan’s house has been searched 10 times by the police or military on account of his involvement in student activism calling for the respect of human rights and the Patani’s right to self determination.It has become increasingly common for Patani leaders to be arbitrarily detained, tortured or killed over the past years. To add to this climate of fear, the region is closely watched by a military force which is guarded by impunity laws so, despite the alarming human rights violations, no military officials have ever been prosecuted.

On 9 December 2019, Arfan Wattana, community-based HRD, had his family house raided at night time by 70 policemen as result of his work in Narathiwat Province, Thailand.

Over a dozen Chinese lawyers and activists were detained or went missing in the final days of 2019 in a crackdown on participants of a private democracy gathering, rights groups said Thursday.

The Chinese government has severely reduced the space for civil liberties since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, rounding up rights lawyers, labour activists and even Marxists students in various sweeps.

The latest crackdown was linked to a December gathering in the east coast city of Xiamen in Fujian province, where participants discussed “democratic transition in China,” said Human Rights Watch researcher Wang Yaqiu.

The period around Christmas and New Year is traditionally when China chooses to sentence prominent dissidents in an effort to minimise international media attention, “so it is not a surprise that they chose this particular time to launch a manhunt of activists,” Wang said.

The meeting involved a small group of people “peacefully discussing politics in a private space,” she said.

Ding Jiaxi, a prominent Beijing-based disbarred lawyer previously jailed for protesting against official corruption, was among the activists known to have been detained across the country since December 26, according to China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD).

At least seven people, including Shandong-based disbarred lawyer Liu Shuqing, were released after being detained for questioning.

Other civil society figures, including pro-democracy activist Xu Zhiyong and human rights lawyer Tang Jingling, have gone missing or are currently unreachable, CHRD said.

At least two of the people detained, activists Dai Zhenya and Zhang Zhongshun, are suspected of “subverting” or “inciting subversion” of state power, a charge often used to silence dissidents in China.

The crackdown showed how the authorities have “zero tolerance of even just private discussion on issues like democracy and human rights,” Amnesty International researcher Patrick Poon said.

According to CHRD, five activists were taken in for questioning by Jinhua city police in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, on December 29, after having had dinner with someone who attended the Xiamen gathering.

Another lawyer, Lu Tingge, was held overnight for questioning on New Year’s Eve by police in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, CHRD said.

Police in Shandong province, whom CHRD said were heavily involved in the crackdown, as well as Jinhua and Shijiazhuang police, did not respond immediately to AFP’s requests for comment.

“This round of detentions and harassment is the continuation of the larger crackdown on civil society,” Wang said.

On December 30, a court in southwest China’s Chengdu sentenced Wang Yi, the leader of an underground Protestant church, to nine years in prison for “incitement to subvert state power.”

Over a dozen Chinese lawyers and activists were detained or went missing in the final days of 2019 in a crackdown on participants of a private democracy gathering, rights groups said Thursday.

SHANGHAI : The pastor of one of China’s best-known unregistered “house” churches was sentenced to nine years in prison on Monday on charges of inciting subversion of state power, part of Beijing’s crackdown on unregistered religious groups.

Wang Yi, pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church in the southwestern city of Chengdu, was among dozens of the church’s members and leaders detained by police in December 2018, most of whom were subsequently released.

China’s constitution guarantees religious freedom, but since President Xi Jinping took office six years ago, the government has tightened restrictions on religions seen as a challenge to the authority of the ruling Communist Party.

The government has cracked down on underground churches, both Protestant and Catholic, and has rolled out new legislation to increase oversight of religious education and practices, with harsher punishment for practices not sanctioned by authorities.

“Today’s verdict makes a mockery of China’s supposed religious freedoms,” Amnesty International China researcher Patrick Poon said in a statement.

“Wang Yi was merely practising his religion and peacefully standing up for human rights in China. This nine-year sentence is appalling and unjust.”

Chinese law requires that places of worship register and submit to government oversight, but some have declined to register, for various reasons, and are known as “house” or “underground” churches.

