Uwazi

Six representatives of villagers involved in a long-running land dispute with a sugar company in Koh Kong have been summoned for questioning again by the provincial court over disputed allegations brought by tycoon Heng Huy.

The six were initially summoned along with four others earlier this year over a complaint filed by Huy, who accused them of public defamation and incitement to commit a felony. Four of the 10 have been questioned while the six others asked for a delay at the time.

They face up to two years in prison if convicted.

Koh Kong Provincial Court prosecutor Ros Saram summoned three people to appear for questioning on December 17, and the other three on the following day, in court documents dated November 18 and received by the six representatives on Wednesday, said Chhan Chhoeun, one of the six.

Chhoeun told VOD on Friday that he was ready to testify in court as scheduled. He was not worried because he had done nothing wrong, he said.

“I will tell the court what the reality is. Mr. Heng Huy’s company really encroached on people’s land. How did I defame him?” Chhoeun said. “I only spoke about our land being encroached on.”

Chhoeun said 197 families from Sre Ambel district lost their land because Heng Huy Agriculture Group had encroached on their plots since 2007.

Huy could not be reached for comment.

Another land disputant representative, Ith Toeng, said it was unjust for the court to call villagers for questioning based on Huy’s complaint. He had encroached on people’s land, she said.

“The court seems to be biased in favor of an oknha, while hundreds of people, it has never investigated. [The court] never came to ask for the location of the people’s land but instead believed in the tycoon alone,” Toeng said.

She called on the government to resolve the land dispute and asked the court to consider canceling the summonses.

“I asked the court to clearly inspect before issuing summonses for us to see whether we really have a land dispute with Mr. Heng Huy or not, and please drop accusations against the 10 villagers,” she said.

Pen Vuthea, a monitor with human rights group Licadho in Koh Kong, said the summonses were a threat to keep people from protesting over their lost land.

In order to show concern for people, the government must resolve the dispute soon, and the court should drop the charges against the 10 representatives, otherwise people will continue to protest, Vuthea said.

“For the authorities, if there are still people protesting and going up to Phnom Penh to find a solution, it looks like the government is not finding a solution for people who are the landowners and have lost their land,” he said.

More than 300 people from Koh Kong protested in Phnom Penh this week, calling on the ministries of interior and land management to resolve their land disputes with companies that were granted concessions by the government, including Heng Huy.

In July, the Land Management Ministry rejected the claims of about 100 Koh Kong land protesters who demonstrated outside the ministry in Phnom Penh, and requested that legal action be taken against them.

Student organisations in Pakistan had organised a countrywide student march on Friday to demand the revocation of a 35-year ban on student unions in colleges and university campuses.A day after the Students Solidarity March in Pakistan on Saturday, student activist Alamgir Wazir from the Punjab University in Punjab Province’s Lahore has gone missing.

A gender studies’ student, Wazir came into the limelight due to his “fierce” speech at the march. A video of his speech has gone viral on social media. He says in the video: “We are asking for education, justice, and roads but they are giving us guns".

​Students from Punjab University have been protesting outside the vice chancellor’s office since Wazir went missing, demanding his release. They are saying he has been arrested for chanting slogans against the authorities.

​Wazir has reportedly been vocal about racial discrimination against Pashtuns.

Netizens are condemning the “abduction” of the student leader for voicing his opinion against the Pakistani government. #ReleaseAlamgirWazir is also trending on Twitter, demanding the student’s release.

"This is extremely condemnable & sharamnak we demand immediate release of Alamgir and the perpetrators must be charged for this unlawful act," tweeted MNA Mohsin Dawar. His fellow colleague from the former federally administered tribal areas, Ali Wazir, is related to Alamgir Wazir. The missing Wazir is the MNA's nephew.

Wazir was last seen outside a hostel on the Punjab University campus, when unidentified men in a vehicle took him away at 5 PM on Saturday.

Police in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi on Sunday blocked access to a piano recital held in the city’s Opera House, roughing up a group of environmental activists who had hoped to attend and preventing them from entering, sources said.

The concert, titled “Awake” and performed by pianist Pho An My, featured an environmental theme, the civil society group Green Trees said in a Facebook posting after its members were turned away.

“A large crowd of security forces had gathered outside, just as if they were preparing to disperse a protest, and scores of people were roughed up,” the environmental advocacy group said, adding that paintings about the environment were forbidden from display in the concert hall.

“Security men were stationed every five meters [15 feet] surrounding the theater, and were stopping people from live-streaming or taking pictures. Only the security people were allowed cameras, and they pointed them at concertgoers like they were monitoring criminals,” Green Trees said.

“All gates to the theater were locked right after the concert started, so nobody could leave or enter, and no one could give the artist flowers.”

In its Facebook posting, Green Trees said that police may have thought that concert organizers had received funding from “foreign sources” by way of the environmental group, which also advocates for human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly in the one-party communist state.

'They were brutal to us'

Speaking to RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Nov. 15, Green Trees member Cao Vinh Thinh said that she and her husband had arrived at the Opera House at about 7:30 p.m. on the evening of the concert.

“As soon as we stopped our motorbike next to the theater, we were approached by a group of about 10 people, two of whom I recognized because they have followed me around for years,” Thinh said, adding that the group ordered her to return home, later forcing her and her husband into a car and driving them home themselves.

“I’m very upset,” Thinh said. “We had bought two tickets, but the money doesn’t matter. What matters most is how they treated us.”

“They were brutal to us, and they deprived us of our rights as citizens. We hadn’t broken any law or rule,” she said.

Also speaking to RFA, pianist Pho An My said that she had only focused on her performance and was unaware of what was happening outside.

“I’m just an artist, and I want to express my thoughts. I’m not an environmental activist,” she said.

Calls seeking comment from police in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem district rang unanswered on Monday.

Civil society groups restricted

Independent civil society organizations are severely restricted by Vietnam’s communist government, which also controls all media, censors the internet, and restricts basic freedoms of expression.

On Oct. 25, Vietnamese authorities detained environmental activist and filmmaker Thinh Nguyen, a member of Green Trees, in what was thought to be the government’s response to a film, “Do Not be Afraid,” about other environmental activists who were detained for their advocacy.

Green Trees had called on Vietnam’s government just two years before to let it help monitor the payment of compensation to citizens affected by a massive toxic-waste spill in 2016 that left thousands jobless in four central coastal provinces.

Vietnam’s communist regime has convicted Mr. Huynh Minh Tam, 41, and his younger sister Huynh Thi To Nga, 36, of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for their online postings critical to the regime, Defend the Defenders has learned.

In the first-instance hearing on November 28, the People’s Court of Dong Nai found Mr. Tam and Ms. Nga guilty of “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” sentencing him to nine years and giving her to five years in prison.

According to their relatives, both Tam and Nga had no their own lawyers.

The indictment said they were posting numerous articles on their Facebook accounts criticizing the communist government for failing to deal with the country’s problems such as human rights abuse, systemic corruption, widespread environmental pollution, and weak response to China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea).

Ms. Nga, a technician in the Saigon-based Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital, reportedly to participate in the mass demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security.

Mr. Tam was arrested on February 28 this year while his younger sister was kidnapped in her working place two days later. Police had not informed their families about the allegations against them and kept them incommunicado until their trial. Police also threatened their families, not allowing their relatives to contact with other activists.

Mr. Tam and Ms. Nga are among 21 activists being arrested this year for online activities, 14 of them were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” and five were alleged with “abusing democratic freedom” in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code.

Vietnam’s communist regime has arrested 33 political dissidents, social activists and Facebookers so far this year, including prominent dissident journalist Pham Chi Dung. Hanoi has also convicted 39 activists, mostly on controversial allegations in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code, sentencing them to a total 199.5 years in jail and 47 years of probation.

Vietnam is holding at least 240 prisoners of conscience, according to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics. Hanoi always denies of holding any prisoners of conscience, saying it imprisons only law violators.

Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung has been banned by the Hong Kong court from travelling to London to receive a human rights award from the British parliament, as he faces a charge of inciting anti-government protesters to besiege the police headquarters.

Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping of the High Court on Tuesday refused Wong’s application to vary his bail conditions and lift a travel ban, citing heightened risk of absconding.

Toh said Wong did not need to be present in British parliamentary hearings and meetings in which he was invited, and could instead remain in Hong Kong to help the city return to peace.

Wong, secretary general of localist party Demosisto, was named the recipient of the Westminster Award for Human Life, Human Rights, and Human Dignity by both houses of parliament in Britain, for his “commitments to universal suffrage, human rights and free speech”.

He was the second Chinese person to receive the prize after blind mainland activist Chen Guangcheng was awarded in 2013. District council polls ban was ‘arbitrary’ decision, Joshua Wong says

Wong initially planned to leave Hong Kong next week for 20 days, during which he would attend parliamental hearings and deliver speeches in six European countries, and receive the prize in the Palace of Westminster on December 12.

But Hong Kong’s Eastern Court imposed a travel ban on Wong on August 30 after he was charged with organising, taking part in, and inciting others to take part in an unlawful assembly outside the Wan Chai police headquarters on June 21.

The lower court also refused to lift the ban earlier this month, saying Wong’s proposed trip was “not very important”.

Wong said he was disappointed with the ruling which amounted to “an extra punishment” before he was convicted by the court.

A statement by Demosisto said the court was now under immense pressure following Beijing’s criticism over its ruling on Monday that the anti-mask law was unconstitutional.

“Even in times of social turmoil, it’s really inappropriate and unnecessary for the court to step in and comment on how politicians should behave,” Wong said on Facebook.

He was charged alongside party member Agnes Chow Ting and chairman Ivan Lam Long-yin. The trio will appear in court again on December 19.

A protest to raise awareness about climate change was forced to cancel by the police Friday just minutes after it began in front of a park.

The rally, called Climate Strike Thailand, was scheduled to kick off at Lumpini Park at about 6pm today, but police officers from Lumpini Park arrived at the scene and told them to disperse. The officers refused to give any specific reason, though one eyewitness said police told them it was inappropriate to hold a protest in front of a statue of King Rama VI.

“Ironically, we were trying to get into the park, but somebody in the authorities told us we couldn’t go into the park, that’s why we ended up here,” the protester said.

About 100 people were participating in a “die-in” in front of the statue when police intervened. The memorial is a tribute to King Rama VI, who died in 1925.

The news came as a surprise to the activists because a similar demonstration was held in September without any interference from the authorities.

The climate change protest at Lumpini Park took place in the heart of Bangkok’s financial district; nearby landmarks include Silom Road and Chulalongkorn Hospital.

According to the information received, on November24, 2019, RTI activist and HRD Mr. Parmar was going out of his village Khopalaon his bike along with his brother Mr. Vinod Parmar. They were on their way to Lakhanka village from Khopala. Around 2.30 pm when they reached at Pipal road,nearly 8 kilometres from their village,they were intercepted by four men unknown to the defender who had came on two bikes. They were carrying iron rods and batons. They started hitting the HRD repeatedly with iron rods and abused him by hurling derogatory casteist remarks. Mr. Parmar was also threatened and asked to withdraw the RTI application he had filed recently. Physical attack and beating continued for 5 to 10 minutes. The HRD suffered fractures in both his legs and hands. His elbow also suffered fracture. His lower limbs were also severely injured as a result of the beating inflicted by the assailants. His brother Mr. Vinod Parmar was also roughed up by the assailants. HRD’s brother Mr. Vinod Parmar called on 108 for emergency ambulance through which he was taken to the government hospital and admitted. Sources informed that the assault was carried out by men closely associated with the village sarpanch. RTI activist, Mr. Parmar was earlier threatened by the husband of village sarpanch Ms. Vimala Gabani. He was threatened to withdraw the RTI application filed by him or else he would face dire consequences. Because of the injuries suffered, the HRD had to undergo two surgical operations - one on his left hand and other on his leg. He is still in the hospital and receiving treatment. The Botad Police has filed a case against sarpanch Ms. Gabani, her husband Mr. Jasmat Gabani, son Mr. Sanjay Gabani and four unknown persons under Indian Penal Code sections 324, 325, 504, 506 (2) for causing hurt by dangerous weapon, causing grievous hurt, intentional insult and criminal intimidation along with sections of the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Act. The case has been transferred to SC/ST cell of Botad Police, Gujarat. However, the police has failed to arrestany of the accused yet.The Hon’ble Commission is once again appraised that manyRTI activists have been harassed and even murdered for seeking information to "promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority". Many face assaults on a regular basis. seeking information from their gram panchayat and the local administration also face social ostracism. RTI activists are vulnerable HRDs. Unlike other HRDs, a majority of the RTI activists are not part of an organisation; they often act alone, moved by anger at corruption and other illegal activities. RTI activists are vulnerable because they live in the same areas as authorities and political leaders who do not want information about their activities to disclosed. For the most part, human rights defenders receive media attention only when killed or seriously injured. When complaints are made by RTI activists, law enforcement personnel (who often work with corrupt officials) do not take appropriate action. The Central Information Commissionand State Information Commissions are not mandated to deal with such threats or attacks or to provide protection when needed. Attacks on RTI users have not ceased despite directions from several information commissions and state governments to protect them from harm. Further, per the Declaration on HRDs in the context of human rights violations by third parties, the obligation to protect, first, involves ensuring that defenders do not suffer from violations of their rights by non-State actors. Failure to protect could, in particular circumstances, engage the State‘s responsibility. Even acts and omissions committed by non-State actors under the instructions, control or direction of the State can, under certain circumstances, give rise to State responsibility. Therefore, it is paramount that prompt and full investigations are conducted and perpetrators brought to justice. Failure by States to prosecute and punish such is a clear violation of Article 12 of the Declaration on HRDs.

Vietnamese courts on Thursday sentenced six dissident bloggers and activists to long terms in prison amid a continuing crackdown on online expressions of dissent in the one-party communist state that has seen dozens of people jailed this year, sources said.

In southeastern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province, four men—Doan Viet Hoan, Vo Thuong Trung, Ngo Xuan Thanh, and Nguyen Dinh Khue—were handed prison terms of from 2.5 to three years each on charges of plotting to set explosives, for which no proof was shown in court, a defense attorney said.

“[Prosecutors] had no evidence to prove that the defendants were preparing explosions to go off on April 28, 2019," Nguyen Van Mieng—the lawyer for Nguyen Dinh Khue—told RFA’s Vietnamese Service after the trial.

“If they had wanted to cause explosions, they would have to have had wires, detonators, and material like that. But they had none of those things,” he said, adding, “The police only confiscated their cell phones and messages on the phones.”

Quoted by state media, a report prepared by prosecutors said the four men had gone online to read posts with “anti-state” content and had called for street protests on April 30, but Mieng said the men had wanted only to protest a price hike in electricity and gas and a law on special economic zones that many Vietnamese fear will favor Chinese investment in the country.

“They know nothing about how to make explosive devices,” Mieng said.

Unwarranted, unfair

In a separate case, a court in central Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa province sentenced Facebook user Pham Van Diep to a nine-year prison term for criticizing Vietnam’s government online for its handling of a 2016 toxic-waste spill that devastated the coastal areas of four Vietnamese provinces, leaving thousands jobless.

Speaking to RFA after the trial, attorney Ha Huy Son called Pham’s sentence unwarranted and unfair.

“He only expressed his opinion, and he did nothing to oppose the state,” he said. “He admitted what he did. He is critical of Marxism-Leninism and communism, but [the court] considers that a crime against the state of Vietnam.”

In another case, Facebook user Nguyen Chi Vung was handed a six-year prison term on Thursday by a court in southern Vietnam’s Bac Lieu province on charges of live-streaming anti-state content on his Facebook page and encouraging others to join in protests.

Call to delay trade talks

Meanwhile, prominent independent journalist Pham Chi Dung, who was detained at his home in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov. 21 for his criticism of the communist government, awaits investigation and trial on charges of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code.

In a Nov. 22 statement, European Parliament envoy for trade talks with Vietnam Saskia Bricmont voiced shock at the news of the arrest of the former communist party member, noting that Pham had written earlier to the parliament’s president and to EU trade officials to alert them to Vietnam’s deteriorating human rights situation.

Saskia is now asking for a delay in the ratification of European trade and investment agreements with Vietnam “until a certain number of conditions are fulfilled,” she said.

“The essential condition is a reform of the criminal code and its implementation with United Nations standards,” Saskia said, adding, “To show its good faith, we also demand that Vietnam release [its] political prisoners without delay.”

Writing on Nov. 21, the day of Pham’s arrest, Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson called on the EU to “speak up for independent journalist Pham Chi Dung who simply called for Europe to demand real improvements in the human rights situation before ratifying the Europe-Vietnam [Free Trade Agreement].”

“By arresting Pham Chi Dung, Vietnam is showing its repressive intolerance of any dissenting voices and its determination to suppress efforts to foster an independent press in the country,” Robertson said.

“The EU, US and other like-minded countries should demand the immediate and unconditional release of Pham Chi Dung and the dropping of all charges against him.”

'Not Free'

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.

A court in Vietnam sentenced a Facebook user to six years in prison on Tuesday for a series of posts he made on the social media platform that the Southeast Asian country's government said were "anti-state".

Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism, and its dissent crackdown has shown signs of intensifying recently.

Nguyen Chi Vung, 38, was accused of "making and spreading anti-state information and materials" at the one-day trial at the People's Court of Bac Lieu province, in the Mekong Delta, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

It said Vung had held 33 livestream sessions on Facebook "to share distorted information" and "encourage people to participate in protests during national holidays".

Reuters could not reach Vung's lawyers for comment.

Vung will be placed under house arrest for two years after serving his jail term, the statement said.

The court's Tuesday decision came days after a music teacher in the central province of Nghe An was convicted of the same offences and jailed for 11 years.

Facebook is widely used in the country and serves as the main platform for both e-commerce and dissent. Facebook said in May it increased the amount of content it restricted access to in Vietnam by more than 500% in the last half of 2018.

The ministry said in a separate statement on Tuesday that police in Nghe An have arrested a 23-year-old man accused of smearing the image of Ho Chi Minh and spreading anti-state propaganda on Facebook.

Last week, police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested freelance journalist and government critic Pham Chi Dung, accused of "anti-state" propaganda.

Rights activist Idris Khattak was allegedly kidnapped by unidentified men while on his way from Akora Khattak village to Swabi, his driver Shahsawar told police, DawnNewsTV reported on Monday.

In a complaint filed in Anbar police station, Shahsawar said that he was driving Khattak to Swabi when about four unidentified men stopped the activist's car at Swabi Motorway Interchange and kidnapped him. The incident took place on November 13, according to the complaint. Though complaints have been lodged by Khattak's driver and family, police are yet to register a first information report (FIR).

Officials did confirm that Khattak was missing but said an FIR will be lodged after an initial investigation.

Politician Jibran Nasir claimed that the activist was "abducted by intel agencies six days ago on Islamabad Peshawar highway near Swabi Interchange". Nasir said that the driver was abducted along with Khattak but was released after three days. However, the application filed by Shahsawar did not mention any such occurrence.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) demanded Khattak's "immediate recovery", saying that he had "remained associated with progressive politics since his student days".

"HRCP condemns arbitrary detentions and urges the Pakistani state to fulfill its constitutional obligations towards its citizens," the organisation said in a tweet.

On November 26, Vietnam’s communist regime convicted five political dissidents and sentenced them to a total 20 years in prison and five years of probation in two separate trials which failed to meet international standards for a fair trial.

In the central province of Thanh Hoa, the provincial People’s Court found local Facebooker Pham Van Diep guilty of “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under the country’s 2015 Criminal Code. The court sentenced him to nine years in jail and five years of probation for online postings which were considered as “distortion of the communist regime” and “defamation of communist leaders” which led to social dissatisfaction.

Mr. Diep, 54, was arrested on June 29 this year. He has voiced against the communist regime for its socio-political policies and human rights abuse in the last 17 years.

Journalists in Guwahati have demanded a high-level probe into an alleged attack on a colleague in a secluded part of the city on Friday night.

Police said Naresh Mitra, a journalist renowned for his reportage on environment and wildlife, was brought to the Gauhati Medical College by unidentified people. Given the severity of his injuries, his family later shifted him to the Nem-Care Super Specialty Hospital.

It was initially believed that Mr Mitra, who used to pedal to work on a bicycle every day, may have been hit from behind by a vehicle. But doctors who operated on him later said it was more likely to have been a case of assault, a press statement issued by the Journalists' Forum Assam (JFA) read.

The JFA demanded a thorough probe into the case. "We strongly demand a high-level probe into the incident where Naresh got injured that night. Moreover, we wish his early recovery and express hope that he would be able to explain the situation soon," the statement, signed by association president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria, read.

Guwahati Police said the incident may have occurred while Mr Mitra was returning home from work around 10:30 pm. They have launched a probe, and are currently trying to procure CCTV footage to stitch together the sequence of events leading to the alleged attack.

According to family members, there were no external injuries on the senior journalist's body and his bicycle didn't seem to have been damaged either. They said that although Mr Mitra was awake in the initial hours, even speaking to those attending to him, he slowly lapsed into unconsciousness.

On Wednesday (27 November), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) issued a statement condemning Thammakaset Co., Ltd’s use of the criminal defamation provisions of the Thai Criminal Code to harass former National Human Rights Commissioner Angkhana Neelapaijit.

“This action by Thammakaset is a textbook case of how defamation laws are used in Thailand to silence human rights defenders. It is clearly without any legitimate basis, and intended to harass and intimidate Khun Angkhana, who is a leading champion of human rights in Thailand and the region,” said Frederick Rawski, ICJ Asia Pacific Regional Director. “We hope that the Courts will dismiss this frivolous case at first opportunity.”

On 25 October 2019, Thammakaset Co. Ltd., a poultry farm in Lopburi Province, filed a criminal defamation suit under sections 326 and 328 of the Criminal Code against Angkhana Neelapaijit for two posts she shared that contained links to press statements of 16 organizations, including the ICJ, and Fortify Rights.