Wang was profiled in Beijing-based journalist Ian Johnson’s 2017 book The Souls of China, and was also among three Chinese Christians who travelled to Washington in 2006, where they met with then-president George W. Bush, asking for his support in their fight for religious freedom.

An unusually outspoken religious figure, he has openly criticised Xi and wrote in an essay before his detention that Communist Party ideology was “morally incompatible with the Christian faith”.

Quotes attributed to him on a Facebook page run by the church’s supporters’ include one that said, “the Communist Party may kill my body but it cannot kill my soul.”

Wang’s sentencing was announced in a brief statement on the website of the Chengdu court, which said he had been charged with illegally operating a business.

Wang was also deprived of his political rights for three years and 50,000 yuan ($7,160) of his personal property was confiscated as part of his sentencing, the court said.

In 2009, China sentenced Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”. Liu, a writer and activist, died in prison in 2017 after being denied permission to go abroad for treatment of late-stage liver cancer.

On 30 December 2019, The pastor of one of China’s best-known unregistered “house” churches was sentenced to nine years in prison on Monday on charges of inciting subversion of state power, part of Beijing’s crackdown on unregistered religious groups.

A labor rights worker, a volunteer and an intern were reported incommunicado in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Thursday, while mainland Chinese activists who took part in the Hong Kong protests were sent for "drug rehabilitation," RFA has learned.

Chen Weixiang, who worked for the Xin Huanwei group focusing on labor rights for street cleaners and sanitation workers, was detained on the afternoon of Dec. 17 by police at his home in Guangzhou, a person familiar with the situation told RFA.

Recent graduate and intern Lu Haoju was detained at the same time, the source said.

Yang Zhanqing, a friend of Chen's, said Chen was detained by officers from the Nanshitou Street police station in Guangzhou's Haizhu district.

"We don't know what the charges are or where they are being held," Yang said. "We have had no news so far."

He said a third person -- a volunteer -- linked to Xin Huanwei was also incommunicado, believed detained.

"One of my former classmates, she was involved in [Chen's] project, and she is now out of touch," Yang said. "I think they were taken away by Guangzhou police between 4-5 p.m. on Dec. 17. There were three of them."

"My guess is that they are targeting him because of Xin Huanwei, but a more direct reason could be that he recently helped some sanitation workers to stand up for their rights [with legal assistance]," Yang said.

"One instance was a case of wage arrears for sanitation workers, and another was a sanitation worker who got fired, then died, so it became a compensation case," he said. "Both of these cases touched on vested interests in local government."

No tolerance left for civil rights organizations

Chen had only recently returned to China after gaining a master's degree in the United States, Yang said.

But he said the ruling Chinese Communist Party had no tolerance left for civil rights organizations like Chen's.

"According to my experience and that of my former colleagues and people I know, any independent, privately run NGO that stands up for people's rights will be threatened and harassed with detentions and demands that it cease operating," he said.

An officer who answered the phone at the Nanshitou Street police station declined to comment, saying interviews had to be approved at district level.

"If you want an interview, you'll have to go higher up ... the Haizhu police department," the officer said.

Chen Weixiang graduated from Sun Yat-sen University School of Medicine in 2015, but was rejected from further medical training because of his labor activism.

After studying for a master's degree at Penn State University in the United States, he returned to China in August and set up services for sanitation workers, including Xin Huanwei.

'Compulsory detoxification'

Meanwhile, authorities in Guangdong's Dongguan city have detained activist Hu Haibo after he traveled to Hong Kong to support the pro-democracy movement there.

Since his return from Hong Kong, Hu was designated a "drug addict" by police and referred for "compulsory detoxification" at a rehab center last month, fellow activist Chen Yanhui told RFA.

"We are guessing that he may not have been cooperating after being admitted [to rehab] so it was changed to compulsory detoxification," Chen said. "He refused to accept their drugs and injections because he had never done drugs in the first place."

According to the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch website, Hu could be incarcerated for up to two years under the compulsory program.

Chen said Hu's father had visited him at the center on Wednesday, but the visit was controlled and monitored at all times by police, who forced the pair to speak Mandarin rather than their native language.

"Maybe they were worried that Hu would disclose some information about life inside, because he was being treated differently from other drug addicts there," Chen said.

A Hong Kong resident who knew Hu said he had never seen any evidence of drug-taking during their time as roommates.

Reported by Wong Siu-san and Sing Man for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long and Gao Feng for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

On 19 December 2019, A labor rights worker, a volunteer and an intern were reported incommunicado in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Thursday, while mainland Chinese activists who took part in the Hong Kong protests were sent for "drug rehabilitation," RFA has learned.

Vietnamese authorities are blocking defense lawyers from speaking with a journalist detained for criticizing Vietnam’s government, saying that their investigation into the writer’s case has not yet finished, one of the two attorneys told RFA on Thursday.

Independent journalist Pham Chi Dung was detained on Nov. 11 by security officers at his home in Ho Chi Minh City and charged with conducting “anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code.

According to police, Pham wrote anti-state articles and cooperated with foreign media to deliver “distorted information,” with rights group Defend the Defenders saying that Pham had contributed to Voice of America and the BBC, using different pen names.

Pham will be held in detention for at least the next four months as police finish their investigation, and if convicted could face a sentence of seven to 12 years.

Speaking on Thursday to RFA’s Vietnamese Service, defense attorney Manh Dinh Dang said that prosecutors informed him and fellow lawyer Mieng Van Nguyen on Dec. 16 that they can confer with their client only when investigators have finished their work.

“This limits lawyers’ ability to get involved,” Manh said, adding that lawyers’ access to their clients is typically restricted under Vietnamese law in cases of “national security,” with some cases dragging on for years.

Also speaking to RFA, former political prisoner Dai Van Nguyen, who was arrested on Dec. 16, 2015 on identical charges, said that he had immediately asked for a lawyer’s help when police officers invaded his home to conduct a search.

“But a representative from the prosecutor’s office presented a document saying this would not allowed until the police investigation was completed,” Dai said.

“This practice is stipulated in the Criminal Code, but it violates Vietnam’s constitution, which makes no distinction between ‘national security’ violations and ordinary [criminal] ones."

According to Vietnam’s constitution, detainees have the right to meet with lawyers, and lawyers have the right to defend their clients, Dai said.

“However, the Criminal Code doesn’t allow for this,” he said.

Pressured to admit guilt

Speaking to RFA, activist Kha Nguyen Dinh, who was freed from prison in October 2018 after serving a six-year term for handing out leaflets criticizing government policy over disputed islands in the South China Sea, said he too had been denied the right to see a lawyer following his arrest.

“I was not allowed to contact anyone, and I had no legal consultation,” Kha said.

“Only after I had been led to say things they wanted to hear was I allowed to see a lawyer,” Kha said, adding that barring access to lawyers during police investigations makes it easier for officials to pressure detainees to admit their “guilt” or make other statements against their interests.

Vietnam has been consistently rated “Not Free” in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group.

Dissent is not tolerated in the communist nation, and authorities routinely use a set of vague provisions in the penal code to detain dozens of writers and bloggers.

Estimates of the number of prisoners of conscience now held in Vietnam’s jails vary widely, with Human Rights Watch putting the number in October at 138. The rights group Defend the Defenders meanwhile puts the number as at least 240, with 36 convicted this year alone.

Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Richard Finney.

On 26 December 2019, Vietnamese authorities are blocking defense lawyers from speaking with a journalist detained for criticizing Vietnam’s government, saying that their investigation into the writer’s case has not yet finished, one of the two attorneys told RFA on Thursday.

A day after Chennai Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan said that the police would probe the Pakistani links of advocate Gayatri Khandhadai, who participated in the anti-CAA kolam protest, she explained that in 2016 she had only filed a report for ‘Bytes for All’ [a Pakistan based advocacy group] highlighting the discrimination faced by religious minorities in nine Asian countries.

“In this report, I have also written about the discrimination faced by Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh. It would have been nice if the police had read the report completely and then addressed the press conference,” she told journalists in Madurai on Thursday.

“By revealing my Facebook profile during the press conference, Chennai City Police have compromised my privacy and security. Chennai City Police Commissioner is responsible for my safety and security,” she said. Ms. Khandhadai denied that she had deleted any content from her Facebook account.