The statements cited in the warrant as the basis for the action were a post on 3 December 2018 in which Angkhana Neelapaijit re-tweeted an ICJ link to a joint statement co-signed by 16 organizations, including the ICJ. The statement contained a link (now defunct) to a short film in which former employees spoke out about alleged labor abuses; and a post on 28 June 2019 which included a link to a Fortify Rights’ news release containing the same link. The film refers to a previous defamation complaint brought by Thammakaset against 14 of its former workers, and called upon the authorities to drop criminal defamation charges against them and decriminalize defamation in Thailand. Thammakaset claimed that the film was defamatory.

Criminal defamation, under sections 326 of the Criminal Code, carries a maximum sentence of one year of imprisonment, a fine of up to 20,000 Baht (approx. USD 640) or both. Section 328 criminalizes defamation “by means of publication” with up to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 200,000 Baht (approx. USD 6,400).

Thailand is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees the right to freedom of expression. The UN Human Rights Committee, the supervisory body that provides the authoritative interpretation of the ICCPR, has called on States that criminalize defamation to abolish criminal defamation laws and reserve defamation for civil liability.

“The criminal defamation provisions in the Criminal Code have been repeatedly invoked for nefarious ends, such to target persons seeking to bring public attention to human rights violations, including by business enterprises. They need to be removed from the Criminal Code as a matter of urgency,” said Rawski. “The imposition of criminal penalties for speech, even allegedly defamatory speech, is disproportionate and risks having a ‘chilling effect’ on the exercise of freedom of expression.” Background

Angkhana Neelapaijit is a Thai human rights defender and the wife of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit, who was abducted more than 15 years ago. His abduction was the only case of enforced disappearance to ever be tried in a Thai court. In 2015, she was appointed commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, before resigning in July 2019, and is a recipient of the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Awards.

A court warrant was sent to Angkhana Neelapaijit on 23 November 2019. A conciliation conference, at which parties are brought together to settle a dispute before trial, is scheduled to be held on 12 February 2020 at Bangkok South Criminal Court.

The ICJ has repeatedly expressed concerns about the use of existing defamation laws to harass human rights defenders, activists, lawyers, academics, and journalists in Thailand, for carrying out their legitimate and important work to raise awareness and highlight human rights issues.

This case is one of many defamation and other cases brought by Thammakaset against any individuals perceived to have expressed dissent, conducted advocacy on or released information relating to labour rights violations committed by the Company. According to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), as of May 2019, Thammakaset has filed complaints with the police, the Criminal Court, and the Civil Court against at least 22 individuals in at least 14 cases.

These included criminal defamation complaints against Sutharee Wannasiri, human rights defender and a former Thailand Human Rights Specialist with Fortify Rights, for three comments she was alleged to have made on Twitter related to the same film produced by Fortify Rights; Ngamsuk Rattanasatiean, who had shared information on the Facebook page of the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies; Suchanee Rungmuanporn, a reporter from Voice TV who had made a post on Twitter highlighting labour rights violations by Thammakaset; Suthasinee Kaewleklai, coordinator of the Migrant Workers Rights Network, who had shared information on Facebook relating to the cases; and other separate cases against 14 migrant workers and former employees.

According to sources on 18 November, 2019, the Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union (JNUSU) organized a peaceful march towards Parliament on the first day of the Winter Session to protest against the hostel fee hikein Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Thousands of studentsfrom JNU, carrying placards and chanting slogans, participated in the march towards Parliament, demanding a total rollback of the hostel fee hike and withdrawal of the draft hostel manual which imposes dress codes and curfew timings. In response authorities imposed prohibitory orders both outside the parliament building and around the JNU campus, and set up barricades near Safdarjung Tomb in South Delhi to stop them from advancing any further. The protesters, who carried banners that read "save public education", "fees must fall" and "ensure affordable hostels for all", were stopped at multiple points on their march. The JNU administration had on 13 November, 2019 announced a partial roll back in the fee hike. However, the protesting students dubbed the move as eyewash and demanded that the JNUSU be treated as a stakeholder by the administration and the Ministryof Human Resource and Development. They also reiterated their demand for the resignation of the Vice-Chancellor on the university.The police authorities deployed ten companies outside JNU. The protesters were initially allowed to proceed but were stopped barely half a kilometer from the JNU campus by the police. Around 3.30 pm the students managed to reach Safdarjung Tomb near Lodhi Roadwhere they were stopped by the police again. The first round of lathicharge took place here. Over 100 students were detained by the Delhi Police and students suffered injuries after the police baton charged the protests. Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University allegedthat over 10 students, including the visually and physically challenged, were injured due to the "brutality" of police personnel. JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh, general secretary Satish Yadav and former JNUSU president N Sai Balaji were among several detained and allegedly taken to Delhi Cantt, Kalkaji and Badarpur police stations — where they claimed they were beaten up. Since students were not allowed to move theythen sat on the main roadat Safdarjung Tomb near Lodhi Road, singing songs, while negotiations between JNUSU and police continued. After around 6.30 pm streetlights were soon switched off and a second round of lathicharge took place, after which over 50 personnel escorted students to INA Metro station. Several students have reportedly been severely injured following the lathicharge by police. Following theprotest, videos surfaced showing personnel of the Delhi police beating up students, including girls, in a brutal manner. A particular video doing the rounds on social media shows a male student being forcibly led into a police vehicle while profusely bleeding from the head. Media reported that the Delhi police is going to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) against protesting students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for flouting Section 144 (which prevents unlawful assembly) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which was imposed in the area surrounding the university campus and the Parliament, to prevent students from joining the agitation on 18 November, 2019. It is pointed out that the state through police is in full action to suppress the voice of students protesting for a genuine cause which is subsidized education. The police through its modus operandi aretrying to repress a democratic movement. Manhandling of students by Delhi police including women and visually challenged (which is doing rounds of social media) amounts to being barbaric, committal of atrocity and show of excessive use of force. It is further said that the police has created a situation wherein the students protesting peacefully are being shownas rioting, gathering unlawfully and obstructing public servants from discharging their public function. This is nothing but just framing the students are exercising their constitutional right to assembly peacefully and right to protest for a cause.

Vietnam’s authorities have barred Catholic priest Nguyen Dinh Thuc from leaving the country to Japan where he would participate in welcoming Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) during the Vatican leader’s visit to Tokyo this week.

Speaking with Defend the Defenders, priest Thuc said security officers in Noi Bai International Airport blocked him from taking a flight from Hanoi to Tokyo at midnight on Wednesday [November 20]. Police officers said the blockage is based on the national security concerns under Decree 136 of the communist government.

Security officers in Noi Bai International Airport’s station also wrote in a working minute that the priest can appeal the police’s decision to the Immigration Department under the Ministry of Public Security.

Priest Thuc is from Song Ngoc parish in Vinh diocese. He has been assisting local Catholic followers in demanding the Taiwanese chemical giant Formosa to pay adequate compensation for the consequences caused by its toxic discharge into Vietnam’s central coastal region in 2016 which had devastating negative impacts on the local fishing industry and tourism.

He is among brave priests criticizing the Vietnamese communist regime’s human rights abuses.

He is among many Catholic priests being barred from going abroad for pastoral missions. Last year, Catholic priest Nguyen Ngoc Nam Phong was also not permitted to leave to Australia where he was invited to take a lengthy course on religion.

Along with imprisoning and harassing local activists, Vietnam’s communist regime has also been blocking hundreds of local activists from going abroad for meeting with their international partners and doing international advocacy in the human rights field.

Afghanistan's intelligence agency has publicly acknowledged that it is holding two activists who exposed allegations of sexual abuse of children in eastern Afghanistan.

Human rights groups and others have been pointing fingers at the National Directorate for Security since the activists, Musa Mahmoudi and Ehsanullah Hamidi, disappeared on November 21.

The two had revealed that at least 546 boys from six schools in Logar province were abused by a pedophile ring that included teachers and local government officials.

Their organization, the Logar Youth, Social and Civil Institution, discovered more than 100 videos on Facebook that showed the abuse.

The government is under intense pressure from activists and influential politicians, like former president Hamid Karzai, to release the activists.

The "Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission is deeply concerned about the illegal detention of civil society activists, Mr. Musa Mahmudi and Ehsanullah Hamidi, who were investigating the cases of alleged child sexual abuse in Logar province," tweeted Afghanistan's human rights body.

In its statement Tuesday, the NDS claimed the two were moved to a safe location for protection against threats to their lives. The agency also claimed that the two had revealed during interrogations that they made up the child abuse allegations, in order to get asylum in a foreign country.

The agency also released a video of the two in which one of the activists, Mahmoudi, was seen confessing that his research was incomplete and apologizing to the people of Afghanistan and particularly of Logar province.

Without naming the two, President Ashraf Ghani said Monday that it was not acceptable for asylum seekers to undermine the dignity of Afghans.

Human rights groups are rejecting the government's account.

"Instead of punishing them for speaking out against the sexual abuse of children, the authorities should praise them and hold the perpetrators accountable" tweeted Amnesty International's South Asia office.

Before their detention, the activists had reached out to rights groups and some journalists, expressing concern for their safety.

"Hours before his detention, Mussa told the Guardian (newspaper) how he had been receiving threats and believed he was under surveillance by Afghan security services," reported The Guardian Monday.

According to The Guardian, which broke the story earlier this month, multiple victims have since been murdered, sometimes by their own relatives.

"Five families killed their sons after their faces were seen on videos posted to social media. Two other boys a 13 and 15-year-old were killed last week, although the perpetrators are unknown," the Guardian story said.

Police in the Lao capital Vientiane detained eight people this week who were planning protests calling for free speech and condemning land grabs and dam projects, later releasing six of them, RFA’s Lao Service learned on Friday.

The arrests took place on Nov. 11 and 12, thwarting demonstrations the activists had planned for four locations in the capital during the That Luang festival, a Buddhist celebration of a 450-year-old, gold-covered temple.

“On November 11, policemen arrested some of protest leaders … and on November 12, the policemen locked some more protesters in Oudomphone guesthouse in Phonesinuan village, in Vientiane’s Sisatthanak district,” a leader of the planned protest, who avoided arrest, told RFA on Friday.

“First, people were going to rally for respect of human rights, and freedom of speech,” the organizer told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his liberty.

“Second, they wanted to ask the government to prevent land grabs, dam building, deforestation, and unfair relocation of communities,” the activist added.

A Lao official with knowledge of the matter confirmed to RFA on Friday that “people were arrested on those days for planning to stage protests at four places (in Vientiane.”

The protests were planned for the That Luang pagoda grounds, the National University of Laos and two points along highway 13, the official said.

The guesthouse detention was witnessed by villagers.

“I don’t know whether or not those people had come to join the rally, but I saw around six people locked up by the policemen on November 12,” one villager told RFA on Friday.

“I heard some saying they are from the Phonethong district in the southern province of Champassak, but some were not from the south,” he added.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said "these wrongful arrests are just the latest example of the government’s phony pledges to donor agencies and foreign governments that it will respect fundamental liberties.”

The protest leader identified the eight detained activists as Sounthone Fasongsay, Kamkone Phanthavong, Bounnhone Phanthavong, Chiengsone Phanthavong, Kiatthisak Hakmisouk, Phouvong Xaiyaseng, Santinoy Thepkaisone and the wife of Thepkaisone, whose name was unavailable.

On Friday, the Sisatthanak district police station issued an order to release the six would-be protesters who were held at the guest house.

“On November 12, policeman detained an individual for gathering and making a noise longer than limited time during the celebration of the That Luang festival,” read a copy of the order received by one of the six.

“After investigation, police officers reached a compromise to release him on conditions defined in the law. He has been released and handed over to his relatives and local authorities for reeducation,” it read.

One of the six who were released confirmed with RFA that he and five others were “released today after being held for a few days.”

RFA was unable to confirm the fate or whereabouts of two detainees who were not released with the others on Friday.

Reports of protests are rare in Laos, a one-party communist state since 1975 that brooks no public opposition and deals with dissent harshly.

"Lao authorities have frequently labeled as national security threats anyone peacefully expressing dissenting views, criticizing the government, or simply calling for respect for human rights and democratic rule." said Human Rights Watch.

There are no publicly available government figures on political prisoners in Laos, whose opaque judicial system makes it hard to give a reliable estimate on how many are being held. Three were arrested in 2017 and charged with treason after protesting in front of the Lao embassy in neighboring Thailand.

The fate of about 10 other detainees, including students protesters arrested in 1999 and self-styled freedom fighters who launched a raid via a Thai border checkpoint in 2000 remains unclear.

It began when Rana Ayyub, who is nowadays a Washington Post columnist, posted a cryptic message on Twitter on 8 November about the ruling that India’s supreme court was due to issue the next day on a fraught 30-year-old dispute between Hindus and Muslims over a religious site in the northern city of Ayodhya. It ended with the words, “I hope my country does not disappoint me tomorrow.”

It immediately unleashed a torrent of Twitter insults and calls for Ayyub to be raped or murdered that were orchestrated by trolls linked to the Hindu nationalist movement. Even more amazingly, it elicited a threat of legal action that came from the Twitter account of the police in Amethi, a town 100 km south of Ayodhya.

Posted less than half an hour after Ayyub’s original tweet, it said: “You have just made a political comment. Delete it immediately otherwise legal action will be taken against you by @amethipolice.” Amethi has no jurisdiction over either Ayodhya or Mumbai, the city where Ayyub lives.

Ayyub, who is currently on a visit to the United States, told RSF that, because of this threat, she feared that could be arrested on her return to the India. The message has not been disowned by India’s home affairs ministry.

“Police wanting to prosecute a journalist for making a so-called ‘political comment’ is something one might expect from the worst dictatorships,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “Either someone hacked into the Amethi police Twitter account, which would indicate serious incompetence, or the police are complicit in a campaign of calls for Rana Ayyub’s murder. We urge the home affairs ministry to conduct an internal investigation to identify these responsible for this unacceptable scandal.”

Wave of hate

The author “Gujarat Files,” a book examining the rise to power of Narendra Modi, who was reelected as prime minister by a clear majority in May, Ayyub is one of the favourite targets of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s notorious army of trolls.

In April 2018, RSF condemned an earlier and unprecedented wave of online hate messages against Ayyub, in which her phone number and address were posted online. RSF referred the case to the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, who then wrote to the Indian authorities requesting protection for Ayyub.

This kind of campaign is orchestrated by followers of Hindutva, an ideological blend of fascism and Hindu nationalism that inspired Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

India is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

On November 13, Telangana police submitted documents to the Lal Bahadur Nagar Metropolitan Magistrate, which CPJ reviewed, accusing Venugopal, editor of Telugu monthly Veekshanam, of being part of a Maoist conspiracy against the state.

Venugopal, who spoke to CPJ via phone, said he has not been arrested or formally charged. If the magistrate accepts the police allegations, it could issue a warrant for his arrest any day, he said.

Venugopal could face a fine and two to seven years in prison under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Telangana Public Security Act if charged and convicted of being part of a conspiracy.

Venugopal told CPJ he had been a member of a group that authorities allege is affiliated with a Maoist party, the Revolutionary Writers Association, but left it in 2009. The association was previously banned but is now legally permitted, according to Indian news website The Wire.

“Accusing a journalist of conspiracy is a threat to press freedom and shows the government is intolerant of criticism,” said Aliya Iftikhar, CPJ’s senior Asia researcher, in New York. “Police should immediately drop their allegations against Nellutla Venugopal and stop threatening journalists with legal action.”

Venugopal filed a case in the Telangana High Court, which has jurisdiction over the metropolitan magistrate, to have the allegations against him dismissed, he said.

Venugopal frequently writes critical pieces about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao, according to The Wire.

In a statement, which CPJ reviewed, Veekshanam’s editorial team said Venugopal had repeatedly disassociated himself from the Revolutionary Writers Association and said that “though he holds progressive, democratic and left views, that does not mean that he has to be a member of any organisation.”

Venugopal is also accredited by the state government as a journalist and writes a regular column in the newspaper Nava Telangana, he told CPJ.

CPJ found that though Venugopal’s name was listed on the court documents, there was no mention of any evidence against him.

CPJ texted the Telangana director general of police for comment but did not receive a response.

In October, Telangana police arrested journalist Ravi Prakash after he refused to withdraw two interviews on alleged corruption in the state, as CPJ reported at the time.

Unidentified assailants attacked Lasantha Wijeratna, a freelance journalist and anti- corruption activist, on November 14. The International Federation of Journalist (IFJ) and its affiliate Free Media Movement (FMM) raise concerns about the attack which took place in the lead-up to the country’s presidential election.

Wijeratna was attacked by three men with firearms in his home at around 2.30am on November 14. Wijeratna sustained injuries from the attack including severe lacerations to his hand and was admitted to the intensive care unit in Karapitiya Hospital.

News 1stspokesperson SSP Ruwan Gunasekara alleges it was a retaliatory attack to Wijeratna for his work on alleged acts of corruption believed to have been committed by Gotabaya Rajapaksa during his tenure as the former Secretary of Defense. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was declared the new president of Sri Lanka after the weekend’s election.

The Free Media Movement said it strongly urge “all parties concerned to expedite investigations into this incident, which has challenged the democratic space in this country.”

Authorities in Vietnam arrested a prominent independent journalist Thursday for his criticism of the communist government.

State media reported that Pham Chi Dung was detained 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.”

The human rights group Defend the Defenders said he contributed to Voice of America and the BBC, under several different pen names.

Pham will be in detention for the next four months as the police investigate, and if convicted could face a sentence of seven to 12 years.

Pham had been arrested once before in 2012 on the same charge but released six months later without being tried. In 2014 he and several other writers founded the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), an unregistered entity which “strives to fight for freedom of the press in the Southeast Asian nation,” according to local rights group Defend the Defenders.

Defend the Defenders reported that the journalists association’s website was shut down shortly after the arrest.

Prior to the arrest, he had been frequently harassed by authorities, forbidden to travel overseas in 2014 and under de-facto house arrest since 2013.

Huynh Ngoc Chenh, an IJAVN member, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service Thursday that the arrest showed Hanoi’s desire to exercise greater control over the freedom of speech.

“Pham is the president of IJAVN. He is one of the most active independent journalists. He’s written a lot and is very knowledgeable,” said Huynh.

“His reports are honest and reveal the truth, something the party does not appreciate,” said Huynh, adding, “They want to eliminate his voice.”

According to Defend the Defenders, Hanoi has arrested 29 activists, including 19 bloggers, for writing posts online, and is currently detaining 238 prisoners of conscience.

The country 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.

On November 15, Vietnam’s security forces detained female activist Dinh Thao upon her landing in Noi Bai International Airport after spending the last four years abroad for international advocacy, Defend the Defenders has learned.

Mrs. Thao who has a 16-month baby returned in her home country from Bangkok where she worked for VOICE (Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience), a U.S.-based rights group working for promoting human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam. She was taken by a group of around ten security officers to a police station for interrogation from the morning of Friday until 5 PM on the same day.

Police confiscated her passport, telling her that they may summon her for further interrogation in the future.

According to VOICE’s press release issued when she was held in police custody, in the past four years, Mrs. Thao has been working to promote human rights in Vietnam by engaging in a number of United Nations (UN)’s human rights mechanisms, advocating the EU and other foreign governments via bilateral agreements with Vietnam.

She has worked closely with international and regional NGOs to enhance knowledge of the international community about Vietnam’s human rights situation, the press release said.

Thao graduated from the prestigious Hanoi Medical University in 2015. She was one of the prominent civil activists in Hanoi before going abroad for human rights advocacy. She was a coordinator of the unregistered environmental group Cây Xanh (Green Trees) during its campaign in 2015 which aims to protest Hanoi’s authorities plan to chop down thousands of aged trees in the capital city’s main streets. She was also among key organizers of a campaign supporting independent candidates for the country’s highest legislative body National Assembly in the general election in 2016.

Thao’s detention was condemned by a number of international rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

On November 15, the People’s Court of Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province convicted human rights attorney Tran Vu Hai and his wife Ngo Tuyet Phuong and two local citizens of tax evasion under Article 161 of the 1999 Penal Code, Defend the Defenders has learned.

The couple was sentenced to one year of non-custodial reform and was ordered to pay an administrative fine of VND20 million ($850) each for the crime they have not committed, according to the lawyers providing legal assistance for the experienced couple attorneys.

According to the indictment against them, they were accused of committing a tax evasion worth VND276 million in a property deal in 2014. Mr. Hai and his wife reportedly bought a land parcel from Khanh Hoa province-based citizens Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh and Ngo Van Lam. The deal value was about VND16 billion but they reported to the local authorities just VND1.8 billion, by that way the sellers paid less tax for the deal. The province’s tax authorities had approved the deal.

As many as more than 60 lawyers had been registered to the court to voluntarily defense for the couple. However, many of them were denied and only around 40 were allowed to attend the trial which was treated as a political one since the local authorities deployed a large number of police officers to block all the roads leading to the court areas and the lawyers were under strict security check-up before entering the courtroom. They were requested to leave all electrical devices, including laptops and cell phones outside. A few reporters of the state-run newspapers were allowed to enter the courtroom to cover the trial.

The defense lawyers said as buyers, Mr. Hai and his wife are not subjects for tax payment for the deal, and they are innocent since the province’s tax authorities approved the deal. Ms. Hanh is a citizen of Belgium so the case should be handled by an upper court and the Nha Trang city’s People’s Court is not eligible for the case. In addition, the property Ms. Hanh sold to Mr. Hai was the only house she owned so she is not required to pay tax for the deal, according to current Vietnam’s law.

The trial lasted three days, longer than other cases with similar characters. On the first day, one of the defense attorneys, Nguyen Duy Binh was rudely expelled out of the courtroom and was taken out by two policemen after questioning Ms. Hanh about her legal representation. Binh was interrogated for hours in a local police station.

Authorities in Khanh Hoa probed the case in early July and placed the four under restricted travel, including travel abroad. In addition, Khanh Hoa police also conducted searching Mr. Hai’s law office and a private residence in Hanoi, in which they allegedly took away a large sum of money and documents from other cases.

It is clear that the allegation and convictions against Mr. Hai and his wife are political as recently the Ministry of Public Security denied Mr. Hai’s request for representing former prisoner of conscience Truong Duy Nhat who is accused of “power abuse” after being kidnapped in Bangkok and taken to Vietnam in late January.