The Commissioner had also said that the police detained anti-CAA protesters only after an elderly person opposed the protesters from drawing kolams in front of his house.

However, Ms. Gayathri contended, “We did not go to that house or meet that person. We did not draw kolams in front of houses that opposed us.”

Henri Tiphagne, founder and executive director of People’s Watch, charged that the police are targeting human rights defenders including Ms. Khandhadai and Arappor Iyakkam and condemned it. “A complaint regarding this has been submitted to the National Human Rights Commission and we will take steps to ensure that the issue was taken by the Bar Council of India,” he said.

Senior advocates T. Lajapathi Roy and M. Ajmal Khan also condemned the police for detaining advocates who went to provide legal aid to the protesters. They stressed that the Bar Council of India must consider the incident suo motu and take necessary action.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri demanded that the police investigation against Ms. Khandhadai’s alleged Pakistan connection be dropped immediately. Mr. Alagiri said she was not associated with any organisation in Pakistan but had only undertaken research for a Pakistan based research organisation. “In the 80-page report filed by her about minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives and Indonesia, there is nothing that is supporting Pakistan. If he finds such a thing in the report, the Police Commissioner must furnish proof,” Mr. Alagiri said.

Mr. Alagiri said the action against Ms. Khandhadai was vindictive on the part of the government and requested the Commissioner to not toe such a line of the rulers.

On 2 January 2020, Police Commissioner in Chennai, India said that the police would probe the Pakistani links of advocate Gayatri Khandhadai, who participated in the anti-CAA kolam protest.

On 17 December 2019, human rights defender Sevan Doraisamy was questioned for an hour by the Royal Malaysian Police in relation to a human rights forum organised by his non-governmental organisation, SUARAM. The forum discussed the effects of the “draconian” Security Offences (Special Measures) Act of 2012.

Sevan Doraisamy is part of the Citizen Action Group On Enforced Disappearance (CAGED), a coalition of 48 civil society groups which was formed at the beginning of May 2017 to monitor cases of enforced disappearances and assist the families of missing victims. He is the executive director of Suara Rakat Malaysia (SUARAM), a non-governmental human rights organisation working on enforced disappearances, the right to trial, and freedom of expression. He also acts as the spokesperson for CAGED.

On 17 December 2019, Sevan Doraisamy was called in for questioning by the Bukit Aman’s Classified Criminal Investigation Unit in relation to a public platform co-hosted by SUARAM. The forum which took place on 25 November 2019, discussed the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act of 2012 (SOSMA), with the intention of educating the public about the oppressive aspects of the law. Particular focus was given to the arrest and detention of twelve alleged Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) members who were charged under the Act. The human rights defender is could be investigated under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code that deals with statements “that induce the public to commit an offence against the state”. If found guilty, Sevan Doraisamy may be punishable with a fine or imprisonment of up to two years.

This is not the first time that Sevan Doraisamy has been investigated for his human rights work. In his five years at SUARAM, the defender has been called in for questioning on ten separate occasions. In October 2019, he was placed under investigation after assisting in a case where victims alleged that they were wrongfully detained and abused during detention. On 16 May 2017, he, along with two fellow human rights defenders, were summoned by police for questioning over a statement they released, alleging that various abductions perpetrated between November 2016 and February 2017 in Malaysia were enforced disappearances. SUARAM and its employees are constantly called in for investigations pertaining to the several platforms and gatherings they organise to promote human rights. The organisation has now called for an open discussion with the inspector-general of police to prevent further intimidation and harassment of those who work in defence of human rights.

Front Line Defenders condemns the repeated and ongoing judicial harassment of human rights defender Sevan Doraisamy, which it believes is solely motivated by his human rights activities. Front Line Defenders believes he is legitimately exercising his right to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression.

On 17 December 2019, Sevan Doraisamy, prominent NGO worker, was questioned by the police for a human rights forum his NGO organised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Authorities in Vietnam Sunday clashed with citizens over a Christmas nativity scene display in a part of Ho Chi Minh City that has been embroiled in a land dispute.