Lawyer Hai is well-known for his participation in sensitive cases to represent victims of injustice, victims of forced land appropriation and political dissidents.

On November 11, the People’s Court of Vietnam’s central province of Nghe An found local pro-democracy college lecturer Nguyen Nang Tinh guilty of “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Clause 1, Article 117 of the country’s 2015 Criminal Code.

After a few hours in Friday morning, the court sentenced him to 11 years in jail and five years of probation, the toughest imprisonment given for anti-state propaganda allegation for decades.

Three lawyers Dang Dinh Manh, Trinh Vinh Phuc, and Nguyen Van Mieng went to the courtroom without documentation for Mr. Tinh’s case since they had not been permitted to get access to the documents, including the indictment as Nghe An province’s authorities said the case’s documents are among top national secret. The attorneys were reportedly requested to leave their laptops and cell phones outside of the courtroom.

In his last words in the trial, before the judge announced the court’s decision, Mr. Tinh said he would repeat his actions to protect the country and promote human rights and democracy even he will be punished severely.

Mr. Tinh was arrested by Nghe An province’s security forces on May 29 who later charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda.” Authorities in Nghe An said Mr. Tinh has used his Facebook account Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh to post and share articles and videos as well as images with content defaming state leaders and distort the ruling communist party’s policies.

According to his family, his indictment was based on the information on the Facebook account Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh, however, he reportedly denied to have this account.

Local activists said Mr. Tinh, who is a lecturer of Nghe An College of Cultural and Art, is very active in promoting human rights and multi-party democracy, and speak out about the country’s issues such as systemic corruption, human rights abuse, widespread environmental pollution, and China’s violations to Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and the weak response of the communist government in Hanoi.

There are some videoclips on Youtube in which Mr. Tinh tough students to sing a number of patriotic songs composed by dissidents in which the government is criticized for suppressing anti-China activists.

Vietnam continues its political crackdown on local dissent, arresting more than two dozens human rights defenders, bloggers, and social activists so far this year with different allegations, from “disturbing public orders” to subversion and even terrorism. Hanoi has also convicted 31 activists on trumped-up allegations with a total 153.5 years in prison and 35 years of probation.

The communist regime is holding at least 237 prisoners of conscience as of November 15, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics. It is a worrying trend that the communist regime has been ging much longer sentences in recent years for the same allegations in the national security provisions of the Criminal Code compared to a decade ago, noted Vu Quoc Ngu, director of Vietnam’s non-profit organization.

A court in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City on Monday convicted three men, one of them an Australian citizen, on charges of engaging in terrorist activities, sentencing them to prison terms of from 10 to 12 years, Vietnamese sources said.

Chau Van Kham, Nguyen Van Vien, and Tran Van Quyen were arrested in January and initially charged with “activities attempting to overthrow the state,” charges that were later changed to involvement in “terrorism that aims to oppose the people’s administration.”

Kham, a resident of Sydney, Australia, and member of the banned U.S.-based Viet Tan opposition party, received the heaviest sentence, attorney Trinh Vinh Phuc—who represented Kham in court—told RFA’s Vietnamese Service following the trial.

“The verdict was very harsh, and the sentence was too heavy,” Phuc said, adding that the defendants’ case could have been tried under terms that would have provided for sentences of less than 10 years on conviction.

“But [the court] still proceeded without paying attention to details that would have allowed for this,” he said.

“The verdict was handed down on the grounds that Viet Tan is a terrorist organization,” though no evidence ever was offered that the defendants’ activities and motivations had shown a terrorist intent, Phuc said.

Criminalizing rights advocacy

In a statement Monday, Viet Tan chairman Hoang Diem slammed the convictions and sentences imposed on the defendants, saying Kham had “traveled to Vietnam [only] to gain first-hand insight into the human rights situation in the country.”

”Nguyen Van Vien and Tran Van Quyen are peaceful activists,” Diem added.

“We challenge the Vietnamese government to provide any evidence linking them to ‘terrorism.’ The Vietnamese authorities are criminalizing human rights advocacy,” Diem said.

Born in 1971 in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam province, Vien had been active in environmental protection work following a massive spill in 2016 of toxic waste by the Taiwan-owned Formosa firm, the Brotherhood for Democracy said in a Jan. 25 statement.

The environmental disaster destroyed livelihoods across Vietnam’s central coast and led to widespread protests and arrests in affected provinces.

Tran Van Quyen, a social activist who also took part in the Formosa protests, was taken into custody ten days later in southeastern Vietnam’s Binh Duong province.

Politically motivated charges

In a statement on Monday, Phil Robertson—deputy Asia director for the international rights group Human Rights Watch—said that by sentencing the 70-year-old Kham to 12 years in prison, Vietnam has essentially condemned him to death.

“Given the harsh and unforgiving conditions in Vietnam’s prisons, he will face huge challenges to survive his entire sentence,” Robertson said, adding that Vietnam has now jailed Kham on “bogus, politically motivated charges that demonstrate just how fearful Vietnam is about people exercising their rights and demanding genuine democracy.”

“He should be released immediately and unconditionally, and allowed to return to his family in Australia,” Robertson said.

According to Human Rights Watch, Vietnam’s one-party communist government currently holds an estimated 138 political prisoners, including rights advocates and bloggers deemed threats to national security.

It also controls all media, censors the internet, and restricts basic freedoms of expression.

Two VOD journalists were detained for three hours at the Poipet military police headquarters on Saturday after reporting on border security in the area.

CNRP acting president Sam Rainsy had vowed to attempt a return to Cambodia via Thailand that day, leading to the deployment of armed forces to the Thai border as well as dozens of arrests of CNRP supporters in the lead up.

Rainsy only got as far as Kuala Lumpur on November 9.

VOD reporter Vann Vichar said he and cameraman Chorn Chanren were detained by military police from about 3 to 6 p.m.

Officers went through all his equipment, including communications on his phone between him and his wife, Vichar said.

“After detaining me for about half an hour, they separated me from Chanren. They brought me to a room to question me and check my laptop and smartphone, going through all messages, group conversations and files,” he said.

“They listened to voice chats. After questioning, they wrote reports to send to their superiors. I don’t know how high it went,” Vichar added.

Poipet city governor Keat Hul and Banteay Meanchey provincial governor Um Reatrey declined to comment on the detentions. Poipet city military police commander Nuon Ninaro hung up on a reporter when contacted by VOD.

Information Ministry spokesmen Phos Sovann, Meas Sophorn and Ouk Kimseng could not be reached.

Ninaro, the military police commander, told Khmer Times that his officers had suspected the two journalists of being “involved” with Rainsy’s supporters.

“We just called them for questioning and then allowed them to go back,” Ninaro said.

In a statement on Sunday, the Cambodian Journalists Alliance, whose co-founders include VOD editors, said the journalists had at the time been interviewing fish sellers frustrated at being unable to cross the border.

The association’s executive director, May Titthara, added that the detentions amounted to a threat.

“The government and authorities must guarantee the rights of journalists by allowing them to report the news without fear,” Titthara said.

Cambodian Center for Human Rights coordinator Vann Sophath, who was also at the Poipet border at the time to monitor the situation, said journalists have the right to cover events happening in public places.

“Freedom of the press in Cambodia is not yet being broadly respected to an international standard,” Sophath said.

In recent years, Cambodia has steadily declined in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, falling from 137th worldwide in 2017 to 142nd last year and 143rd this year.

A pro-democracy politician and four other people were injured when a knife-wielding man attacked protesters in Hong Kong Sunday.

The assailant slashed and stabbed people at Cityplaza mall, one of several shopping centers where protesters had gathered to demand government reforms for the 22nd straight weekend.

Local media reported the attacker told his victims that Hong Kong belongs to China.

Four men and one woman were taken to hospitals, where two were in critical condition.

Among the injured was politician Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, who had part of his ear bitten off as he tried to prevent the attacker from leaving the scene.

A pro-democracy activist tweeted that his "close colleague Dr Andrew Chiu was assaulted" and his "left ear was brutally halved."

The semi-autonomous city has been mired in more than five months of massive and often times violent protests, sparked by a proposed bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China. The protests have evolved into demands for full democracy for Hong Kong, an independent inquiry into possible use of excessive force by police and complete amnesty for all activists arrested during the demonstrations. Masked activists have vandalized businesses and the city subway system, and attacked police with bricks and homemade gasoline bombs.

In September, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced she would withdraw the extradition bill but that has not quelled the protests.

Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy under the "one government, two systems" arrangement established when China regained control of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997. But political activists and observers say Beijing is slowly tightening its grip on the territory and eroding its basic freedoms.

Independent think tank Ibon Foundation expressed alarm over a notice of “ocular inspection” from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) in the wake of successive raids of offices of progressive organizations.

In a statement, Ibon Foundation said it received a call from a certain Col. Joaquin Alba of NCRPO at around 4 p.m. informing them that a warrant of arrest will be served on someone supposedly within the office building.

Ibon Foundation told Alba that the person indicated in the warrant does not hold office there but the latter insisted that they will still go to conduct “an ocular inspection.” The research group received information that a police team from Criminal Investigation and Detection Group was preparing to go to Ibon to ‘pick up’ someone (“may kukunin na tao”).

“This is alarming and we believe that it is part of the Duterte government’s worsening crackdown on activists upholding human rights and hence critical of its retrogressive policies and authoritarian governance,” the group said in a statement.

Ibon noted that the incident comes on the heels of a week of consecutive military and police operations against various activists and activist groups in Manila and Negros. “This included using spurious search warrants to raid homes and offices, planting guns and grenades, and arresting activists on bogus charges,” the group said.

Some 60 activists have been illegally arrested and detained in the past week.

Ibon is among many activist organizations and cause-oriented groups that have been red-tagged by the Duterte administration.

“The Duterte administration is attacking IBON because our research, education and advocacy work exposes Philippine economic realities that the government wants to conceal,” the group said.

The group also blamed the so-called task force to end local communist armed conflict for the ongoing crackdown against NGOs and progressive organizations.

As of press time, police forces have not showed up at the premises of Ibon Foundation building at Timog Avenue in Quezon City.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) also alerted members of the Philippine media as Altermidya network holds office at the second floor of the building.

In a statement, Altermidya warned the Philippine National Police to stay away from its office. “Make no mistake about it, any breach into our office premises will be construed as a grave violation of press freedom and will be met with widespread condemnation and legal action,” Altermidya said.

A union leader and community organizer was killed on Monday, November 4, in front of his wife in Cabuyao, Laguna.

Reynaldo Malaborbor, 61, was repeatedly shot in the head by an unidentified man while walking with his wife near their residence at 9:30 pm in Barangay Banay-banay.

Police said the gunman managed to flee the scene of the crime by foot.

Malaborbor was a longtime activist involved in several labor organizations. He served as coordinator of Makabayan Southern Tagalog during the 2019 elections.

He was among the 3 farmers arrested and accused by the military in 2010 of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. The case was dismissed in 2015.

Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (PAMANTIK- KMU) condemned the killing.

“The grizly details of the last moments of Rey Malaborbor goes to show that the de facto martial rule continues to claim victims in the form of its task forces to supposedly end the armed conflict,” the group said.

Malaborbor’s death comes amid what human rights groups call a “massive crackdown” of progressive organizations and dissent under President Rodrigo Duterte.

At least 60 people have been arrested during raids of offices and residences since October 31 in Manila and Bacolod.

Two journalists were arrested as Hong Kong police stormed shopping malls on Sunday following protests.

With no large-scale demonstrations planned, some protesters called for “shopping” stunts in seven districts including Admiralty, Mong Kok, Tsuen Wan, Wong Tai Sin, Tai Po, Sha Tin and Tuen Mun.

Scuffles were most serious at Cityplaza in Tai Koo, where pro-democracy district councillor Andrew Chiu had his ear bitten off after the assailant slashed several people with a knife.

According to lawmaker Charles Mok, Chiu’s ear was reconnected after an operation: “His status is stable but we will have to see if its function will recover,” Mok said.

Most of the protests began peacefully as sit-in events at shopping malls. At Cityplaza, residents formed human chains and sang protest songs, whilst a group of masked protesters vandalised a restaurant in the mall.

At around 6pm, police stormed the mall and arrested several people. “Police warn the masked rioters to stop all destructive and illegal acts and appeal to the protestors to stay rational and calm. They should refrain from obstructing Police’s action,” the force said in a statement.

Hong Kong Law & Crime Politics & Protest Two journalists arrested as riot police storm malls around Hong Kong and deploy pepper spray 4 November 2019 13:25 Kris Cheng 5 min read

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Two journalists were arrested as Hong Kong police stormed shopping malls on Sunday following protests.

With no large-scale demonstrations planned, some protesters called for “shopping” stunts in seven districts including Admiralty, Mong Kok, Tsuen Wan, Wong Tai Sin, Tai Po, Sha Tin and Tuen Mun. cityplaza

A cityplaza guard. Photo: Stand News.

Scuffles were most serious at Cityplaza in Tai Koo, where pro-democracy district councillor Andrew Chiu had his ear bitten off after the assailant slashed several people with a knife.

According to lawmaker Charles Mok, Chiu’s ear was reconnected after an operation: “His status is stable but we will have to see if its function will recover,” Mok said. photojournalist Joey Kwok Stand News arrested

Joey Kwok, freelance photojournalist working for Stand News, being arrested. Photo: Stand News.

Most of the protests began peacefully as sit-in events at shopping malls. At Cityplaza, residents formed human chains and sang protest songs, whilst a group of masked protesters vandalised a restaurant in the mall.

At around 6pm, police stormed the mall and arrested several people. “Police warn the masked rioters to stop all destructive and illegal acts and appeal to the protestors to stay rational and calm. They should refrain from obstructing Police’s action,” the force said in a statement.

Joey Kwok, a freelance photojournalist working for Stand News, was arrested and handcuffed on suspicion of obstructing police as he was taking photos at the mall.

Stand News said Kwok was at standing at a distance from police officers and did not obstruct their work. The news outlet condemned the arrest as unreasonable and demanded his immediate release.

“He has said he was a journalist multiple times when he was arrested, but it was ignored by the police,” Stand News said.

Hong Kong has now entered into its 22nd weekend of protest and unrest, which was sparked by a now-withdrawn extradition bill that would have allowed fugitive transfers to mainland China.

A journalism student, who is a member of the Hong Kong Baptist University Students’ Union Editorial Board, was also arrested at the mall whilst covering the news.

Roland Chin, the university’s president, said in an email to students, alumni and staff members that the school was deeply concerned about the student’s well-being.

He said the head of the Department of Journalism and a lawyer have visited the police station to provide assistance. The student’s family members have been notified.

Hong Kong Law & Crime Politics & Protest Two journalists arrested as riot police storm malls around Hong Kong and deploy pepper spray 4 November 2019 13:25 Kris Cheng 5 min read

Donate

Two journalists were arrested as Hong Kong police stormed shopping malls on Sunday following protests.

With no large-scale demonstrations planned, some protesters called for “shopping” stunts in seven districts including Admiralty, Mong Kok, Tsuen Wan, Wong Tai Sin, Tai Po, Sha Tin and Tuen Mun. cityplaza

A cityplaza guard. Photo: Stand News.

Scuffles were most serious at Cityplaza in Tai Koo, where pro-democracy district councillor Andrew Chiu had his ear bitten off after the assailant slashed several people with a knife.

According to lawmaker Charles Mok, Chiu’s ear was reconnected after an operation: “His status is stable but we will have to see if its function will recover,” Mok said. photojournalist Joey Kwok Stand News arrested

Joey Kwok, freelance photojournalist working for Stand News, being arrested. Photo: Stand News.

Most of the protests began peacefully as sit-in events at shopping malls. At Cityplaza, residents formed human chains and sang protest songs, whilst a group of masked protesters vandalised a restaurant in the mall.

At around 6pm, police stormed the mall and arrested several people. “Police warn the masked rioters to stop all destructive and illegal acts and appeal to the protestors to stay rational and calm. They should refrain from obstructing Police’s action,” the force said in a statement.

Joey Kwok, a freelance photojournalist working for Stand News, was arrested and handcuffed on suspicion of obstructing police as he was taking photos at the mall.

Stand News said Kwok was at standing at a distance from police officers and did not obstruct their work. The news outlet condemned the arrest as unreasonable and demanded his immediate release. photojournalist Joey Kwok Stand News arrested

Joey Kwok, a freelance photojournalist working for Stand News, being arrested. Photo: Stand News.

“He has said he was a journalist multiple times when he was arrested, but it was ignored by the police,” Stand News said.

Hong Kong has now entered into its 22nd weekend of protest and unrest, which was sparked by a now-withdrawn extradition bill that would have allowed fugitive transfers to mainland China.

A journalism student, who is a member of the Hong Kong Baptist University Students’ Union Editorial Board, was also arrested at the mall whilst covering the news.

Roland Chin, the university’s president, said in an email to students, alumni and staff members that the school was deeply concerned about the student’s well-being.

He said the head of the Department of Journalism and a lawyer have visited the police station to provide assistance. The student’s family members have been notified.

“We are also liaising with the relevant government agencies in our effort to seek a fair and proper treatment for the other students arrested by the police over the weekend,” Chin said.

The student claimed police threatened him with rape at the San Uk Ling Holding Centre when he was arrested. “I would not commit suicide,” the student shouted, in reference to a spate of recent deaths which some in the protest movement believe to be suspicious.

Shopping mall protests

Police officers also stormed other malls. At around 1:40pm, officers took eight people away from a gathering outside Sha Tin Town Hall.

At 4pm, police stormed the New Town Plaza from the bus terminus below, arresting at least two. Some threw objects at police inside the mall, as officers pointed their rifles at people and fired pepper spray.

Similar scenes also occurred at Tai Po Mega Mall and Diamond Hill’s Plaza Hollywood. At the Mega Mall, some protesters were folding origami cranes to form protest slogans whilst others trashed a Yoshinoya branch in the mall, believing that the restaurant has sided with the government. Officers then rushed into the mall but did not make any arrests.

At around 6pm, police rushed into the Tai Po mall again, despite a commander ordering them not to do so. Apple Daily footage showed that the commander had to enter the mall and shout: “No-one enter the mall… go back and reform [team] at the bridge.”

Residents gathered again at the mall and riot police entered for the third time at around 7pm to arrest two people, prompting onlookers to throw objects at police from above. Officers fired pepper spray and pointed their rifles at them.

Tseung Kwan O incident

Meanwhile, protesters gathered in Tseung Kwan O following rumours that a police officer was getting married at the Crowne Plaza hotel. At around 1am, police fired tear gas to disperse them.

A student from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology appeared to be trying to escape the tear gas when he fell from a car park’s third floor onto the second floor. He was unconscious and rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Jordan.

The student was in a critical condition and underwent an operation to remove haematoma from his brain. Wei Shyy, president of the university, visited the student on Monday morning at the hospital.

Chiu is running in the District Council election’s Tai Koo Shing West constituency. Kacee Ting of the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong is also running.

Mr Kurban Ali is associated with the Afkar India Foundation, which is a grass-roots human rights organisation based in Shamli, Uttar Pradesh. He has also been associated with ‘AmanBiradari’ for the last two years. Aman Biradri is a nationwide people’s campaign for a secular, peaceful, just and humane world. Kurban Ali has been working on issues of education and women’s right. He has also been using the Right to Information (RTI) to highlight issues of public concern and functioning of governance structures. In the past, he hasfaced several threats from the officials of state electricity and education departments for filing RTIs to expose corrupt practices. The others who have been named in the police FIR are Mr Naushad, Mr Faran, admin of the Haji Babla Fan Club and two unknown.

According to information received, on November 2, 2019, a criminal case (FIR 564/2019) was filed against Kurban Ali and five others in the Kandhla Polic Station of Shamli under Sections 147,148,149,452,307, 504, 506 of the IPC and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act [IT Act],on a complaint by Afzal Ali. It is to be noted that Afzal Ali is the same person who in the past harassed Mr. Ashif and others, to whom the HRDs had been extending legal ssistance. This clearly shows that it is an act to supress the voices of the victims of mob lynching and the HRD from resorting to available legal options to claim relief. The recurring incidents of intimidation and attacks on the HRDs pose a direct threat to theirsafety and security. It also impinges their fundamental right to freedom of life and liberty, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. In order to enable HRDs to pursue their crucial work in the field, it is of utmost importance that congenial atmosphere needs to be created for the smooth working of the HRDs.

Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) has expressed deep concern over Rajuk’s mobile court drive yesterday that fined and ordered the rights organisation to leave its Lalmatia office in two months.

The mobile court led by Rajuk Executive Magistrate Jasmin Akhter conducted the drive at the building that houses the ASK office around noon. At one point, she went to the office and asked why the rights body was running its office in a residential area, said ASK in a statement.

ASK authorities presented all the documents of renting the office and stated that they maintained all the agreements as tenant, and that it is not a commercial organisation.

Besides, there are many business entities, schools and other social welfare-related organisations in the area, they pointed out.

Despite that, the magistrate fined ASK Tk 2 lakh and ordered them to leave the building in two months. The magistrate did not give ASK a copy of the order, despite a written request, the statement added.

“Such drive against a rights body is a matter of serious concern and worries ASK,” said Sheepa Hafiza, its executive director. She said ASK was established in 1986 and has been working tirelessly to uphold the rights of people.

“We apprehend that such drives of Rajuk will shrink the activities of rights bodies such as us,” she said.

According to the information received, on November 5, 2019 at8:10 AM, Dhananjay was abducted and brought to the Bihar Police Station in Bihar Sharif town of district Nalanda by a police team lead by the SHO Mr. Deepak Kumar. At the police station, hefaced degrading and inhuman treatment, including torture. Extreme methods of torture were used by the police including verbal abuse,slapping and beating with sticks. He was forced to remove his clothes, given electric shocks on his head near his ears, severely beaten including on the private parts. Sources informed that Dhananjay was picked up by the SHO Mr. Deepak Kumar from Jhing Nagar Mohalla (a locality in Bihar Sharif town) at around 8:10 AM,while he was going to meet the former ward counselor (parshad) on his bike. According to Dhananjay, he was not made aware of the grounds or reasons for detention and was abducted. He was first taken to Ali Nagar to the residence of Mr. Tinku Gupta, who is allegedly a dealer in illegal arms and ammunitions and has pending criminal charges regarding the same. At Tinku’s residence, Dhananjay was physically assaulted and was repeatedly forced to confess buying arms from Tinku. Dhananjay refused to succumb to any pressure to undertake a false confession. Dhananjay was then taken to the Bihar Police Station and illegally detained till 10:00 PM. He was once again brutally beaten and also subjected to extreme physically tortured, including electric shocks on his head near his ears. He was released only around 10:00 PM after the intervention of local respected persons. Dhananjay’s family members admitted him in the Sadar Hospital in Bihar Sharif immediately after he was released from the police custody on November 5, 2019. On November 6, 2019, the doctors at Sadar Hospital referred him to get treated in a high specialty hospital of the city. He was later taken to the Jeevan Jyoti hospital, Bihar Sharif for the treatment of his internal injuries.The Hon’ble Commission being the nodal agency on violence in police custody and attacks on HRDs is urged to take immediate action in the recent case and penalise the erring police officials who have blatantly violated the D.K. Basu and NHRC guidelines on pre-arrest & post-arrest guidelines. As per legal precedent,torture is not at all permitted whether it occurs during investigation, interrogation or otherwise. Custodial violence is in effect direct invasion of human rights. Torture in custody flouts the basic rights of citizens recognized by the Indian Constitution and is affront to human dignity. Custodial Torture is a calculated assault on human dignity and nothing can be more dehumanising as the conduct of police in practicingtorture of any kind on a person in their custody.

In two separate appeal hearings on November 6-7, the Higher People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld the jail sentences for Vietnamese American Michael Minh Phuong Nguyen and two local political activists named Nguyen Ngoc Anh and Huynh Duc Thinh, sending them back to prison, Defend the Defenders has learned.

On the appeal hearing on November 6, the court rejected the appeals of Mr. Michael Minh Phuong Nguyen who was sentenced to 12 years in jail on the allegation of subversion and Mr. Huynh Duc Thinh, who was given one year in prison on the allegation of misprision by the People’s Court of HCM City on June 24 this year. Meanwhile, on November 7, the same court denied the appeal of Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Anh who was sentenced to six years in prison and five years of probation by the People’s Court of Ben Tre province in the first-instance hearing on June 6.

In both appeal hearings, the judges reportedly said the final decisions were based on lack of new evidence proving the defendants’ defense. Both hearings lasted just a few hours in the mornings of Tuesday and Wednesday, observers said.

Mr. Michael Minh Phuong Nguyen visited his home country in late June and went to the central regions together with young activists Huynh Duc Thanh Binh and Tran Long Phi who participated in the mass demonstrations in HCM City on June 6, 2018 in which tens of thousands of residents rallied on streets to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. The trio was arrested and charged with subversion upon their return to HCM City on July 7 while Mr. Huynh Duc Thinh, a former political prisoner, and father of Mr. Huynh Duc Thanh Binh, was detained one day later.

Huynh Duc Thanh Binh and Tran Long Phi, who were given ten and eight years in jail by the trial on June 24, respectively, did not appeal for their sentences.

Observers said in the appeal hearing on November 6, relatives of Mr. Michael Minh Phuong Nguyen and Mr. Huynh Duc Thinh were not permitted to enter the courtroom. There were a number of the diplomats from the US’s Embassy in Hanoi and General Consulate in HCM City attended the hearing.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, 39, is a shrimp grower in Binh Dai district, Ben Tre province. He was arrested on August 30 last year. He was accused of posting numerous articles and live streams on his Facebook account Nguyễn Ngọc Ánh in which he speaks out about human rights violations, systemic environmental pollution, bad economic management of Vietnam’s communist government, China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and Vietnam’s weak response.

In late September, he was beaten by a criminal inmate who was likely acting on behalf of the authorities of Ben Tre province. Due to the assault, Mr. Anh suffered serious injuries in his right leg, left arm and head, and he feels difficulty in moving. Later, he was placed in an isolated cell where he has no support from other prisoners but serves himself.

Two days prior to his appeal, Human Rights Watch issued a press release calling on Vietnam’s communist regime to immediately and unconditionally release him because he has conducted no crime but exercised his right of freedom of expression on Facebook.

Facing increasing social dissatisfaction, Vietnam’s communist regime has intensified its crackdown on human rights defenders, political dissidents, social activists, and Facebookers in order to keep their political monopoly. So far this year, the regime has arrested at least 28 activists and sentenced 27 to a total 115.5 years in prison and 20 years of probation.

The regime has a plan to try seven others in the coming days and its victims are human rights lawyer Tran Vu Hai and his wife on allegation of tax evasion, pro-democracy activist Nguyen Nang Tinh on accusation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and four individuals named Vo Thuong Trung, Doan Viet Hoan, Nguyen Dinh Khue and Ngo Xuan Thanh who were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” for their plan to participate in peaceful demonstration in late April this year when the country marked the fall of the US-backed Saigon regime.

On November 5, authorities in the northern province of Hoa Binh arrested local resident named Nguyen Van Nghiem on allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” for his online postings and live streams on Facebook which were considered harmful for the regime.

Vietnam is holding at least 237 prisoners of conscience in critical conditions, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics. Hanoi always denies holding prisoners of conscience, saying it imprisons only law violators.

On November 7, the Higher People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City rejected the appeal of human rights defender and environmentalist Nguyen Ngoc Anh, sending him back to prison in the hearing failed to meet the international standards for a fair trial.

Mr. Anh, 39, will have to serve his 6-year imprisonment on the allegation of “Making, storing, disseminating, or propagandizing information, materials, and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for his online posting on his Facebook account. In addition, his imprisonment is followed by five years of probation.

In the hearing which lasted a few hours on the morning of Thursday, his wife, relatives, and friends were not permitted to enter the courtroom to observe it but watched its development via a TV screen in another room, typical for political cases.

Observers said the judge undermined the defense statement of Mr. Anh’s lawyer and from himself. The judge even questioned him why he attended anti-Formosa demonstrations in May 2016 since the Formosa’s spill did not directly affect Ben Tre province where Anh has a shrimp farm. In response, Anh said he wants to speak out to protect the environment everywhere on the earth. He claims that he is innocent.

Mr. Anh was arrested on August 30, 2018 by the authorities in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre due to his postings and live streams on Facebook which are about prototypical issues of concern to social activists in Vietnam, including the environmental destruction wrought by the Formosa’s toxic waste spill in April 2016, the lack of free choice in elections in 2016, and the welfare of political prisoners. However, Vietnam’s communist regime sees them as harmful and defamation of the regime.

Since being arrested, he has been a subject of inhumane treatment by Ben Tre province’s authorities. He was brutally beaten by an inmate in September who mostly acted under the instruction of the local police as they want him not to appeal the sentence given by the province’s court on June 6.

Authorities in Ben Tre have also persecuted his wife who has to take care of their six-year-old child. They have been placing her under close surveillance and several times summoned her to a police station for questioning.

Two days prior to his appeal, Human Rights Watch issued a press release calling on Vietnam’s communist regime to drop the charge against him and free him immediately and unconditionally. By convicting him, Vietnam clearly violates his right to freedom of speech, said the New York-based rights group.

Mr. Anh is among 237 prisoners of conscience being held by the regime in severe living conditions.

Authorities in Vietnam’s central province of Nghe An have decided to re-schedule the first-instance hearing on November 15 to try local pro-democracy activist Nguyen Nang Tinh on allegation of “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Clause 1, Article 117 of the country’s 2015 Criminal Code.

The trial will be carried out by the People’s Court of Nghe An province in its headquarters in Vinh city, according to the court’s notice sent to Mr. Tinh’s lawyer Dang Dinh Manh.

The trial, set on October 17 for the first time, was postponed due to the absence of some witnesses, said the court’s announcement on the scheduled day.

It is unclear whether lawyer Manh and other his colleagues have been permitted to have access to the case’s documentation to prepare for his defense. In mid-October, a few days before the scheduled trial, Mr. Tinh’s lawyers asked the court to postpone the trial as they complained that they had a very short time for his defense preparation. One week before the scheduled trial, his lawyers were allowed to meet with him in police custody and got access to his case’s documents, however, they had not permitted to make copies of the indictment and other documents, making their preparation impossible for the serious charge against him.

Mr. Tinh was arrested by Nghe An province’s security forces on May 29 who later charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda.” Authorities in Nghe An said Mr. Tinh has used his Facebook account Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh to post and share articles and videos as well as images with content defaming state leaders and distort the ruling communist party’s policies.

According to his family, his indictment was based on the information on the Facebook account Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh, however, he reportedly denied to have this account.

Local activists said Mr. Tinh, who is a college lecturer, is very active in promoting human rights and multi-party democracy, and speak out about the country’s issues such as systemic corruption, human rights abuse, widespread environmental pollution and China’s violations to Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and the weak response of the communist government in Hanoi.

There are some videoclips on Youtube in which Mr. Tinh tough students to sing a number of patriotic songs composed by dissidents in which the government is criticized for suppressing anti-China activists.

Vietnam continues its political crackdown on local dissent, arresting more than two dozens of human rights defenders, bloggers, and social activists so far this year with different allegations, from “disturbing public orders” to subversion. Hanoi has also convicted 27 activists on trumped-up allegations with a total 115.5 years in prison and 20 years of probation.

The communist regime is holding at least 237 prisoners of conscience as of November 6, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics.

Authorities in Vietnam’s northern province of Hoa Binh have arrested Mr. Nguyen Van Nghiem on allegation of “Making, storing, disseminating, or propagandizing information, materials, and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for his online posting on his Facebook account Nghiêm Nguyễn.

On November 5, officers from the Security Investigation Agency under Hoa Binh province’s Police Department carried out his detention and the search of his private residence in Hoa Binh city. They confiscated a number of his items, including two computers, two printers, cameras, and cell phones.

He will be held for 120 days for investigation and face imprisonment of between seven and 12 years if is convicted, according to current Vietnam’s law.

Mr. Nghiem, 56, has posted numerous statuses and conducted many live streams on his Facebook account on which he spoke out about the country’s issues such as systemic corruption, widespread environmental pollution, serious human rights abuse, and China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea). He has also criticized the communist regime and its leaders for failure to deal with these problems.

His live streams programs on Facebook have thousands of viewers thanks to his outspoken activities.

Mr. Nghiem has been the 18th Facebooker being arrested so far this year amid Vietnam’s increasing crackdown on local dissent which started in late 2015 with the arrests of prominent human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai and his assistant Ms. Le Thu Ha.

Since the beginning of 2019, Vietnam’s communist regime has arrested at least 28 human rights defenders, political dissidents, social activists, and Facebookers, mostly with allegations in the national security provisions in the Criminal Code. It has also sentenced 27 activists with a total of 115.5 years in jail and 20 years of probation.

Vietnam is holding at least 237 prisoners of conscience, including 28 in pre-trial detention which lasts up to 14 months.

Trials of many activists are scheduled in the coming two weeks.

MANILA, Philippines – Gabriela Women's Party – which won a seat in the 18th Congress – was red-tagged by both the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Department of National Defense (DND) in a hearing held inside the Batasang Pambansa.

Facing members of the House committee on national defense and security on Tuesday, November 5, AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Major General Reuben Basiao presented a list of 18 organizations that are alleged communist fronts.

Third on the list was Gabriela, which is currently represented in the House by Arlene Brosas after the party-list group secured more than 446,000 votes during the May 2019 elections.

The congresswoman, however, was not present during Basiao's presentation. When she arrived at the conference hall, she requested to see the list once again.

"Mismo dito sa Kongreso ay tina-tag kami as a communist terrorist group? Ano ba 'yan? Ano bang nangyayari? Bakit ganyan?" asked the second-termer congresswoman.

(We're being tagged as a communist terrorist group even here in Congress? What gives? What's happening? Why are you doing this?)

Brosas lashed out against the AFP and the DND, asking if Gabriela's inclusion in the list is a "prelude" to martial law.

"Familiar naman po kayo sa mga ginagawa namin. Binoto po kami ng taumbayan. Binoto po kami. May mandato po kami. Bakit nakalagay ang pangalan ng Gabriela Women's Party in particular? Ano pong ibig sabihin nito? Prelude ba ito sa martial law na ang mga legal entities at legal organizations in particular ay tina-target ngayon ng AFP?" asked Brosas.

(You're familiar with what we do here. We were voted by the people. We were elected. We have a mandate. Why put the name of Gabriela Women's Party in particular? What does this mean? Is this a prelude to martial law, with legal entities and legal organizations in particular now being targeted by the AFP?)

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana then said that based on documents recovered by the military across the country, Gabriela is a "legal front" for the Communist Party of the Philippines.

But the DND chief said they are "not red-tagging" Gabriela.

"There is no prelude to martial law. We are not red-tagging Gabriela. We are just saying that they are [a] front of the communist movement. We based this conclusion from documents that we captured from our operations all over the country," said Lorenzana.

"Palaging lumalabas 'yung Gabriela tsaka 'yung iba pang mga fronts nila. So what can you conclude there? I'm not saying you are communist. I'm saying that you are fronting, kayo 'yung legal front nila," he added.

(Gabriela's name keeps on popping up along with other fronts. So what can you conclude there? I'm not saying you are a communist. I'm saying that you are fronting, that you are their legal front.)

In a statement released after the hearing, Brosas once again slammed the AFP and the DND for their "attempt to criminalize dissent." (LISTEN: [PODCAST] Dapat bang gawing ilegal ang pagiging komunista?)

"Hindi kami armadong grupo at hindi armado ang mga miyembro namin. Sa ilalim ng kasalukuyang Konstitusyon at mga batas, hindi krimen ang mag-organisa at hindi krimen ang maging aktibista. Gabriela Women's Party strongly condemns this clear attempt to criminalize dissent and weaponize the law," said Brosas.

(We are not an armed group and our members are not armed either. Under the current Constitution and our laws, it is not a crime to organize and become activists. Gabriela Women's Party strongly condemns this clear attempt to criminalize dissent and weaponize the law.)

Gabriela's clash with the AFP and the DND came on the same day the Manila police arrested 3 members of progressive groups during a raid in Tondo past midnight.

On October 31, law enforcers in Bacolod City also arrested 56 persons affiliated with progressive and human rights groups during raids on their offices.

The government has decided to dissolve the Maldivian Democracy Network over content in a 2016 report that was deemed contrary to the tenets of Islam.

The community empowerment ministry cancelled MDN’s registry on Tuesday and informed the NGO to settle its debts and matters related to its property within 45 days.

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

Religious scholars launched a campaign to ban MDN in early October after screenshots of offensive sections in 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 during the past four weekends. 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.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih will take any action necessary to uphold rule of law and protect Islam and public interest, Home Minister Sheikh Imran Abdulla declared. “God willing, this government will not do anything without wisdom and due process,” the Adhaalath Party leader tweeted.

Sheikh Dr Mohamed Iyaz, a senior member of the Adhaalath Party and one of the leaders of the campaign to ban MDN, thanked the president for following through on assurances “even if it came a bit late.” Sheikh Ali Zaid also congratulated the president and expressed confidence that the report’s authors would be prosecuted.

A group of scholars met with the president last month to share concerns.

The Maldives constitution limits free speech to expression that are “not contrary to any tenet of Islam” and the penal code criminalises “criticism of Islam in a public medium with the intention of causing disregard for Islam,” which is categorised as a class one misdemeanour that carries a maximum prison sentence of one year.

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong says a decision by Hong Kong authorities to bar him from running in upcoming local elections proves "how Beijing manipulate[s] the election with political censorship and screening."

Wong posted the notice he received from an election commission officer on his Twitter page Tuesday declaring his candidacy invalid.

Wong had said last week that he was the only candidate running in the upcoming polls to be barred from taking part.

A government spokesman issued a written statement saying Wong's candidacy was invalidated because he has advocated for "self-determination" for Hong Kong.

The 23-year-old Wong, along with fellow student activists Nathan Law and Alex Chow, stormed a courtyard on the grounds of the government's headquarters in September 2014, which led to the "Umbrella Revolution" that shut down several major highways for more than two months, demanding fully free elections. The protests were launched after Beijing reneged on promises of universal suffrage by 2017, but ended without winning any concessions from the Hong Kong government.

The semi-autonomous city has been mired in nearly five months of massive and oftentimes violent protests since June, sparked by a proposed bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China. The protests have evolved into demands for full democracy for Hong Kong, along with an independent inquiry into possible use of excessive force by police and complete amnesty for all activists arrested during the demonstrations. Masked activists have vandalized businesses and the city subway system, and attacked police with bricks and homemade gasoline bombs.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam warned Tuesday that city's economy could see negative economic growth this year due to the protests.

Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy under the “one government, two systems” arrangement established when China regained control of the financial hub from Britain in 1997. But political activists and observers say Beijing is slowly tightening its grip on the territory and eroding its basic freedoms.

Police in southern China detained feminist activist and journalist Huang Xueqin after she returned to the mainland from Hong Kong and Taiwan, her friends said Friday.

Authorities in Guangdong province's Guangzhou city arrested Huang last Thursday on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," her friends said. The vague charge is commonly used against activists viewed as threatening by the ruling Communist Party.

The friends spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution for being publicly associated with Huang. Calls on Friday to Huang's lawyer and Guangzhou's Baiyun District Detention Center, where friends say she is detained, rang unanswered.

The friends said police harassed Huang's family after she published an essay describing her experience at a protest in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese city that has been roiled by months of anti-government demonstrations.

"Perhaps, under the powerful machine of the party state, ignorance and fear can be cultivated," Huang wrote in her essay. "But if you have personally experienced it, witnessed it, you cannot pretend to be ignorant."

In August, Guangzhou police confiscated Huang's passport and other travel documents, preventing her from pursuing a postgraduate law program at the University of Hong Kong.

Huang has been an outspoken voice in China's #MeToo movement, helping sexual assault victims highlight cases against university professors. She has worked as an independent reporter covering issues surrounding gender, equality and disadvantaged groups.

Detained, harassed

"It is unclear exactly the reasons for Huang's detention, but in recent weeks, more and more activists, writers and regular citizens in the mainland have been detained or harassed by authorities for their peacefully voicing support for the Hong Kong protests," said Yaqiu Wang, China researcher at Human Rights Watch.

"Huang's detention shows that the Chinese government has intensified the crackdown on mainland Chinese who peacefully showed solidarity with Hong Kong protesters, and that authorities are fearful that the protests in Hong Kong could inspire challenges to the government in the mainland, and any expression of ideas of freedom and democracy is a threat to their grip on power," Wang said.

The protests in Hong Kong began over the summer in response to a now-withdrawn extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to stand trial in mainland China, where critics say their legal rights would be threatened. The sometimes-violent demonstrations have since ballooned to encompass broader calls for democratic reform and an inquiry into alleged police abuse.

The Hong Kong Police Force has been obstructing the work of reporters at protests in recent months. They have even used excessive and unnecessary force. The Hong Kong Journalists Association has time and again expressed our discontent. Police has not just failed to make any improvement. They did more to obstruct the work of reporters. Yesterday, police officers targeted at journalists spraying blue dye on them. And without giving prior warning, they threw teargas canisters at a place where many reporters had gathered. HKJA again vehemently condemns Police for unreasonably obstructing the work of reporters. We demand the force to immediately stop interfering and causing injuries to reporters – and apologise to the media for their wrongdoings.

According to several press reports, police have deployed a water cannon truck to drive away protesters in Sham Shui Po on Sunday. On one occasion, officers inside the truck have twice sprayed blue dye directly to them.

Meanwhile, several journalists have been rudely treated by police officers during their reporting in Mong Kok. Some riot-police officers have shouted at reporters, pushed and drove them away. An officer had pointed his gun at reporters. Late evening, a group of riot-police officers had deliberately thrown a hand teargas canister to a group of reporters before they withdrew. The canister exploded above the heads of several reporters. Thank to their protection devices, they escaped injuries.

HKJA vehemently condemns the Police for ignoring freedom of reporting and freedom of the press when they repeatedly used unnecessary force against reporters. We reiterate that freedom of expression and press freedom are an important cornerstone of Hong Kong. Truth-finding is the sacred duty of reporters. We cannot take abuses of the use of force by the police as normal. We urge the Government to immediately correct their mistakes.

Authorities in the southwestern Chinese region of Guangxi have detained outspoken rights attorney Tan Yongpei, whose license to practice was revoked last year.

Tan was detained on Thursday by officers of the Nanning municipal police department during a raid on his Baijuying legal consultancy company.

An employee at a company occupying the same floor told RFA: "There were 10 or 20 of them. They came shortly after 5.00 p.m., just before we got off work."

"They showed their police identification and said they were from the police department and that they were looking for a lawyer surnamed Tan," he said. "Then they went in."

The employee said the officers were still on the premises when he left after 6.00 p.m. "They were forceful, but went into their offices quite politely, with somebody shooting video," he said. "They put seals on Tan's office door that said "Nanning Municipal Police Department."

The Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch website said the police hadn't produced any official documents authorizing the raid and search, however.

It said Tan had tried and failed to prevent them from carrying out the raid, which lasted around three hours, after which the police took Tan away with them.

Fellow Guangxi-based lawyer Tan Jiaji said it was hard to tell whether Tan would face criminal charges now, or simply be released after questioning.

"It's pretty hard to say right now," he said. "Anything is possible."

"He would regularly post [politically sensitive] stuff to social media, so maybe they now see him as a threat," Tan Jiaji said. "This sort of thing is happening more and more nowadays."

"I wasn't surprised at all that this happened."

'Picking quarrels and stirring up trouble'

He said the authorities can use catch-all charges like "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" to detain people for what they post to social media.

"The whole idea of what is picking quarrels and stirring up trouble is so broad," he said. "It's perfect for those in power to use [against government critics]."

In January, Tan's China Lawyer's Club was raided by dozens of police office who said it was an illegal organization of banned lawyers.

A nationwide police operation under the administration of President Xi Jinping has targeted more than 300 lawyers, law firms, and related activists for questioning, detention, imprisonment, debarring and travel bans since it launched in July 2015.

The China Lawyers' Club was set up in Guangxi's regional capital, Nanning, by a group of former rights attorneys who lost their "business license" at the hands of local justice departments, and may no longer represent clients in court.