A group of Catholic residents of the Loc Hung Vegetable Garden settlement in Ward 6, the city’s Tan Binh district, were attempting to set up the nativity scene over the weekend, but police, plainclothes security agents and militia were dispatched to the area to prevent the display.

The residents then began to object, saying that authorities were violating their rights to religious freedom.

According to the Facebook account account ‘Vườn rau Lộc Hưng’ (Loc Hung Vegetable Garden’), the incident occurred at 9 a.m. Sunday when the local authorities pulled down a wooden frame that would have been a part of the display.

The Loc Hung residents resumed building their nativity scene in the afternoon, so the authorities came back to stop them.

This caused the residents to resist and authorities arrested Cao Thi Thu, Pham Trung Hieu and Pham Duy Quang for protesting.

The three were released by 10 p.m. that evening.

The nativity display’s statues of Christian religious figures Mary and Joseph were destroyed in the clash.

“Yesterday’s suppression was so brutal,” Pham Duy Quang told RFA’s Vietnamese Service Monday.

“By 3:30 p.m., we had gathered to pray and prepare to set up the nativity scene. After praying, a large force consisting of various Ward 6 agencies showed up to destroy [it],” He said, adding, “They beat us, drove [us] into corners.”

Pham said that the three were accused of inciting a ‘mass gathering to disrupt social order’ and were asked to cooperate in police reports at the Ward 4 police station.

Cao discussed how she was physically assaulted by authorities prior to her arrest.

“We only gathered there to protect the nativity scene,” she said.

“I stood behind to set up, but then a large force came along. I am 58 years old and I have really weak hearing. But I was beaten in the face and trampled,” said Cao.

“I felt a brick from somewhere hit my foot. It was so painful so I picked up the brick and threw it away and began to flee. That’s when they arrested me and accused me of throwing the brick [at them] which is an administrative violation,” she said.

She added that the police asked her to accept either detention or a 750,000 dong (U.S. $32.35) fine, but she refused.

“I replied ‘Absolutely not, I won’t pay even or you detain me, so I signed the report without any fear. I threw the brick because I was in pain from being beaten by them,” she said.

Pham Trung Hieu told RFA that while in detention the three had been threatened.

“Prior to letting us go, they told us that from that time on we should not follow Cao Ha Chanh (a longtime resident of the settlement) or anyone else [from there],” said Pham.

“In my opinion, they were only threatening us because we have been lodging complaints over the past 20 years [because of the land dispute],” he added.

RFA attempted to contact the Ward 6 People’s Committee and the Tan Binh district police Monday but received no reply.

Early this year, the area was a flashpoint in a controversial two-day operation in which authorities demolished at least 112 houses in the settlement claimed by the Catholic Church, displacing hundreds of residents, who sources say are political dissidents. Meanwhile, veterans of the former Army of South Vietnam made their homes in the settlement.

While all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a point of contention as residents accuse the government of pushing small landowners aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation to those whose land is taken.

On 8 December 2019, three community-based HRDs were beaten and detained by the police for setting up a Christmas Nativity scene in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.

PUCL strongly condemns the motivated, targeted and brutal attack by the CRPF and Delhi Police on students of Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi yesterday, Sunday 15th December, 2019 causing serious injuries to over 150 students including girls, and also arrest of scores of students and youngsters. By all media reports and eye witness accounts, the brutal charge of the police forces was unprovoked and unwarranted as the students were peacefully protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and the NRC.

The Vice Chancellor and the Proctor of Jamia Millia Islamia University have come on record that the Police forces entered into the University campus in the evening of 15th December, 2019 without either seeking permission from the University authorities or having been called by the University officials. In fact the police forces are reported to have entered into the Zakir Hussain Library inside JMI University and beat up any young person found there irrespective of whether they had participated in the earlier student protest or were scholars working inside the library. Many girl students have also reported that the police forces put off the lights in the girls hostels so that CC TV Cameras inside the campus will not be able to film and document the sexual harassment. The police forces are reported to have ransacked the hostels and the library, violently beating anyone they found causing severe injuries.