Formally established on Sept. 29, 2018, the club's aim was to find employment and income for dozens of experienced litigators who no longer have an income in the wake of the crackdown.

The club traded as a legal services company, and had 'signed' lawyers in a manner similar to the way sports teams sign big stars. Under current regulations, Chinese lawyers need a business license to represent clients, but not to offer legal consultancy on petitions and complaints.

Authorities arrested 56 persons they alleged were communist rebels and “rescued” six minors supposedly undergoing “training and “indoctrination” during simultaneous raids on the offices of three activist groups and a private residence in Bacolod City early Friday evening, October 31.

Several firearms and grenades were also reported recovered during the raids on the offices of the Bayan Muna party-list and Gabriela in Barangay Bata, the National Federation of Sugar Workers at Libertad, and the home of Bayan Muna’s Romulo Bito-on and his wife Mermalyn, who were both arrested.

All three organizations have long been openly accused of being “legal fronts” of the communist movement.

Bito-on, on the other hand, has been previously arrested and charged for being an alleged communist.

But human rights group and some of those apprehended denied the accusations they were rebels and said the weapons had been “planted.”

Video taken of the search at the nearby office of Gabriela showed a police officer inspecting a revolver and ammunition taken from a backpack at a corner of the yard.

Local media quoted Captain Cenon Pancito, spokesman of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, as saying 49 persons, including the minors, were taken into custody from the Bayan Muna compound.

Among those arrested there were known activist leaders John Milton Lozande and Danny Tabura of the NFSW, Proceso Quiatchon of the human rights group Karapatan, Nilo Rosales of the Kilusang Mayo Uno, and Aldrin de Cerna of the Kilusang Mayo Uno.

Lozande said the raiders held them for around an hour and then he was called to a house in the compound and showed “an obviously planted” gun supposedly found in his bag.

Nine other persons were arrested at the Gabriela office and two more from the NFSW.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said among those arrested at the Gabriela office was Anne Krueger of the newly established alternative media outfit Paghimutad, which has been covering social issues, including extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses.

They were all taken to the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office.

Interestingly, the raids were covered by search warrants issued by Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert of Branch 89 of the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City.

Karapatan, in a statement, called this suspicious and said this was reminiscent of the Oplan Sauron 2 operations in Negros Oriental in March, which were covered by search warrants issued in Cebu City.

Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate also condemned the “dastardly Gestapo-like raid … simultaneously conducted by state forces against the offices of Bayan Muna, Gabriela and NFSW in Bacolod, Negros Occidental.”

He noted that the raids were conducted “at night before a long weekend so as to ensure that the courts are closed tomorrow so that the planted pieces evidence and subsequent trumped-up charges filed cannot immediately be challenged.”

Karapatan called the raids part of a “full-blown crackdown on activists and red-tagged legal organizations,” noting that earlier in the day, police arrested Cora Agovida, the Metro Manila chairperson of Gabriela, and her husband Mickael Tan Bartolome of the urban poor group Kadamay, and claimed a .45 caliber pistol and two grenades were seized from their home.

However, Pancito told media the raids, which he described as “part of cutting the source of manpower to Red areas,” or territory were the rebels operate, would prove to be a “big blow to the Red fighters of the New People’s Army” and would “trigger the downfall” of the insurgency on Negros.

Different groups assailed the recent arrests of a peasant leader and two Lumad volunteer teachers on Oct. 10 in Mindanao region.

The police arrested 68-year-old Virgilio “Ka Yoyong” Lincuna in Butuan City for alleged attempted murder which happened in Lianga, Surigao del Sur. Lincuna is the chairperson of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)-Caraga and Unyon sa mga Mag-uuma sa Agusan del Norte (UMAN). He is also a member of the KMP National Council.

On the same day, Melissa Comiso, head of the Literacy and Numeracy Program of Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP)-Northern Mindanao, and another teacher were also arrested by police operatives in barangay Limaha, Butuan City. Both are detained at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group office in Butuan City.

Karapatan denounced their arrest and called for their immediate release. The group said the arrests of Lincuna and Comisa are part of the government’s crackdown against organizers, activists, and progressive leaders in Mindanao.

“These attacks have been aggravated and justified by State policies, foremost of which is the continuing martial law in Mindanao, intensified operations under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and Oplan Kapanatagan,” Karapatan said in a statement.

‘Lincuna, veteran of the progressive farmers’ movement’

The KMP-Caraga region said Lincuna is a veteran of the progressive farmers’ movement in the region. He is a farmer organizer since the 1980s and has led campaigns against plantations and mining operations as well as providing paralegal services to farmers victimized by human rights violations.

Caraga is a resource rich region and has been a constant target of investors for expansion of plantations such as palm and mining operations. The area has been militarized since peasants continue to resist the occupation of their land for business interests.

Danilo Ramos, KMP chairperson, said Lincuna led several peasant struggles in the region and gained victories such as increase in wages of farmworkers, an increase in palay and copra prices, lowering of land rent and interest rates.

Ramos said agrarian reform beneficiaries in Agusan Plantation Inc., Filipinas Palm Plantations Inc. in Agusan del Sur and Tubay Agricultural Center in Agusan del Norte are asserting their right and defending their position in almost 10,000 hectares of agricultural lands that are now under the control of plantation companies.

Clearly, Ramos said, this recent attack against Lincuna “is an attack on those who fight against land grabbing.”

Meanwhile, RMP said Comiso has been a long-time member of RMP and has managed a number of schools in the northern Mindanao.

“She has tirelessly sought to bring education to Lumad communities and work with her fellow Lumad and other advocates to achieve this goal,” RMP said in a statement.

According to RMP, Cosimo has been tagged as supporter of the New People’s Army (NPA) because of her service to the Lumad children. She has also been receiving death threats through SMS and Messenger and was put under surveillance by alleged State forces, which prompted her to seek sanctuary.

“We call for the immediate release of Lincuna and the two Lumad teachers. In light of the closure of Lumad schools on the basis of unverified and malicious military reports, such are indicative of incessant violations against indigenous and peasant communities,” Karapatan said.

A leader of women’s group Gabriela and her husband were arrested by elements of the Manila Police District and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group early this morning, Oct. 31.

According to a statement released by Gabriela, at around 5:00 a.m. today, ten policemen forcibly entered the house of Cora Agovida, spokesperson of Gabriela-Metro Manila and her husband Michael Tan Bartolome in Manila. The couple was instructed to drop to the floor while their two children, aged two and ten years old, and their companion were asked to go outside. A few minutes later, police claimed they recovered a.45 caliber pistol and two grenades from the residence of the couple.

The couple has been brought to the Manila Police District and charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

The search warrant against the couple was issued by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 89, the same court that issued the search warrant for the simultaneous raids of offices of people’s organizations in Bacolod City, Oct. 31.

Their children had been under the custody of the Manila Rehabilitation Action Center last night. The couple has requested the Children’s Rehabilitation Center to look after their children. As of press time, the transfer of custody is being processed.

Gabriela condemned the arrest and called for the immediate release of Agovida and Bartolome.

An activist doctor and professor received death threats a few hours after joining a protest demanding a bigger budget for the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).

Dr. Gene Nisperos, president of the All UP Academic Employees Union-Manila Chapter (AUPAEU-Manila), received a text message Monday night, October 21, saying he and his family would be killed soon.

“I know where your condominium is. We will get your family one by one…You are dead by…including your children and wife,” the message read.

The message was sent by an unidentified person through mobile phone number +639567955995.

Nisperos blamed the climate of violence created by the Rodrigo Duterte government against those who seek substantial reforms and genuine change in Philippine society for the latest threats against him and his wife, also a doctor.

“In these times, those who do good and stand for what is right are persecuted. It [this administration] is sowing fear because it rules by fear. This must be opposed in whatever form and whenever it occurs,” Nisperos told Kodao.

As he was being interviewed by Kodao, Nisperos received another threat from the same number Tuesday morning.

A graduate of UP College of Medicine’s prestigious Intarmed program, Nisperos and wife, Dr. Julie Caguiat, served as community doctors in Mindanao before returning to Manila to advocate for community-based health programs in the national level.

Nisperos is an assistant professor who teaches Community Medicine in UP Manila.

Duterte government as suspects

The AUPAEU-Manila condemned the most recent death threats against Nisperos and family.

The union said the threat comes at a time when the AUPAEU-Manila is calling on all faculty, administrative staff, and researchers of the university to unite against the impending budget cut for the University of the Philippines, particularly on the UP Manila and Philippine General Hospital (PGH), and to campaign for the regularization of contractual workers, among others.

The union said the threats are attempts to sow fear among teachers and unionists who assert for their rights and to fight for a higher state subsidy for social services such as education and health.

“[O]ur Union will not tremble in the face of vicious repressive measures and increasingly fascist attacks by this administration,” AUPAEU-Manila said.

On October 30, the People’s Court of Ninh Kieu district in the Mekong Delta’s hub Can Tho City convicted university lecturer Pham Xuan Hao of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the country’s Criminal Code, state media has reported.

Accordingly, the court sentenced Mr. Hao to one year in prison for his postings on his Facebook page. He was said to post and share many articles which distorted the communist regime’s policies and defamed the country’s leadership. It is unclear when he was arrested.

Mr. Hao, 54, is a lecturer of Can Tho University. He graduated architecture and obtained a master’s degree.

He is among a number of Facebookers in Ninh Kieu district being convicted of “abusing democratic freedom” in recent years. In June this year, Quach Nguyen Anh Khoa was sentenced to six months in prison and in September last year, Doan Khanh Vinh Quang was given 27 months in jail for the same allegation. Vietnam’s communist regime is using controversial allegations “abusing democratic freedom” and “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code to silence online dissent. As many as nine activists are being imprisoned between six months and seven years for the first charge and 37 activists are held for the second charge, 30 of them were sentenced to between two and 14 years in jail. Currently, Vietnam is holding 236 prisoners of conscience, according to the latest statistics of Defend the Defenders.

Editor of Rekhdekh Weekly and Treasurer of Federation of Nepalese Journalist (FNJ) Prabir Dadel, 30, a resident of Musikot Municipality-13 has accused Ward Chairperson Dipak KC, 37, of threatening him on October 25.

Dadel accused KC of attempting to manhandle him in connection with a news report published about corruption in Rekhdekh Weekly. KC threatened the journalist after his name was also mentioned in the report about the corruption. Dadel has filed an oral complaint against KC at District Police Office and District Administration Office.

The military has opened a case against three prominent political activists – former Myanmar army Captain Nay Myo Zin, poet Saw Wai and lawyer U Kyi Myint – for their remarks on charter amendments made in April in Kawthaung Township, Tanintharyi Region.

The Kawthaung Township Court accepted the case on Oct. 31, according to the military’s Coastal Command.

One of the accused, Nay Myo Zin, is currently serving a one-year prison term under the same charge, filed by the Tatmadaw in Yangon, for calling the Constitution undemocratic.

The three addressed a public gathering at a hall in Kawthaung in support of the Parliament’s charter amendment committee on April 3.

Colonel Thant Sin Oo from the Coastal Command told The Irrawaddy that their remarks defamed the Tatmadaw (military) and the military leadership.

“Their comments were aimed at causing misunderstanding. Therefore, we petitioned directly to the Kawthaung court and the court charged them under Article 505 [of the Penal Code] on Oct. 17,” said Col. Thant Sin Oo.

Section 505(a) of the Penal Code carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment for anyone convicted of making, publishing or circulating statements, rumors or reports intended to cause military officers to mutiny, or to fail in or disregard their duties. It is a non-bailable offense.

U Kyi Myint told The Irrawaddy that he was sued for mentioning amendments to the Constitution at the gathering in Kawthaung six months ago, but insisted he did not say anything to damage the Tatmadaw.

The lawyer said: “Former Captain Nay Myo Zin talked for about 75 minutes. Ko Saw Wai talked for about an hour. I only talked for 20 minutes, as I was the eldest there and I could not cope with the heat. I talked about the Constitution, nothing else.”

He added: “We had to stand and raise [issues] for our country’s sake. There was no support from another country. We cannot stay silent. If everyone is silent, our country will further deteriorate. We must speak out about what needs to be done.”

But he said he was denied the opportunity to address the Kawthaung court.

“The military applied to the court on Oct. 17 and the case was accepted yesterday [Thursday], but we did not receive a letter. We don’t know yet if the letter arrived, whether we would be arrested without bail and sent to prison. According to the procedures, we will have to travel there and face [the charges].”

The number of military attempts to sue activists, especially those supporting charter amendments, has risen since April, said Maung Saung Kha, the director of Athan, a group advocating freedom of expression. Of 30 cases, 24 were lawsuits filed directly by the Tatmadaw against 77 people. The six remaining cases were filed by other people on behalf of the Tatmadaw, he said.

Those targeted have included monks, journalists, politicians, political activists, farmers and comedians.

Military spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said earlier that the Tatmadaw’s tolerance of criticism was not unlimited.

Kyauktada Township police have opened unlawful assembly cases against another three activists for organizing a protest at a courthouse in Yangon in support of three Karen activists who were later convicted of similar charges.

The police captain of Kyauktada Township has opened cases against Daw Sein Htwe and Ma Zarchi Linn of the Democracy, Peace and Women (DPW) group, and Naw Larshee Htoo of the Karen Women’s Union (KWU) for leading a rally in solidarity with three Karen activists who were found guilty Wednesday for holding an earlier unlawful gathering on Karen Martyrs’ Day in Yangon.

The Kyauktada police said in a summons letter that about 130 people led by Daw Sein Htwe, Ma Zarchi Linn and Naw Larshee Htoo chanted slogans at the township court as police brought three Karen activists—Daw Naw Ohn Hla, Saw Elbert Cho and Sa Thein Zaw Min —to a court hearing on their own charges of unlawful assembly. The summons letter says that Daw Sein Htwe, Ma Zarchi Linn and Naw Larshee Htoo did not ask permission to organize their demonstration.

Larshee Htoo is Karen, while Daw Sein Htwe and Ma Zarchi Linn are ethnic Burmese. The three activists who are now being sued were asked to appear at Kyauktada Police Station on Friday.

On Thursday, DPW and KWU issued a joint statement condemning the allegations, saying that they will continue to protest against the lawsuits, which they say constitute dictatorial oppression.

”People who supported those whose rights were being violated have now been [sued]. This shouldn’t be the case,” Ko Min Nay Htoo, general secretary of the DPW, told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

He added that he suspects the cases are the result of a grudge held by the authorities, because all of the accused are members of organizations founded by Naw Ohn Hla.

Ko Min Nay Htoo also said that if police arrest these three activists, all the supporters who came to the court on Sept. 27 will go to the police station to be arrested.

Naw Ohn Hla, Saw Elbert Cho and Sa Thein Zaw Min were sentenced by the Kyauktada Township Court on Wednesday to 15 days in prison. They were then released without being sent to jail again as they had already been detained for more than two weeks while they were prosecuted.

Police had filed a lawsuit against the three after they refused to comply with orders to delete the word ”martyr” from all aspects of this year’s Karen Martyrs’ Day commemoration.

Authorities banned the use of the term ”martyr” in reference to Karen revolutionary leader Saw Ba U Gyi, who was murdered on Aug. 12, 1950. His death is commemorated annually as Karen Martyrs’ Day.

This year on Aug. 12, more than 100 people, led by Naw Ohn Hla, So Elbert Cho and Sa Thein Zaw Min, participated in an event to mark the 69th anniversary of Karen Martyrs’ Day in front of City Hall in Kyauktada Township, Yangon.

In the last three months, at least three YSR Congress MLAs have been booked for attacks on journallists—including a murder case. It has been alleged that the ruling party legislators have targeted journalists for reporting news critical of them or the state government.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy empowered principal secretaries of all the departments last week to file cases against print, electronic media houses if ‘distorted or malafide intended’ news pertaining to their respective departments are circulated.

On October 15, 45-year-old K Sathyanarayana, who was a reporter with the Telugu newspaper Andhrajyothi was killed by two assailants near his residence in S Annavaram village in Tuni mandal, East Godavari District. According to a police complaint filed by K Gopalakrishna, brother of the deceased, Tuni MLA Dadisetti Raja, who is also the government chief whip, could have supported the murderers.

“Raja (MLA) had threatened (the deceased) in the presence of other reporters after the completion of counting in Assembly polls in May that he would see the end of Satyanarayana... Several people had made threatening calls to my brother saying that Raja was backing them," Satyanarayana's brother, Gopalakrishna, told the Times of India newspaper. It has also been reported that a month ago, Sathyanarayana escaped an attack and had filed a complaint and sought police protection.

On September 23, Naidu Nagarjuna Reddy, a reporter with the Telugu daily Surya, reportedly escaped death, as he was attacked by a gang of 25 people “in the presence of a YSR Congress leader in Prakasam district”. According to the FIR registered by the police, Nagarjuna stated that he was gheraoed by 25 persons along with Amanchi Krishna Mohan, former MLA and YSRCP leader, and was stabbed several times and was beaten up with iron rods. Nagarjuna suffered five fractures and seven stab wounds.

“Although I have highlighted and exposed former MLA Amanchi Krishna Mohan for his involvement in land-grabbing, sand mafia, and intimidation many times before, this attack was provoked because I helped a 10-year-old girl write a letter to the CM against Amanchi,” Nagarjuna told The Indian Express.

On August 25, Avula Manohar, a reporter with the Telugu news channel Maha News, was attacked by unidentified persons near Stone Valley School in Rayadurg town.

Manohar alleged that he was attacked by the henchmen of Rayadurg YSR Congress MLA Kapu Ramachandra Reddy. However, police had refused to name the MLA in the FIR.

“I have been doing reports against Reddy exposing his involvement in sand mafia, shady real estate deals and high-handed behaviour. In spite of telling the police, they have not included his name in the FIR. No arrests have been made although police have identified the culprits behind this attack, and they have not called me for identification,” Manohar was quoted as saying.

On August 11, N Dolendra Prasad, the editor of Telugu weekly Zaminryot was attacked by Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy, MLA from the Nellore Rural constituency, and his followers, Vishnu, Murali Krishna Yadav, and Suresh. According to the FIR registered in the case, Prasad claimed that the accused trespassed into his house “with a view to kill him with sharp weapons and dragged him from his house and also assaulted him, criminally intimidated him and attempted to murder him with a sharp weapon”.

Furthermore, two news channels, ABN Andhrajyothi and TV5, which are considered to be favorable to the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) have been kept under an unoffocial ban since September, allegedly propelled by the instructions of the YSR Congress leaders.

Although the regulator Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had on September 25 directed the multi-system operators (MSOs) to restore the two TV channels, the operators didn’t adhere to the orders citing technical reasons.

Opposition parties including TDP, Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Jana Sena have condemned the state of media under YSR Congress government.

According to sources on 4 October, 2019, around 7.30 am,a delegation of senior activists and globally recognised faces of Indian environmental and peace movementfacilitated by National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) landed at Srinagar airport in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The team included Lucknow’s Ramon Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey, Odisha’s Prafulla Samantara, winner of the Goldman Prize for his struggle against indiscriminate mining in the Niyamgiri Hills, Delhi’s Faisal Khan and Mohammed Javed, and Kerala’s Musthafa Mohamed of the Khudai Khidmatgar group. The team wasrestrained in the VIP lounge of the airport while they were preparing to visit the locked down Kashmir valley. The team was then forcibly sent back to Delhi on two separate commercial flights filled with soldiers between 4 and 4.30pm in the evening. They were detained at the airport on the orders of he Budgam district executive magistrate. According to sources individual notices in the name of Prafulla Samantara, Faisal Khan and Sandeep Pandey wereissued by District Magistrate of Budgam. The notice issued referred to “credible inputs” from various agencies that they intended to organise protests in different parts of Kashmir on the issue of abrogation of Article 370 and the withdrawal of special status ofJammu and Kashmir which could pose a threat to law and ordersituation in Kashmir. The notice also said that their entry into Jammu & Kashmir is being restricted till further orders. In a press conference held at Press Club of Indiain Delhi on 5 October, 2019, the returned activists informed that they had gone on a two-day visit to meet Kashmiri people and extend humanitarian assistance and solidarity to the communities in distress. The police at the spot told hem they would be arrested under prohibitory orders —Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code — which was in force in the Kashmir Valley. Countering the government’s claim that there was no curfew, the activists told the fact is that with Section 144 of CrPC in force people were not free to move about freely and even the Kashmiri officers of J&K government were being subjected to frisking and security checks by Central security forces. Since removing several constitutional provisions in August 2019 Indian authorities have flooded the Kashmir Valley with thousands of additional troops. Mobile internet and phone services were cut and landline phone access remained spotty, disrupting daily life and business in the valley, home to about 7 million people. More than 2,000 people, including mainstream political leaders, have been locked up or under house arrest. Kashmir Valley was placed under curfew, with severe restrictions on freedom of movement and ban on association and assembly of more than four people. There were strict restrictions on the movements of journalists, media reporters and publishers, resulting in a virtual blackout and a complete lockdown. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration proclaims the right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom “to seek, receive and impart information and idea through any medium regardless of frontiers”. Further Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights sets forth the right to freedom of opinion, expression and information. The protection of human rights defenders is critical to ensure that they are able to work in a safe, supportive environment and be free from attacks and reprisals. Article 21 of the Constitution of India ensures to all its citizen right to life –a life to live without fear, intimidation, harassment or mental torture. Also, The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted in 1998 by the UN General Assembly, states that governments are under a duty to “take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of human rights defenders by the competent authorities against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary actions” as a consequence of their efforts to promote human rights. Therefore, the government is bound by its international legal obligations to ensure that all activists and human rights defenders are provided with security against harassment or intimidation so that they may enjoy their constitutional right to due process, life and liberty under Article 21, and the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India. In the present case, interception of the human rights defenders and detaining them is an attempt to harass and intimidate the members of National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM)’s delegation led by prominent social activists and human rights defenders including Ramon Magsaysay Award winner, Dr. Sandeep Pandey, Prafulla Samantara of Lok Shakti Abhiyan, Odisha, Mr. Faisal Khan and Mohammed Javed from Delhi and Kerala’s Musthafa Mohamed of the Khudai Khidmatgar who were prevented from entering the locked down Kashmir valleyamounting to blatant denialof their rights to liberty of movement and freedom of association guaranteed by the Indian constitutionand other international instruments.