Today, 16.12.2019, media reports that students of Delhi University who protested against the violence unleashed against fellow students of AMU and Jamia Millia were once again beaten mercilessly by the Delhi Police.

Student protests against the CAA and NRC have been reported from across the country and aggressive police action has been reported in states with BJP ruled governments.

PUCL expresses its serious concern over the misuse of the law and legal machinery by the present Central Government to suppress and silence student’s voices and stifle and crush the protests of ordinary citizens against the inequitable and communally discriminatory CAA and NRC. The abuse of police powers and violent use of force to crush dissent seen in the last 2 days in Delhi and other places is part of the growing trend of using brutal police powers to intimidate and stifle any protest to central government policies and if voices are indeed raised, then to crush them through physical, targeted police violence, false prosecution and violent reprisals.

PUCL also strongly condemns the reported statement of the Finance Minister, Ms. Nirmala Seetharaman, who is reported to have stated that we have to be “wary that the student protests are not hijacked by Jihadists, Maoists or separatists”. The attempt of the State to dub and link any citizen’s protest as being Jihadist, Maoist or separatist is done with the aim to not only tarnish the image of the democratic protests but also act as a sinister warning to others to refrain from joining the protests or else they will face arrests as jihadists or terrorists themselves and get embroiled in anti-terrorist law cases.

It is a matter of great regret and is indeed unfortunate, that when mention was made before the Chief Justice’s Bench of the Supreme Court today about the serious threat to life and liberty of students caused by unprovoked police violence against students committed inside the Jamia Millia Islamia University Campus, the Court chose to remark, “Let the rioting stop first … We will determine the rights, but not in this atmosphere of riots … the riots must be stopped” and posted the matter for hearing on Tuesday (17th December). It is distressing to note that even when a grave situation of serious threat to life and liberty of students and protestors existed caused by violent reprisals of the police acting in an unprovoked, brutal manner, the apex court instead of urging the police to act within the confines of law while dealing with the protests, chose to approach the issue as through it was the students who were indulging in riots and refused to intervene immediately.

PUCL is constrained to point out that such an approach of the SC of refraining from taking immediate action when complaint is made to the court of serious threat to life and liberty of citizens, allegedly being committed by the police and Security forces (as in the present case), seems to be part of the recent practice adopted by the apex Court; it is also in line with the Court’s approach seen while dealing with complaints of massive state wide human rights violations committed by Security Forces and police in Kashmir, following the abrogation of Art. 370. PUCL would like to point out that in a situation where the state is the primary violator of human rights, delaying judicial intervention and failing to seek accountability from the State on the ground that the citizen is equally responsible for the conflict situation, unfairly tilts the scales of justice in favour of the state and is a distortion of the Constitutional order and rule of law. In a way of speaking, it also amounts to an abdication by the apex court of its role as the protector of the citizen’s fundamental rights to life, liberty and fundamental freedoms against an all powerful State.

The situation is fast spiraling out of control with a vengeful Central government clearly permitting the police forces to use their brute power to silence, crush and intimidate ordinary citizens from protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the NRC. It is important that citizens across the country should raise their voices demanding the government to immediately stop police action against protestors, provide immediate medical aid to all injured students and drop all criminal cases filed against students of different universities. We also demand an unbiased, independent enquiry into the police action against students of Jamia Millia Islamia University, AMU, Delhi University and other Universities and criminal prosecutions against all policemen found to have violated the laws of the land.

On 15 December 2019, around 150 students of two Muslim Universities were injured, sexually harassed by the police who raided two campuses and arrested a number of them for protesting in New Delhi, India.

Authorities in the Chinese capital detained and questioned a group of rights activists en route to the U.S. embassy in Beijing to participate in an event marking Human Rights Day on Tuesday, RFA has learned.

Wang Heying and a group of fellow petitioners -- people pursuing complaints against misconduct and rights violations by the ruling Chinese Communist Party -- were detained by police on the street after they registered to attend the event online, Wang said.

"This was a public event bringing friends together, an opportunity for the exchange of views," Wang said. "Everyone else got their invitations by using an invitation code they saw online, and registering with their ID. I was directly invited to participate by a friend."