According to sources, on 13 October, 2019 Kashmiri journalist and human rights defender Mr. Bilal Bhatwas stopped from boarding an international flight to Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia by immigration authorities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. Mr. Bilal Bhat was due to visit Malaysia to represent India at the Children and Youth Assembly, organised by UN-ESCAP. The Indian immigration authorities stamped his passport saying that his visa was “cancelled without prejudice.” Sources informed that Mr. Bilal Bhat was selected as a delegate and was representing India at the Children and Youth Assembly, organised by UN-Habitat, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), Urbanice Malaysia and UN Major Group for Children and Youth in association with the 7th Asia-Pacific Urban Forum (APUF-7). When the defender reached the immigration counter at the airport around 8 pm on 13 October, 2019, he was first asked if he was a Kashmiri and then enquired about the purpose of his visit. The immigration officials asked him a few more questions and then asked him to produce further documents to verify his age. The officials then took his driver’s licence, visa and some other documents and asked him to wait outside the office. He spent nearly six hours at the airport, first trying to understand why he was prohibited from flying abroad and then to get his baggage, which was offloaded from his Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur. The defender was not given any reason for not allowing him to travel abroad. Kashmiri journalist and human rights defender Mr. Bilal Bhat is not the only case of authorities barring prominent Kashmiris from flying abroad. At least two other high-profile Kashmiris –bureaucrat-turned-politician Shah Faesaland Journalist –author and human rights defender Mr. Gowhar Geelani –have also been prevented from travelling abroad after the August 5 decision of government of India to dilute Article 370 and revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. Mr. Shah Faesal was detained at New Delhi's international airport 14 August 2019 and then sent back to Kashmir while journalist Gowhar Geelani was stopped at New Delhi's international airport on 31 August 2019 from travelling to Germany to attend an advanced training programme. Faesal has sharply criticized New Delhi's abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370. It is once again pointed out to the Commission that interception of Kashmiri journalist and human rights defender Mr. Bilal Bhatand barring him to fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to represent India at the Children and Youth Assembly, organised by UN-ESCAP by immigration authorities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi amounts to curtailment of Right to Liberty along with Freedom of Movement as guaranteed by the International Human Rights Law, International legal standards and the Indian Constitution.

Saigon-based pro-democracy activist Vu Huy Hoang has been interrogated and beaten by police in Ho Chi Minh City for his attempt to deliver books that were printed by an unregistered publisher called Liberal Publishing House.

Speaking to Defend the Defenders, the 46-year-old activist said he received an order to supply 10 copies of Đại Nghịch Bất Đạo and five copies of Ký Đinh Quang Anh Thái to a retired state official Kha Luong Ngai on October 15. When Hoang arrived at a private resident of the recipient in the morning of last Tuesday by his motorbike, plainclothes agents detained him and took him to a police station in Ward 6, District 3 for interrogation.

Hoang said that in the beginning, plainclothes agents beat him brutally on his head and body in police custody, but they stopped physical torture against him after they had more information about his social activities from the city police’s record.

Hoang was interrogated from 11 AM until 9 PM of the same day by security police officers from District 3, the city’s Police Department and the Ministry of Public Security about the contents of the ordered books and their origin: who and where have printed them.

The experienced activist said he remained silent in most times before police officers escorted him to his house. However, his house was under surveillance during the night and the police said they would summon him for further interrogation in the coming days.

In the early morning of October 16, when the surveillance was loosened, Hoang took his opportunity to leave his house and went into hiding. Now he was forced to stay inside in a secret place far from his family. He said he may have to stay away from his wife and two kids for months although he can communicate with them via secret chat applications such as Whatsapp, Telegram or Signal.

Hoang started his social activities in 2012 when he joined other activists in HCM City, Hanoi and other locations on various issues, including China’s violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and Hanoi’s weak response, human rights violations, serious environmental pollution, and charity programs. He is a member of the unregistered groups named the Vietnam Pathway Movement and the Liberal Publishing House.

In May 2016, local blogger and political writer Pham Doan Trang was invited by the US Embassy in Vietnam to participate in a meeting between local activists and then-President Barack Obama on the sidelines of his official visit to the communist nation. Hoang escorted Trang from HCM City to Hanoi but they were traced and detained by security forces in their midway. Police kept them for several days in a remote motel in the central province of Ninh Binh so Trang was not able to take part in the meeting.

Meanwhile, the Independent Publishing House is trying to produce unique books of political dissidents and writers considered as harmful for the communist regime which strives to halt the house’s works and suppress its staff.

Dozens of unofficial books have been printed by the Liberal Publishing House and their authors include political writers Pham Doan Trang, Pham Thanh and others from foreign countries.

Ký Đinh Quang Anh Thái is a book of the US-based veteran writer Dinh Quang Anh Thai, who is the incumbent editor-in-chief of the Nguoi Viet Daily News (or Người Việt). In this book, he wrote about prominent Vietnamese political dissidents and their activities which aim to promote human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam.

On the other hand, Đại Nghịch Bất Đạo is a book of Hanoi-based veteran journalist Pham Thanh about Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong, who is also the general secretary of the ruling Communist of Vietnam. In his book, Thanh described Trong as the biggest traitor of the Vietnamese nation.

Vietnam’s security forces are striving to demolish the Independent Publishing House and persecute its staff.

Vietnamese environmental activist and filmmaker Thinh Nguyen, a member of the independent civil group Green Trees, was detained on Friday in Hanoi in what was thought to be the government’s response to a film on other environmental activists who were detained for their advocacy.

Cao Vinh Thinh, a fellow member of Green Trees group, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that Nguyen, who was later released, had been outspoken about the government’s rights abuses.

“I know Mr. [Nguyen] is a brave artist, he specializes in making videos on [about his story] to let people know about the tortuous circumstances of injustice and death row inmates … as well as the right to speak up against the government’s wrong doing in causing people to lose their land unjustly,” she said.

“We heard that he had been arrested, beaten and handcuffed by the police at his own home. Since he has no relatives, no one witnessed the arrest," she added.

Cao said she was upset that the police arrested Nguyen without any prior notice or any search warrant.

“Before [Nguyen], other members of Green Trees like myself and Dang Vu Luong had the same [thing happen to us]. They [came with] no announcements or orders at all. They can just come and arrest people, just like they can ban people from traveling aboard, just like that," she said.

She said she thought that Nguyen got arrested because of his movie “Do Not Be Afraid,” which was released by Green Trees.

According to her, the film "has the sole purpose of protecting the environment, contributing to the voice and light, the truth about people like Hoang Duc Binh, who for standing up to protect the environment was arrested and imprisoned for 14 years".

Hoang was arrested in 2017 and handed the lengthy sentence for his involvement in protests regarding the Formosa disaster, a major toxic spill in central Vietnam’s by a steel plant owned by Formosa Plastics Group, a large Taiwan-owned industrial conglomerate, that devastated more than a hundred miles of coastline in four central provinces of Vietnam.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in an email that Nguyen’s arrest should never have happened.

"Vietnam has no good reason to arrest photographer and film-maker Thinh Nguyen for his peaceful advocacy for the environment and human rights,” said Robertson

“Sending squads of police to grab him from his house this morning shows the authorities' incredible intolerance for any sort of criticism. Vietnam should immediately and unconditionally release Thinh Nguyen and end its abusive surveillance and harassment of people exercising their rights," he said.

RFA contacted the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and the Tay Ho District Police in Hanoi by telephone to inquire about the arrest several times but did not receive a response.

In Taiwan, meanwhile, a resolution expressing concern over the human rights situation in Vietnam was unanimously adopted Friday by organizations affiliated with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) submitted the resolution to the 40th FIDH Congress, which met this week in Taipei. The annual congress, held for the first time in Asia this year, was attended by 400 human rights leaders, academics and civil society representatives.

VCHR’s resolution drew attention to the Vietnamese government’s suppression of criticism and peaceful protests, pointing out that activists are routinely detained for long periods of time. It also spoke out against the criminalization of free expression though legislation designed to “create a climate of fear among all those seeking to participate in public affairs.”

The resolution also called upon the European Union to postpone signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) “until it ensures the agreement guarantees the Vietnamese people’s fundamental rights.”

The FTA was signed in June this year, but has yet to be approved in the European Parliament.

“This resolution is deeply meaningful for human rights defenders in Vietnam,” said VCHR representative Võ Trần Nhật in a statement released by the organization.

“While the government deploys its vast machinery of repression, censorship, intimidation and imprisonment to suppress their voices, this statement shows that international civil society stands with them in their struggle, and will not be silenced,” he said.

Another resolution on Vietnamese environmental justice was also submitted by the Taiwanese Association for Human Rights at the congress.

The resolution, also unanimously adopted by the FIDH, drew attention to the environmental damage caused by the Formosa toxic spill.

It was critical of Vietnam’s failure in supporting victims and urged them to address human rights concerns including “the right to a clean environment, the right to food and health, the right to work, the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, the right to information and the right to an effective remedy.”

Rights activist Gulalai Ismail's father, Professor Muhammad Ismail, was sent to jail on 14-day judicial remand on Friday, a day after his daughter alleged that he had been picked up from outside the Peshawar High Court (PHC) by "men wearing Malitia (sic) dress".

Professor Ismail's lawyer, Fazal Khan, told DawnNewsTV that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Peshawar had arrested his client after registering a First Information Report (FIR) against him under the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016.

Khan said that his client was produced before judicial magistrate Naveedullah today, where the court rejected FIA's request for physical remand and instead sent him on a 14-day judicial remand. He added that they would soon file a bail application.

The lawyer said that on Thursday his client was at the PHC for another case.

"At around 4:30pm he left the high court building and was picked up by some unknown men and shifted to [an] unknown location," Khan claimed. Case registered

The FIR, a copy of which was seen by Dawn.com, was registered against Professor Ismail under Sections 10 and 11 of Peca 2016 read with Section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code at FIA Cyber Crime Circle in Peshawar.

The case was registered after a complaint was received against Ismail by persons namely Sajid Iqbal, Ali Ahmad, Riazur Rehman and Walid Mir on October 8.

“The complaint is regarding ... hate speech and fake information against government institutions of Pakistan on Facebook and Twitter,” according to the FIR.

It said the professor's Facebook and Twitter IDs, passwords and a mobile phone were seized by the FIA. US 'concerned'

Earlier on Friday, Gulalai via Twitter said she had received information that her father had been brought to the court premises.

On Friday morning, US Assistant Secretary of State Alice G. Wells, who is also the in-charge of South Asia affairs at the US State Department, had expressed concern over "reports of the continued harassment" of Gulalai's family and her father's detention.

"We encourage Pakistan to uphold citizens’ rights to peaceful assembly, expression, and due process," Wells said in a post shared on Twitter.

In September, the New York Times reported, Gulalai escaped Pakistani authorities the previous month and had reached the United States, where she applied for political asylum.

Read: Activist Gulalai Ismail 'escapes' to New York, applies for political asylum

Gulalai is an international award-winning activist and a prominent member of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) group who had been campaigning for the rights of women and the ethnic Pashtun minority.

She had not disclosed how she managed to leave the country. All she revealed was: "I didn’t fly out of any airport."

"I can’t tell you any more," NYT quoted her as saying during an interview. "My exit story will put many lives at risk."

According to NYT, no government officials were willing to make a public comment on the matter. Security officials had said that they had suspected Gulalai had left the country.

The leader of a pro-democracy group responsible for some of the largest peaceful protest marches in Hong Kong was attacked on Wednesday, four days before another planned mass rally.

Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit, convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front, was set upon by at least four non-ethnic Chinese assailants on Arran Street in Mong Kok at 7.40pm, a police source said.

The attack was the second against Sham in less than two months.

The Civil Human Rights Front said Sham had been smashed over the head with hammers and spanners but was conscious when sent to Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei. He was understood to be in stable condition.

A photo of Sham following the attack showed the activist lying on the ground near a white vehicle with blood spilled around him.

Police said Sham was bleeding from his head and arms when officers found him. The suspects fled in a car which officers were pursuing, the force said. An investigation was under way.

Jimmy Sham is pictured after Wednesday’s attack. Photo: FacebookJimmy Sham is pictured after Wednesday’s attack. Photo: Facebook Jimmy Sham is pictured after Wednesday’s attack. Photo: Facebook

The leader of a pro-democracy group responsible for some of the largest peaceful protest marches in Hong Kong was attacked on Wednesday, four days before another planned mass rally.

Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit, convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front, was set upon by at least four non-ethnic Chinese assailants on Arran Street in Mong Kok at 7.40pm, a police source said.

The attack was the second against Sham in less than two months.

The Civil Human Rights Front said Sham had been smashed over the head with hammers and spanners but was conscious when sent to Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei. He was understood to be in stable condition.

A photo of Sham following the attack showed the activist lying on the ground near a white vehicle with blood spilled around him.

Police said Sham was bleeding from his head and arms when officers found him. The suspects fled in a car which officers were pursuing, the force said. An investigation was under way. SUBSCRIBE TO Hong Kong News Get updates direct to your inbox By registering, you agree to our T&C and Privacy Policy Government condemns attack on Hong Kong protest leader

Fellow rights front member Figo Chan said witnesses had told him onlookers tried to stop the ambush but Sham’s attackers pointed a knife at them.

Sham had been making his way to the democracy group’s annual general meeting where he was expected to discuss a march from Tsim Sha Tsui to West Kowloon railway station set for Sunday.

Chan said the march would proceed as planned.

The rights front condemned the attack, saying it would have a “chilling effect” on democracy advocates and fuel fears of “white terror” in Hong Kong. China warns US it will take ‘countermeasures’ over Hong Kong bill

The attack was not the first against Sham. He and his assistant Law Kwok-wai were in late August set upon by two people in masks wielding a baseball bat and a rod, hours after the pair were told by police that a rally they had planned for the following weekend had been banned.

Police later arrested three male suspects, including a 15-year-old boy. The youngster was charged with conspiracy to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and appeared at Kowloon City Juvenile Court. Two other suspects remain at large.

In addition to his activism, Sham is contesting a seat in Hong Kong’s district council elections set for November, at Lek Yuen in Sha Tin.

A number of Hong Kong lawmakers from the city’s pan-democratic camp were among those visiting Sham at Kwong Wah Hospital on Wednesday night, including Shiu Ka-chun, Tanya Chan, Wu Chi-wai, Ip Kin-yuen, Raphael Wong Ho-ming and “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung. Fifteen-year-old boy arrested over attack on activist Jimmy Sham and his assistant

Tanya Chan, the bloc’s convenor, condemned the attack and called it shocking. She urged police to investigate as soon as possible.

“What has Hong Kong turned into?” she asked.

Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting said “the assault is clearly politically motivated”. He accused police of failing to protect opposition politicians and activists. Lam said he had been assaulted by government supporters in June but that police had not made any arrests.

Sha Tin district councillor Wong Yue-hon, who is campaigning against Sham for another term on the council in the November elections, condemned “all forms of violence” and wished Sham a speedy recovery.

“I do hope there will be a fair election and it will not be affected by this incident,” he said.

But Wong discouraged Hongkongers from attending Sunday’s rally, warning that it would descend into chaos like other protests in recent months. Election hopefuls insist use of ‘liberate’ slogan is not independence call

“I hope the government can come up with a concrete proposal to restore social order, instead of the city seeing more and more injuries,” he said.

Since August, at least nine pro-democracy figures have been attacked, including Democratic Party lawmaker Roy Kwong Chun-yu. Offices of pro-establishment politicians, meanwhile, have been trashed by radical protesters during the anti-government protests.

Ng Tak-nam, chief inspector of Mong Kok district, said the attackers, who were masked and were wearing black tops, assaulted Sham causing a 3cm (1.2-inch) wound on his forehead.

Ng condemned the violence and believed the crime was organised as the attackers had been wandering in the area for some time.

“After the attack, they jumped into a black private car and fled in the direction to Sham Shui Po,” Ng said. “Witnesses have told us the car had been driving in the area for a while. The attack was swift and the suspects wore similar clothing.”

Ng added uniformed officers were protecting Sham in hospital and they were investigating whether the case was linked to the previous attack in August.

A court in northern Vietnam’s Bac Ninh province on Friday rejected the appeal of a local activist and toll-booth protester, sending him back to jail to serve his 30-month term.

Ha Van Nam was convicted on July 30 on a charge of “causing public disorder” at a toll-booth set up under Vietnam’s controversial Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme, which has drawn protests around the country.

At Nam’s trial, the sentencing court said he had gone to the Pha Lai toll station on Vietnam’s Hwy. 18 with a large crowd on Dec. 29, 2018 to block traffic, causing losses of revenue to the station when station managers were forced to let vehicles pass through free of charge to relieve congestion.

Also sentenced by the court were Nguyen Quynh Phong, Le Van Khiem, Nguyen Tuan Quan, Vu Van Ha, Ngo Quang Hung, and Tran Quang Hai, who drew jail terms of from 18 to 36 months on the same charge.

Speaking to RFA’s Vietnamese Service, another local activist who was present in the courtroom Friday said prosecutors and judges did not allow Nam to speak in his own defense at the hearing.

“When Ha Van Nam tried to speak up for himself, the procuracy and the judges would not let him present his case,” Tran Thi Thu Thuy, a longtime friend and supporter, said.

“The judges said that Nam’s protest was a deliberate act of instigation, even though he had not encouraged others [to block traffic] but had only encouraged them to assert their rights,” she said, adding that Vietnamese law guarantees the people’s rights to protest wrongdoing.

Defense motions rejected

Prosecutors rejected defense motions to explain the cause of Nam’s protest, insisting that his appeal be judged only against the facts established during his first trial, Thuy said. And after about two hours of court hearing and deliberation, the court ruled to uphold Nam’s sentence.

“This sentence is very unfair. It is unjust for the government to accuse people of causing public disorder simply for insisting on their interests and legal rights,” she said.

Vietnamese citizens have long suspected station operators of falsifying collection records at BOT projects across the country, with citizen volunteers sometimes camping nearby to count cars passing through and ensure that tolls are not collected outside the times allowed.

One form of protest has involved truck drivers paying their tolls with small-denomination coins, slowing down collection and creating huge traffic jams.

Under the BOT model, investors transfer their projects to state ownership after building and operating them for a period of time.

Sichuan Human rights lawyer Lu Siwei received a notification from Chengdu All China Lawyers Association’s Disciplinary Committee for allegedly violating rules while accepting to represent a defendant of a human rights case, and thus will be subjected to disciplinary punishment.

Lawyer Lu specializes in finance laws and criminal defense, and at the same time, took up human rights cases; he was notably among the lawyers who were set to represent one of the defendants in the June 4th Wine Bottle Case and the Pengxi County land seizure case. The disciplinary punishment issues by the Lawyers Association is likely to be associated with Lawyer Lu taking on the case of Lawyer Chen Jiahong, who has been suspected of committing “incitement to subvert state power.”

Lawyer Chen’s charge was probably based on his calligraphy piece against “the evil bureaucracy” and encouraging democracy which he created in April this year, leading to his detainment in Guangxi’s Yulin Detention Center, where Lawyer Lu visited him on 9th May. At the same time, a list of lawyers defending Lawyer Chen began circulating online, which triggered the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Justice to call for Lawyer Lu to return to Chengdu as soon as possible, and to notify the staff at his law firm not to sign any contract of authorization.

The next day (10th May), the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Justice received evidence from the Sichuan Department of Justice regarding Lawyer Lu possibly violating professional ethics and the disciplinary code, thus referring the case to the Chengdu All China Lawyers Association. On 4th June, the Lawyers Association’s Disciplinary Committee started investigating the allegations and found that Lawyer Lu violated rules when taking up a case, therefore planning on disciplinary punishment.

At 2pm on Monday, Lawyer Lu Siwei attended a hearing regarding his alleged misconduct and consequent punishment by the Chengdu All China Lawyers Association at the Chengdu Legal Aid Centre.

The disciplinary punishment is likely associated with Lawyer Lu taking on the case of Lawyer Chen Jiahong, who has been suspected of committing “incitement to subvert state power.” The Lawyers Association’s Disciplinary Committee started investigating the allegations, and found that Lawyer Lu violated rules when taking up a case, therefore planning on disciplinary punishment, in addition to not allowing Lawyer Lu to pass the annual inspection for up to three months for the same reason.

Staff from the Consulate Generals of the USA, Germany, Canada, and the UK attended the hearing, but the moderator stated a fear for his own safety after their entry, saying that there were too many people in the meeting room, and requested that the members of the audience be limited to five only. A decision regarding Lawyer Lu has yet to be made, as it will be debated by the Chengdu All China Lawyers Association’s Disciplinary Committee.

A series of false allegations and smears have this week targeted journalists and unionists in Hong Kong known for speaking out against attacks on media. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) condemn the attacks against media workers and commends the solidarity of Hong Kong journalists in the face of such relentless attacks.

Since the “Prohibition on Face Covering”, otherwise knowns as the “anti-mask law”, was passed on October 4, media workers and their union, the Hong Kong Journalist Association (HKJA), have week endured a targeted campaign of smears and false allegations published online and in newspapers including state newspaper China Daily. The HKJA is among those strongly criticising the colonial era Emergency Regulation Ordinance that has allowed the government to ban the use of face masks – an action which jeopardises the safety not only of journalists but ordinary citizens caught up in tear gas attacks by the territory’s police.

On October 5, HKJA received a fake report claiming it “is racing against time to issue 10,000 press cards”. The false claim went viral on social media, despite HKJA’s rigorous defence and explanation of its eligibility requirements and application process for membership. Then, on October 7, Mark Pinkstone wrote in the China Daily that HKJA was “in the pocket of the NED/NDI”; a non-profit organisation funded by US Congress that invests in democratic movements worldwide. The article went on to defame HKJA chairperson, Chris Yeung alleging he attended “anti-China” meetings in the United States recently, even though the leader has not travelled to the country since 2007.

The HKJA said it deplored the “groundless and defamatory” article.