But the group was stopped by a police patrol en route to the embassy, and taken to a nearby police station for questioning, she said.

"There were more than a dozen people at the police station, all of whom had previously lodged complaints against the government," Wang said.

"All petitioners have their ID cards marked with a special code, so they wouldn't be allowed through if there was an ID check. All we did was to lodge a petition ... and now we're labeled as class enemies. I don't get it."

Meanwhile, state security police in Beijing's Shijingshan district warned Xu Yan, wife of detained rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, not to go out ahead of Human Rights Day on Tuesday.

"They came to my door and told me very forcefully that I mustn't go out," Xu told RFA. "They said the restrictions would be in place for four or five days."

Xu, who recently wrote to the Global Lawyers' Forum in Guangzhou calling on overseas lawyers to call for Yu's release or speedy trial, said she was yelled at and shoved by more than a dozen people who surrounded her later, when she tried to leave her apartment.

China a 'bitterly ironic' host

State media said around 800 delegates from around the world attended the forum, which was hosted by the government-controlled All-China Lawyers' Association.

As it opened on Monday, a group of human rights lawyers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the International Bar Association penned an open letter hitting out at the ruling Chinese Communist Party's use of indiscriminate arrest and detention and the forced disappearances of millions of people with no access to legal representation or fair trials.

Guangdong-based rights attorney Sui Muqing said the forum was mostly attended by justice department officials, and that few practicing Chinese attorneys had the opportunity to participate.

"It's just for people who do as the government tells them," Sui said. "Human rights lawyers or people who are slightly critical of the regime can't attend."

He said he has also had restrictions placed on his movements until the forum closes on Tuesday.

Geng He, the U.S.-based wife of disappeared rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, called on Human Rights Day for the world to remember the nationwide crackdown on lawyers, law firms and associated activists that has seen more than 300 people detained, questioned, prevented from leaving the country or their families harassed and denied access to jobs and education since July 2015.

"In China, law firms can be shut down whenever they want, and lawyers can lose their license, or be arrested, disappeared and tortured whenever they feel like it," Geng told RFA.

"It is bitterly ironic that they are holding a lawyers' conference in such a country, and on Human Rights Day, too."

On 10 December 2019, Sui Muqing, lawyer, and a group of pro-democracy activists were detained and questioned by the police, preventing them from attending a human rights event in Beijing, China.

An outspoken former Chinese rights lawyer has been arrested on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”, as the government continues to crack down on activists and political dissidents.

Qin Yongpei, 50, who often criticised Beijing on social media including Twitter, was arrested on Tuesday in southern China, according to an arrest notice seen by AFP.

“He dares to say anything online,” his wife, Deng Xiaoyun, said.

She said he had been accused of inciting state subversion “because it would be easiest charge to give”.

Qin “drew a lot of attention, and possibly retaliation, from the authorities for openly criticising and reporting high-level public officials”, said Doriane Lau, a researcher at Amnesty International.

Qin, who was detained last month in Nanning, in the southern region of Guangxi, often took to social media to comment on topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese Communist Party, including pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

The Chinese lawyer, who was disbarred in May last year, is also among the growing number of rights lawyers in China to be stripped of their license to practise – a method activists say effectively silences them without attracting as much attention as an arrest. The widespread disbarment of rights lawyers – at least a dozen have had their licenses cancelled or revoked since 2018, according to government documents – follows one of the largest clampdowns on China’s legal profession in the country’s recent history.

A police sweep launched on July 9, 2015 saw more than 200 Chinese human rights lawyers and activists detained or questioned in a huge operation – later dubbed the “709 crackdown”– that rights groups called “unprecedented”.

“That authorities arrested Qin is outright political persecution,” said Sui Muqing, a Chinese lawyer who was detained during the “709 crackdown” and a friend of Qin’s.

His arrest is also “an escalation of political persecution towards lawyers”, he added. Nanning police did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

On 3 December 2019, Qin Yongpei, disbarred human rights lawyer, was arrested in respnse to his online posting by the police in southern China.