HKJA chairperson, Chris Yeung, said: “We trust your paper will take factual mistakes and unfounded allegations seriously and would take promptly action to set the record straight and make an apology for the remarks. To seek legal remedy for the damages caused to us is the last things we want.”

This week, Hong Kong Free Press reported comments by Hong Kong Executive Council member Ip Kwok-him, stating that the government “would not rule out a ban on the internet”. The IFJ strongly condemned such a move that would only further erode the right to free expression and democracy of Hong Kong.

The IFJ said: “Persistent attacks on the media this week is evidence of the continued erosion of Hong Kong’s democracy and the fragile state of press freedom. We strongly condemn the use of state media to spread defamatory and false statements about journalists and activists who are in the fight of their lives to defend Hong Kong’s press freedom. The IFJ expresses solidarity with Chris Yeung and will stand with the HKJA through these attacks.”

According tosources, Mr. Jagdish Goliaallegedly died in a mysterious condition on 6 October, 2019 while he was in the custody of police of Pachpadra Police Station inBalotra city ofBarmer district of Rajasthan.According to the police, RTI activist and human rights defender Mr. Jagdish Goliaand two others named as Gopal Singh and Mahendra Singh were arrested on 5 October, 2019 under section 151 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) over a land dispute within theirfamily. According to the police they were presented before theExecutive Magistrate at the Tehsil Office for bail on 6 October, 2019. Police claimed that the Magistrate had granted bail to Gopal Singh and Mahendra Singh and Mr. Jagdish Goliacomplained he was not feeling well. Following the Magistrate’s directions, he was taken to the Nahata Hospital where he was declared brought dead. Sources informed that Mr. Jagdish Goliahad a lot of sensitive documents related to the police and the police had detained him in the past. In regard to the circumstances of his death, the local RTI activists and human rights organisations challenge the police version of the events and suspectfoul play. They alleged that RTI activist died in police custody in Barmer’s Balotra city.They informed that RTI activist and human rights defender Mr. Jagdish Golia had a complaint pending in Pachpadra Police Station, in connection with that he first metMr. Subhash Chandra Khoja, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Balotrawhere he was unheard.Hethenwent straight to Pachpadra police station where he was booked under Section 151 CrPC at police station and was arrested. He was beaten and tortured at nightin the police station. According to them the circumstances surrounding Mr. Jagdish Golia’s death strongly suggest that he died due to the brutal torture committed by police officers at the Pachpadra Police Station in Balotra city of Barmer district of Rajasthan.Media reports carried the statement of Barmer SP Sharad Choudhary who said that Golia’s mother Varju Devi had filed a complaint, alleging station house officer (SHO) of the Pachpadra police station, Mr. Saroj Choudhary had not ensured the timely treatment to Golia’s internal and external injuries, which she said led to her son’s death. Devi said in her complaint that she and her son were working on their farm in Sarana village on 5 October, 2019 when some people, belonging to their family, came and beat up Golia. It is alleged that the state police is trying to cover-up his torture anddeathby insisting that he dieddue tointernal and external injuries suffered by him at his farmas it has beendone in most other previous occasions when persons taken into custody had died while in custody. This case is yet again an example of reprisal against human rights defenders despite there being several national and international mechanisms in place towards protection of human rights defenders. Recent one being the December, 2018 pledge by National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) wherein it was recognised that human rights defenders have a positive, important and legitimate role in contributing to the realisation of all human rights and was endeavoured by the Commission to create enabling environment for safeguard of human rights defenders.

On October 17, the People’s Court of Ia Grai district, Gia Lai province, convicted local Facebooker Nguyen Thi Hue on the charge of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the country’s Criminal Code for her online posting.

Ms. Hue, 51, was arrested in early March this year. She was accused of using Facebook accounts named “Nguyễn Thị Huệ,” “Công Lý Về Tôi,” “Nguyễn Huệ,” “Vũ Quỳnh Hương,” and “Den Quang” to disseminate “wrong information” in the period between July 2017 and March 2019 to distort state leaders and local state officials who were dealing with her case.

She was also alleged of insulting local police officers and prosecutors when she came to their offices to file petitions for her case. However, the state media did not disclose what she had petitioned for.

The state media also reported that Ms. Hue was warned of causing public disorders in the Gia Lai province’s Office of Citizens’ handling” in late December 2016. On January 20, 2017, she was fined VND200,000 ($9) for the same accusation.

Meanwhile, Facebooker Duong Thi Lanh, who was sentenced to eight years in jail earlier this year on allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code, has refused to appeal the decision of the Dak Nong province’s People’s Court since she feels there are no fair hearings as the court system is controlled by the ruling communists.

There is an increasing tendency in which authorities in many Vietnamese localities are using allegations in the National Security provisions in the Criminal Code such as subversion, “conducting anti-state propaganda” and “abusing democratic freedom” to silence local activists and Facebookers.

So far this year, Vietnam’s communist regime has arrested 25 activists and Facebookers, and convicted 24 for online activists with imprisonment between one and 12 years in prison.

Vietnam is holding 234 prisoners of conscience, according to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics. Hanoi always denies of holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators.

Pakistan’s immigration authorities barred entry of Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ) Asia Programme Coordinator Steven Butler, saying that his name had been placed on a 'stop list', a press statement issued by the body said on Thursday.

"Last [Wednesday] night, Pakistani immigration authorities denied entry to CPJ Asia Programme Coordinator Steven Butler, citing a blacklist managed by the Ministry of Interior," the CPJ statement said.

"A border officer at Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore told Butler that his journalist visa was valid, but it was voided because his name was 'on a stop list of the Interior Ministry'," it quoted Butler as saying.

According to the statement, Butler's passport was "confiscated" by airport authorities and he was forced to board a flight bound for Doha. When he arrived in Doha, authorities there placed him on a flight to Washington, DC, the statement read further.

While on the flight, Butler told the CPJ that the flight crew had seized his passport and boarding pass and that he was in "a kind of restrictive custody".

"Pakistani authorities’ move to block Steven Butler from entering the country is baffling and is a slap in the face to those concerned about press freedom in the country," the statement quoted CPJ’s executive director Joel Simon as saying.

"Pakistani authorities should give a full explanation of their decision to bar Butler from entering and correct this error. If the government is interested in demonstrating its commitment to a free press, it should conduct a swift and transparent investigation into this case."

Butler had landed in Lahore to participate in the Asma Jahangir Conference — Roadmap for Human Rights in Pakistan, said the statement.

In September, CPJ had expressed concern about a plan to form "media courts" in the country.

Last year, the organisation released a special report after recording testimonies of journalists in various cities of Pakistan. They said that the climate for press freedom in the country had been deteriorating, even as overall violence against and murder of journalists declined.

CPJ said that journalists, including freelancers, had "painted a picture of a media under siege". 'Alarming sign'

Rights organisations Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Amnesty International expressed alarm over Butler's deportation and said that the decision should be "reevaluated" and "reversed".

In a tweet, HRCP said that it was "disappointed by the government's decision" to deport Butler, adding that the decision "must be reevaluated".

"On one hand, the government claims to be building a softer image of Pakistan. On the other, it refuses entry to a reputed international journalist with a valid visa," HRCP said in a tweet.

Amnesty International also criticised the move, saying that the deportation of the CPJ official was "an alarming sign that freedom of expression continues to be under attack in Pakistan".

"The decision must be reversed immediately," the rights group demanded in a tweet.

Authorities in Vietnam’s central province of Quang Binh have kidnapped local pro-democracy activist and tried to charge him with “rape of a person under 16 years old” under Article 142 of the country’s 2015 Criminal Code in a case that many dissidents consider as a trumped-up allegation in a bid to silence him.

Businessman Thanh, 29, was reported missing in the afternoon of October 10 after he informed his family that he went outside to meet with a client for his house repair business. His family couldn’t contact him from early evening of the same day, fearing he may get trouble. One day later, the police in Ba Don town announced that they arrested him and publicized the arrest warrant on allegation of raping dated October 11.

It is likely Thanh will be held for months and no wonder if authorities in Quang Binh will change their charge against him into one of the allegations in the National Security provisions in the Criminal Code, like in other trumped-up cases in the past such as with political dissident Cu Huy Ha Vu and environmentalist Nguyen Nam Phong.

Thanh is a member of the unregistered group Brotherhood for Democracy which is suffering seriously from Vietnam’s ongoing crackdown on the local dissent with ten members being imprisoned for their peaceful activities.

In recent years, Thanh has reportedly worked against local corruption and high unofficial fees imposed by local schools. He has also voiced against the Taiwan-invested Formosa Steel Plant which discharged its industrial waste into the sea and caused the environmental disaster in Vietnam’s central coast in 2016 with hundreds of tons of fisheries died along the 200-kilometer line.

Due to his peaceful activities, he has been harassed by the local authorities who try to block his economic activities. He was detained several times for questioning.

Vietnam is intensifying its crackdown on the local dissent, arresting two dozens of activists so far this year. The communist regime has also convicted 23 bloggers, Facebookers and anti-corruption activists for their peaceful activities to a total 106.5 years in prison and 20 years of probation. A number of activists are held in pre-trial detention.

A group of 14 civil society organisations today criticised Kangar police chief Wari Kiew for lodging a police report against Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) executive director Sevan Doraisamy for defamation.

The group said Wari’s move is a clear sign by the authorities to intimidate human rights defenders who are merely assisting victims of alleged wrongful arrest and torture.

“We call on the Kangar Police Chief to withdraw his report and submit to an investigation by Suhakam to be cleared of any wrongdoing rather than use Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPP) tactics against whistleblowers,” the group said in a joint statement.

The statement, prepared by Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) and signed by Bersih 2.0, Society for the Promotion of Human Rights (Proham), Sisters in Islam and Pusat Komas among others said Wari’s action had breached Article 10 of the Federal Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech.

Earlier today, Wari lodged a police report against Sevan for defamation under Section 500 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act for organising a press conference yesterday alleging the police had mistakenly arrested a father and son over a kidnapping report involving a 15-year-old.

Sevan brought Pukalanthee Rajoo and his son Linggeswaran to a press conference in which he police arrested the duo on September 21 and held them without bail and failed to provide reason for their arrest until the day after.

According to Bernama, on September 23, three suspects were remanded for alleged attempted kidnapping of a 15-year-old girl in Kampung Tok Kandang, Kangar in Perlis by the Kangar Magistrate’s Court.

The girl had claimed that she was nearly kidnapped by a group of men around 11am when she was alone in the compound of her home.

She said she was approached by three men who stopped in front of her house in a black Perodua Viva car.

The victim then ran to a neighbour’s house to get help, while the suspects fled. All three were arrested a few hours later and subsequently remanded for four days.

After their release on September 26, Wari said police did not find sufficient evidence to link them to the crime and the deputy public prosecutor office did not give further instructions on the case.

Detained Vietnamese environmental activist Nguyen Ngoc Anh has been placed in solitary confinement after being beaten unconscious at the hands of his cellmate and refused treatment for his injuries, his wife said Friday, adding that he “fears for his life” in jail.

After visiting Anh at the Binh Phu Detention Center in Ben Tre’s Thanh Phu district on Friday morning, his wife, Nguyen Thi Chau, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that her husband was left with a limp following the attack.

“When I sat down, I saw my husband come out, but he could barely walk,” she said, adding that she had to hold back tears to ask him what had happened.

“My husband told me that last Friday, [prison authorities] invited [his cellmate], a convicted criminal, for a talk. When the [talk] was finished, he walked up to [my husband] pointing his finger at him and said, ‘I can kill you and I won’t have to [answer for it]. I will kill you this time.’”

Chau detailed her husband’s account of the fight that ensued.

“He jumped into the cell and threw a punch, but my husband was able to dodge,” she said.

“[My husband] turned around to grab a bath towel, but the criminal kicked him from behind. My husband fell and hit his head on the [concrete] bunk and he lost consciousness,” she said.

Chau said that after the fight, Anh requested medical attention, but prison authorities refused to help him.

“He was turned down [for medical attention]. They also didn’t arrest the guy that beat my husband, and escorted my husband to a separate cell, like for solitary confinement,” she said.

Anh, a shrimp farming engineer, was arrested in August 2018 in Ben Tre province for making politically charged posts on Facebook.

He was convicted in June 2019 on charges of “making, storing, spreading, and declaring transmitted information and documents to combat the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” according to Article 117 of Vietnam’s 2015 Criminal Code. Anh has rejected the sentence and launched an appeal.

The environmental activist has reported trouble with his cellmate over the past few months, according to his wife.

Last month, Chau told RFA that Anh had detailed physical and mental abuse by his cellmate during an earlier visit, and that he had also been threatened with death.

She also claimed that prison authorities are pressuring her husband to plead guilty and give up his appeal, and that the abuse becomes increasingly severe each time he refuses.

Difficult conditions

Chau described the conditions of Anh’s cell in solitary confinement as extremely difficult, and said guards refuse him basic necessities.

“While he’s in there he doesn’t have [access to] boiled water, he can’t read newspapers, he isn’t allowed to watch TV, or listen to the radio,” she said, adding that the injuries he sustained in the recent attack made the situation nearly intolerable.

“While he was in pain, he was unable to walk or even clean himself. Today he was barely able to walk when we visited him. He said he could not eat, or sleep.”

Chau said that Anh “dare not speak out” about his treatment in prison, because “the more he said, the more difficult it will be for him.”

“He fears for his life,” she said. “I just want the international community and human rights organizations to protect and help save my husband. I need nothing more than that.”

No date has been set for Anh’s appeal trial, and authorities have so far refused him permission to meet with a lawyer.

Authorities in India’s Tamil Nadu state on Friday arrested at least 15 Tibetans, including the head of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) exile group, as they protested an informal summit between visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Police detained TYC president Gonpo Dhundup and 14 Tibetan students in several locations ahead of Xi’s arrival in the city of Chennai, according to TYC and media reports, including the airport and a highway leading to a seaside resort in the town of Mamallapuram, where the two leaders kicked off an informal summit to improve Sino-Indian relations amid trade and border tensions.

Sonam Tsering, General Secretary of the TYC, told RFA’s Tibetan Service that police had arrested 15 of his group’s members as they waited for the Chinese leader’s entourage in Chennai.

“Initially, we tried to wait until Xi arrived at his hotel, but six of us were detained there, while police arrested six of our other Tibetan youth protesters from where they waited at the airport exit,” he said.

“We have three other protesters who were to demonstrate ahead of Xi’s arrival at the airport, but they were arrested moments ago.”

Reuters news agency reported that Dhundup shouted, “We want freedom,” as he was “wrestled away by six policemen” and taken away in a waiting autorickshaw, citing a video shared by TYC.

TYC is based in India’s hill town of Dharamsala—home to Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile—and India has taken special measures to prevent Tibetans from protesting Chinese rule in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet into exile in India following a failed 1959 national uprising against rule by China, which marched into the formerly independent Himalayan region nine years earlier.

Chinese authorities have maintained a tight grip on Tibet and on Tibetan-populated prefectures of Chinese provinces ever since, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of ethnic and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Earlier on Friday, TYC issued a press statement saying it “strongly condemns” Xi’s visit following China’s celebration of the 70th anniversary of Communist rule on Oct. 1, which it called a recognition of “70 years of oppression and aggression against the people of Tibet.”

The statement urged Modi to take up the issue of Tibet with Xi during their informal summit and called on the Indian government to release TYC cultural secretary Yeshi Chomphel, Students for a Free Tibet-India national director Rinzin Choedon, and prominent Tibetan activist Tenzin Tsundue, along with Tibetan students who are being held by police prior to Xi’s arrival.

“We also urge the Indian government for the quick release of TYC President Gonpo Dhundup along with 11 students members of RTYC Bangalore who were arrested today just before the president Xi Jinping’s arrival at the summit venue,” the statement said.

Earlier arrests

The arrests on Friday brought to at least 50 the number of Tibetans held in the lead up to Xi’s visit, including a stringer for RFA’s Tibetan Service assigned to cover the event, who has spent two nights in detention.

Kathmandu, which hosts Xi this weekend for a rare visit by a Chinese leader, has prevented 33 Tibetan delegates based in Nepal from returning home after they attended a major meeting of Tibetan exile groups from around the world in Dharamsala, the delegates told RFA on Thursday.

Of the 33, three delegates were able to slip back into Nepal just before the restriction was imposed, five delegates were sent back to India from the Nepalese border, and the rest are still stranded in India, the delegate said. Nepali media have reported that Nepal is preparing to sign an extradition treaty with China during Xi’s visit, raising concerns from human rights groups about the fate of Tibetans in the Himalayan country.

On Friday, Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) issued a statement outlining its concerns over Tibetans’ status in Nepal ahead of Xi’s visit, noting that at least 18 Tibetans were detained by police, although some of them were subsequently released.

Responding to reports that Nepal may sign an extradition deal with China, ICT president Matteo Mecacci said his organization is concerned that such a treaty could “effectively further jeopardize the situation of Tibetan refugees in Nepal, whose status has been precarious for a long time.”

“We call on the Nepalese authorities not to sign an extradition treaty with China and on the international community to be vigilant and protect the rights of Tibetans in Nepal,” he said.

ICT said that Nepal’s ability to counter China’s heavy-handed approach on Tibet has been increasingly compromised, particularly since Nepal joined the “One Belt One Road” initiative in 2017, with promises of millions of dollars of Chinese investment in Nepalese infrastructure projects that Beijing has tied to Nepal’s “role in guarding against Tibetan separatists,” according to state media.

The group said that following a crackdown in Tibet in 2008, and an ensuing tightening of border controls, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of Tibetan refugee arrivals in Nepal, while “thousands of Tibetans remain stateless and in political limbo” in the Himalayan nation.

A 2009 survey put the number of Tibetans in India at about 128,000 and 13,500 in Nepal.

India arrested another seven Tibetans on Thursday on the eve of a planned visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, while Nepal – the next stop on Xi’s South Asian itinerary – restricted the return from India of 33 Tibetan delegates who had attended a conference in Dharamsala, sources in the region said.

The arrests on Thursday in Tamil Nadu state, where Xi will meet India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, brought to 35 the number of Tibetans picked up ahead of the Xi visit, aimed at shoring up the Sino-Indian relationship after trade and border friction.

Six Tibetan activists and a stinger for RFA’s Tibetan service assigned to cover the Xi visit to the small Tamil Nadu town of Mamallapuram were taken into police custody in the state capital Chennai.

“I understand that the government would not want unruly scenes when foreign dignitaries visit. But these arrested Tibetans have not even protested, they just want a silent protest,” Henry Tiphagne, executive director of the rights group People’s Watch, told the Times of India on Thursday.

The Core Group for Tibetan Cause-India released a statement on October 9 calling on Modi to raise the Tibetan issue with Xi and urge China to resume long-frozen dialogue with representatives of the Dalai Lama as soon as possible.

Kathmandu, which hosts Xi this weekend for a rare visit by a Chinese leader, has prevented 33 Tibetan delegates based in Nepal from returning home after they attended a major meeting of Tibetan exile groups from around the world in Dharamsala, India, the delegates told RFA.

“We all have come to attend the special meeting but we are not allowed to go back to Nepal because Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting Nepal on October 12 and therefore until then we are stuck here,” one of the delegates told RFA’s Tibetan Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Groups of three or more people are not allowed to hang out together in Nepal at the moment. Even going out to buy vegetable has become difficult,” the delegate added.

Of the 33, three delegates were able to slip back into Nepal just before the restriction was imposed, five delegates were sent back to India from the Nepalese border and rest are still stranded in India, the delegate said.

The Oct 3-5 Special General Meeting held in Dharamsala drew 340 Tibetan community leaders and representatives from 24 countries including India, the United States, Canada, Australia, Nepal and Bhutan.

Nepali media have reported that Nepal is preparing to sign an extradition treaty with China during Xi’s visit, raising concerns from human rights groups about the fate of Tibetans in the Himalayan country.

The online news outfit Khabarhub said that Beijing had been pressing Kathmandu to sign the treaty during the Xi visit and that a draft is ready for Nepali cabinet approval.

The news website quoted an unnamed expert as saying there was worry that China is mainly interested in extraditing Tibetans involved in ‘anti-China’ activities in Nepal.

Sophie Richardson, the China director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said China’s judicial system presents problems that has made many countries reluctant to enter into extradition treaties with Beijing.

“In China’s case, we have well documented all of the problems with the deeply politicized judicial system, in which the courts are not independent from party control, people are regularly denied basic fair trial rights, and where punishments can wildly disproportionate to an alleged crime,” she told RFA.

A 2009 survey put the number of Tibetans in India at about 128,000 and 13,500 in Nepal.

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled Tibet into exile in India following a failed 1959 national uprising against rule by China, which marched into the formerly independent Himalayan region nine years earlier.

Chinese authorities have maintained a tight grip on Tibet and on Tibetan-populated prefectures of Chinese provinces ever since, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of ethnic and religious identity, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

Police in south India’s Tamil Nadu state have detained nine Tibetan activists for organizing a protest, days ahead of a planned visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to hold bilateral talks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a fellow activist said Tuesday.

On Oct. 6, Tamil Nadu police detained eight Tibetan activists representing the Members of Tibetan Students Association of Madras (TSAM), Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), and Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), TSAM vice president Tenzin Choedon told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

The activists had planned to hold a protest in the small Tamil Nadu town of Mamallapuram, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Chennai in southern India, where Xi and Modi are scheduled to meet on Oct. 11-13 amid recent strains in the Sino-Indian relationship over trade and border disputes.

According to Choedon, TSAM’s president was taken into custody and is being held at the St. Thomas Mount Police Station.

“The rest of the activists were captured later, though they are all detained at the St. Thomas Mount Police Station as of now,” he said.

The arrests came a day after police took into custody prominent Tibetan writer and activist Tenzin Tsundue at Kottakuppam in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district for allegedly having “Free Tibet” publicity materials in his possession, according to the Indian press, which said he was sent to Chennai’s Puzhal Central jail on Oct. 6.

Media reports said police detained 42 Tibetans in all, but let most of them go after they signed agreements to refrain from demonstrating and maintain peace.

Officers took Choeden and 13 other Tibetan students studying in Chennai to a police station for verification and forced them to sign agreements, Choedon said.

“They took our pictures too,” he added.

Gonpo Dhondups, president of the Dharamsala, India-based TYC, told RFA’s Tibetan Service that his organization called on the Human Rights Law Network to appeal for the release of the detained Tibetan activists.

“The lawyers have commenced the appeal, but they are not hopeful about getting them released until Xi Jinping’s return [to China],” he said.

“The FIR filed will proceed accordingly thereafter,” he added, referring to the First Information Report, a complaint lodged with police to set the process of criminal justice in motion and trigger an investigation.

Typical protest

Anti-China protests by Tibetans in India are common, said Manoj Joshi, an expert on national and international politics at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

“Tibetans have been protesting whenever there is an official visit from China,” he said. “This is not something new.”

Tibetans have long opposed what they see as Beijing’s oppressive religious and social policies and rule in Tibetan areas of the western part of China, often going to the extreme of setting themselves on fire in protest.

China, in turn, vehemently rejects the exiled Dalai Lama as the spiritual leader of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as his middle-way approach through dialogue with Beijing to grant Tibet genuine autonomy within the framework of the People’s Republic of China rather than independence.

“India cannot get involved between the Dalai Lama and China,” Joshi said. “However, I think it’s foolish of China to not accept the proposal because His Holiness the Dalai Lama has categorically said that he is not seeking independence but rather a middle-ground approach to settle the problem.”

“China’s version of calling minority communities like those in Xinjang and Tibet ‘autonomous’ has a completely different meaning, and therefore, the problem has always been with China,” he said.

The upcoming meeting will be the second informal summit between Modi and Xi following one in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province, in April 2018.

eporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a brutal attack on two TV journalists who were investigating the suspected embezzlement of state funding for schools in a tribal area of Gujarat state, in western India. Those responsible must be arrested quickly, RSF said.

One of the journalists, TV9 reporter Kuldip Parmar, was hospitalized with a broken leg after the attack on 4 October in which both he and his brother, cameraman Ashok Parmar, were badly beaten and temporarily abducted.

The assault took place after the brothers arrived at a school in the village of Kunvarsi. Men armed with sticks attacked Ashok as he waited outside the school while his brother went inside to talk to the principal. When Kuldip came out, he was also given a severe beating.

The two journalists were then bundled into a car and taken to a nearby farm where they were forced to drink alcohol with a woman while being photographed for blackmail purposes. After being threatened, the injured journalists were finally dumped at the side of a road near another village.

Ashok has identified their main assailant as Vadansinh Barad, the brother of Lakshman Barad, the leader of the local branch of India’s ruling BJP party.

“A physical attack of this kind cannot go unpunished,” RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk said. “The beatings that this reporter and his cameraman received while doing investigative reporting in the public interest put all of the region’s journalists in danger. The police must carry out an investigation and severely punish those responsible.”

The two TV9 journalists went to the village to investigate the alleged misuse of state funding for schools in tribal areas. To combat illiteracy and promote secular education among India’s disadvantaged tribes and castes, the state has been building and assisting schools since 1990.

India is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

The government of India’s Telangana state must immediately release Ravi Prakash, founder of independent Telugu news website Tolivelugu, and ensure he is not harassed because of his work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Hyderabad police arrested Prakash on October 5 on allegations of corporate fraud during his term as CEO of broadcaster TV9, according to media reports. Prakash was forced to resign as CEO in May in the midst of a hostile corporate takeover, according to the reports. However, two of his colleagues told CPJ that his arrest is in retaliation for his refusal to withdraw two interviews on his news portal accusing the Telangana chief minister and a leading industrialist of corruption.

“Ravi Prakash is clearly being persecuted in retaliation for critical coverage on the Tolivelugu news website,” said Steven Butler, CPJ Asia program coordinator in Washington, D.C. “Authorities in Telangana should release him immediately.”

Tolivelugu reporter Raghu Ganji told CPJ that on September 30 the news website had carried two interviews on its YouTube channel conducted by him on the ongoing strike by 50,000 employees of a state-run transport corporation demanding pay hike and a freeze on the privatization of public transport. In one interview, transport union leader E Aswathama Reddy accused Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao and industrialist PV Krishna Reddy of being involved in a multi-million dollar public transport scam. In another interview, opposition leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka made allegations of corruption against Rao and Reddy relating to a huge irrigation project in Kaleshwaram, Telangana.

On October 2, another Tolivelugu reporter, Narsimha Reddy (no relation to Krishna Reddy), received a message over WhatsApp from an unknown number asking that the interview with Vikramarka be changed to a “private” setting on YouTube, in order to remove it from public view. According to Narsimha Reddy, an hour later he got a call from another unknown number asking him to take down both the interviews. “The caller first claimed that he was calling from [the] information and public relations department of the Telangana government. When I enquired further, he said he is calling from the office of Krishna Reddy. He told me to remove the interviews or face consequences,” Narsimha Reddy told CPJ.

Later that day around 10:30 pm, Krishna Reddy directly called Prakash demanding that he remove the interviews, according to Narsimha Reddy and Ganji. Prakash refused to do so.

Prakash previously accused the chief minister and the industrialist of forcing in August 2018 a takeover of TV9, in order to wrest editorial control of the broadcaster, which is a popular Telugu-language news channel in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states and which had long been critical of Rao, according to The News Minute. When Rao came to power in 2014, he pressured cable operators not to air TV9 and another channel in response to criticism of his party, as CPJ documented at the time. In August 2018, Reddy and another industrialist, who Prakash claims are proxies for the chief minister, bought a majority stake in TV9 and started pressuring him to change its editorial stance. Since April this year, the new owners have filed police complaints against Prakash accusing him of stopping the new directors from participating in management, forging signatures, and most recently, siphoning off money from company accounts. He resigned from the company in May and launched the new outlet, Tolivelugu.

Krishna Reddy did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment via WhatsApp sent to his personal assistant. Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment via WhatsApp message sent to his public relations officer.

CPJ has documented cases in Telugu-speaking Telangana and Andhra Pradesh where political parties have threatened, physically attacked, and even arrested journalists. In July this year, Mojo TV’s then-CEO, Revathi Pogadadanda, was arrested in Hyderabad. Earlier in February, her channel’s crew was attacked on the streets over its coverage of women’s admission to the Sabarimala temple and resulting protests. In May, newly elected chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Jaganmohan Reddy, openly threatened two news channels critical of him, according to news website Filter Kaapi.

A Cambodian judge Thursday ordered a reinvestigation in the espionage case against two former Radio Free Asia journalists, saying he could not rule on their guilt or innocence without enough evidence.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Im Vannak ordered the new investigation on the day he was scheduled to deliver a verdict in the case against the two reporters, Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin.

The 2-year-old case has added to concerns about a crackdown on criticism and dissent by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who extended his rule of more than three decades in a general election last year after the main opposition party leader was arrested on treason charges and his party banned.

In a statement, John Lansing - the out-going CEO of the US Agency for Global Media, the agency that oversees RFA and other U.S. international broadcasters such as VOA - called the court's action "unacceptable" and said the international community should respond accordingly.

"While these continuing acts of intimidation and repression are meant to instill fear, they only underscore USAGM'sresolutesupport forits journalists and networks, including RFA," Lansing's statement read. "Together, we will continue to provide the Cambodian people with accurate, objective and professional journalism and to shine a light on the political and humanitarian crises facing the country."

The two former reporters for Washington-based RFA were arrested in November 2017 and charged with espionage and producing pornography. They denied the charges.

Hun Sen has accused the United States of trying to end his rule.

RFA earlier in 2017 shut down its Phnom Penh office complaining of a “relentless crackdown on independent voices.”

The bruises on his body speak of the cruelty Abrar Fahad suffered. His hands, legs and back -- injury marks were everywhere.

The second-year Buet student died after he was brutally beaten allegedly by some Chhatra League leaders at a university dormitory sometime between 7:00pm Sunday and 2:30am yesterday.

The incident triggered a firestorm of protests on campuses across the country. Many took to the social media to demand justice for Abrar.

Law enforcers suspect the 22-year-old student of the university’s electrical and electronic engineering department was attacked because of one of his recent Facebook posts, which seemed critical of some recent deals with India.

They said 10 members of Buet BCL were arrested in connection with the murder.

The arrestees include the chapter’s General Secretary Mehedi Hasan Rasel and Joint Secretary Muhtasim Fuad, who is also the vice president of the university’s BCL Sher-e-Bangla Hall unit.

“They have been taken into police custody,” Chawkbazar police station Officer-in-Charge Md Sohrab Hossain told The Daily Star.

Last night, Abrar’s father Barkat Ullah filed a murder case against 19, including the arrestees, with the police station.

Talking to this newspaper, police and one of Abrar’s roommates said Abrar returned to his room at Sher-e-Bangla Hall from his home in Kushtia around 5:30pm on Sunday.

He was studying when some BCL activists of the dormitory suddenly asked him to come out after 7:00pm.

“I was also studying and I thought they were calling Abrar for something very casual. I did not suspect anything bad,” Abrar’s roommate Shaikat said.

Wishing not to be named, another student of the hall, said the BCL leaders in question instructed some third-year students of the dormitory to take Abrar to room number 2011, where he was assaulted.

Talking to reporters, Buet BCL leaders said Abrar was called for “questioning” over his alleged involvement with Shibir, student front of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Abrar’s family members said he had nothing to do with Jamaat or Shibir.

Ashikul Islam Bitu, assistant secretary of Buet BCL, said, “Abrar was called in to room number 2011 [on the first floor].”

He said Abrar was quizzed by Mujtaba Rafid, deputy office secretary of Buet BCL; Ifty Mosharraf Shakal, social welfare secretary; and Amit Shaha, deputy law secretary, of the same unit.

Later, some fourth-year students were asked to go to the room. Buet BCL Sports Secretary Meftahul Islam Zion, Information and Research Secretary Anik Sharkar also went there, he said.

“At one stage, I left the room. Maybe, they beat him up after that. Later around 3:00am, I heard that Abrar was dead,” said Bitu.

Students found Abrar’s body on the staircase between the ground floor and the first floor around 2:30am yesterday. They called the hall provost and the resident doctor who declared him dead. The authorities then informed the matter to police, said Kamal Hossain, DMP additional deputy commissioner of Lalbagh division.

According to DB sources, Buet BCL’s Publication Affairs Secretary Ishtiaque Munna, a student of the mechanical engineering department, was the first to notice the Facebook post of Abrar.

In the post, uploaded at 5:32pm on October 5, Abrar apparently criticised some recent agreements with India on the use of Mongla Port, water sharing and gas export.

Munna told six other BCL leaders of batches 16 and 17 to take Abrar to room number 2011. Two of them, from batch 17, followed the order, the sources said.

As Abrar stepped inside the room, BCL leaders took away his mobile phone. They checked his Facebook, messenger and started interrogating him.

They slapped him and then started beating him mercilessly, said DB officials, quoting the arrestees.

Abrar eventually passed out.

Then they took him to a nearby room (room number 2005) which belonged to Munna. After Abrar’s condition worsened, they left him in the staircase, the sources said.

Some students of the hall said Mujtaba Rafid, Ifty Mosharraf Shakal and Amit Shaha live in room number 2011.

Amit, Rafid, Ifty and some third-year students were present at the room when Abrar was beaten, they said.

A Buet physician, Dr Mashuk Elahi, told reporters, “Some students of the hall called me over my phone around 3:00am. Abrar was dead by the time I found his body at the staircase.”

As the news spread, hundreds of Buet students took position in front of the provost office, demanding immediate arrest and punishment of the killers.

They alleged a video clip of a CCTV installed at the hall was missing and demanded that the footage be shown to everyone.

Later in the evening, the footage went viral. It shows three youths, believed to be Buet students, carrying Abrar on a corridor and taking him towards the staircase.

A youth is seen walking next to them while six others are behind.

It is not clear whether Abrar was dead or alive at that time.

Meanwhile, Buet authorities have formed a probe committee, comprising several teachers, to investigate the murder.

In a press release, the authorities said a general diary was filed with Chawk Bazar Police Station in connection with the murder.

Last night, Chhatra League expelled 11 leaders and activists of the Buet unit on charges of their involvement in an “unfortunate” incident.

Most of the accused were arrested.

Following autopsy, Sohel Mahmud, head of forensic medicine department at Dhaka Medical College, said, “We saw injury marks all over Abrar’s body.”

“Heavy bruises were found on his hand, legs and back,” he said, adding that it seemed the victim was beaten with objects like sticks or cricket stumps.

The student died of internal bleeding and excessive pain, he said.

Abrar’s relatives and fellow students thronged the DMC morgue.

Talking to reporters there, Abrar’s aunt Shahara Banu sobbed, “Parents sacrifice a lot to raise a child and get him or her admitted to an institution like Buet. A life cannot be lost this way. I am lost for words.

“The only thing I want now is the highest punishment to the killers.”

Abrar’s father Barkat Ullah entered the Buet campus in tears around 4:45pm. He went to the provost’s room and stayed there for more than an hour. He also went to the room where his son was tortured.

“I want justice,” he said and broke down in tears.

As the news of Abrar’s death spread, protests spread fast on campuses of Buet, Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Jagannath University and Rajshahi University.

They said they will continue protest today and will announce further demands and ultimatums.

On Dhaka University campus, students led by Ducsu Vice President Nurul Haque Nur held banners and chanted slogans on the foot of Raju Sculpture demanding justice for Abrar.

At Rajshahi University, students staged an hour-long demonstration in front of the university’s main gate, blocking Dhaka-Rajshahi highway from 1:30pm.

At Jahangirnagar University, students formed a human chain and staged demonstration protesting the killing.

Throughout the day, Buet students demonstrated for footage of the CCTVs installed at the Sher-e-Bangla Hall.

To calm them down, police officials and hall authorities said that the footage would be shown soon.

In the evening, police, however, refused to show the footage to protesters citing the ongoing investigation. This angered the protesters who tried to confine some DMP officials.

Additional policemen were called in but they could not enter the campus. The police officials finally managed to leave after the full footage was handed over to the students.

Later in the day, the protesters brought out a procession slamming the university authorities for their role.

At that time, they voiced several demands which included expulsion of the killers, their highest punishment and steps for protecting people with “different opinions”. They also demanded that killers be tried at the speedy trial tribunal.

Abrar’s first namaz-e-janaza was held at Buet Central Mosque around 10:00pm. Later, an ambulance carrying the body left for Kushtia for burial.

Police on Tuesday said they arrested a pro-democracy campaigner who spread “hatred” toward the monarchy in an online post – an allegation disputed by his lawyer.

Karn Pongpraphapan, 25, was arrested at his home last night and taken to a police station where he was charged with violating the cybercrime law, according to a statement released today by the cyberpolice division. If found guilty, Karn faces five years in jail.

The police statement did not specify what Karn wrote, but described it as an “inappropriate content on Facebook spreading hatred” which “upset a number of people” after it was widely shared. Karn is charged under Section 14 of the Computer Crime Act, which bans disseminating online contents that “pose a threat to national security.”

But his attorney Winyat Chatmontree said the message in question was a public Facebook post Karn wrote on Oct. 2, which asked “How do you want it to end?”

Karn then went on to reference historical events involving past foreign monarchies, such as “shooting like the Russians,” “beheading by guillotine like the French,” and “exiled like the Germans.”

Winyat said he wanted to stress that Karn’s writing did not mention the Thai monarchy in any way. He also disputed speculation on social media that Karn was criticizing the recent traffic woes allegedly caused by royal motorcade in Bangkok.

“He was not talking about the Thai monarchy. He was not talking about the royal convoy,” the lawyer said. “He was talking about the history of other nations.”

Winyat said the post was nonetheless twisted by a number of people, and some even shared the message while attaching an image of Thai royal family to the post, which Karn did not do. The activist later deleted the post and deactivated his account when it became clear that his words were being distorted, the lawyer said.

“There is an element of witch-hunting involved,” Winyat said. “He was falsely accused of attempting to overthrow the monarchy.”

The arrest came several days after digital economy minister Puttipong Punnakan announced that the police were on the verge of “purging” anti-monarchy figures on social media.

It also followed a recent wave of online discontent toward road blockades in the capital attributed to royal motorcades, which led to severe traffic congestion.

The police statement on Karn’s arrest warned that anyone sharing his message will be liable for prosecution under the same charge.

Winyat said Karn is currently held at a police station’s cellroom, and he will be brought to court later today for a bail hearing.

“He is in good spirits,” Winyat said.

Human rights activist and the legal council coordinator for the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Golfrid Siregar died on Sunday, October 6th, at the Haji Adam Malik Medan (RSUP HAM) general hospital.

The environmental watchdog’s North Sumatra council member Sumiati Surbakti urged police to investigate Golfrid’s death as she believes he was murdered. She maintains to deny Golfrid’s head injury as a result of a traffic accident.

“There were no bloodstains whatsoever found in the location that police refer to. There was wet soil found in his pants, and there are not wet soil at a flyover. It is clear that he was executed outside of the flyover. Police must investigate this, he is an environmentalist activist and human rights defender,” said Sumiati on Sunday.

According to reports, Golfrid Siregar was initially found with severe injuries to his head as it states he was found unconscious by a rickshaw driver with a destroyed cranium on Thursday, October 3, 2019, at around 01:00 Western Indonesia Time (WIB) at the Simpang Post flyover in Medan.

Golfrid was pronounced missing on the previous day of Wednesday, October 2. He initially departed from his home to meet an individual in the area of Marindal, which he was since unable to be contacted.

The rickshaw driver who found Golfrid then took him to the Mitra Sejati hospital and was unable to be submitted to the hospital without a name as he did not carry any form of identity. Not long after, the police came and took Golfrid to the RSUP HAM at 03:00 WIB.

Golfrid Siregar had undergone immediate surgery but was pronounced dead not long after due to the severity of his injury. His backpack containing his laptop, wallet, and ring was missing.

The North Sumatra Walhi suspects foul play was involved as they did not find any injury commonly found in victims of traffic accidents apart from Golfrid’s head injury that they suspect was caused by a massive blow to the head by a blunt object.

The Maldives government on Thursday shut down human rights group Maldivian Democracy Network over “content slandering Islam and the Prophet Mohamed” in a 2016 report on radicalisation.

Citing an ongoing police investigation prompted by public outrage, the registrar of associations at the community empowerment ministry ordered the NGO to suspend its operations. In a statement released shortly thereafter, the foreign ministry said the Maldives remains committed to upholding constitutional rights but noted that free speech in the country was “subject to refrainment from creating communal discord or blatantly contravening the fundamental tenets of Islam.”

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also recognises that the right to freedom of expression “cannot be exercised maliciously, in the form of hate-speech, or in a manner that contributes to public discord and enmity,” it added.

“The maintenance of public order and communal harmony while ensuring the rights of citizens are the highest obligations of any government. Islam is one of the fundamental sources of our country’s democratic framework as well as a source of unity and peace within our community,” the statement continued.

“The government unequivocally condemns those who foment hatred, send out threats and call for violence against others in the name of defending religion. We will not hesitate to use the full force of the law against those who do so. We call upon all parties to exercise their rights in a manner that is respectful of each other and the sentiments of the wider Maldivian community.”

A campaign led by religious scholars to ban MDN was launched earlier this month after screenshots of offensive sections in the report were widely shared on social media. The Islamic ministry asked police to investigate as President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih promised to take action.

In the face of the public outcry, MDN removed the report from its website and apologised for offending public sensitivities with the language used in the report. The NGO said it has decided to revise the report with the help of religious scholars.

In a second statement last week, MDN reiterated that it does not “accept or condone disrespect to Islam” and warned of “targeted campaigns to spread disinformation and hatred” in an alleged attempt to divert the focus of new counter-terrorism efforts. The NGO condemned death threats made against its members and staff.

“We accept the unfortunate use of language in some sections of the report. We have offered an apology for any offence to public sensitivities as soon as these issues were raised, and have since retracted the report for further review. MDN is providing full cooperation to the Maldives Police Service in its investigation against this organisation,” it added.

MDN Executive Director Shahindha Ismail told The Wire that the government was “trying to appease extremists and in doing so contradicting with due process and democratic principles by obstructing the legitimate work of a 14-year-old human rights organisation.”

On Friday, Human Rights Watch called on the government to immediately reverse MDN’s suspension and “investigate Islamist groups responsible for inciting violence against rights groups in the Maldives.” By shutting down the NGO, President Solih was “feeding a frenzy of threats and incitement by Islamist groups,” said Patricia Gossman, Asia associate director at the international human rights organisation.

HRW’s call was echoed by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.

“Instead of impeding the legitimate and important work done by MDN, the government should address rampant religious extremism and protect human rights defenders,” said Adilur Rahman Khan, FIDH Vice-President.

“It’s the ongoing use of social media to threaten and intimidate Maldivian human rights defenders that should be investigated, not a three-year old report that impeccably described instances of radicalisation among certain sectors of Maldivian society,” said Gerald Staberock, OMCT Secretary General.

Police blocked a march Sunday by thousands of protesters in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir who wanted to move toward the highly militarized Line of Control that divides the territory between Pakistan and India. The marchers are protesting the lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Police placed shipping containers on the road and deployed a large contingent of officers near Jaskool, 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the frontier to stop the supporters of the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, which announced it intended to cross the frontier to help Kashmiris under Indian oppression.

India imposed a strict curfew on Aug. 5 after stripping Indian-controlled Kashmir of its statehood.

JKLF wants Kashmir to be independent from from both India and Pakistan. The group has a history of attempts to cross the de facto frontier in the last three decades, including once in 1992 that ended in violence.

Abdul Hameed Butt, a leader of the JKLF, said the protesters would stage a sit-in until the blockade was removed.

The JKLF march, termed the "Freedom March" began Friday and reached the blockade after two overnight stops.

Police officer Arshad Naqvi said protesters won't be allowed to continue because of the threat of "unprovoked enemy fire" from the Indian side.

"We want to go and [the Pakistani administration] should let us go to help our people," said Tahir Hussain, a college student.

Also on Sunday, the main religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, held a protest march in the eastern city of Lahore with thousands protesting against the situation in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Maggie Hassan, along with Ambassador Paul Jones, charge d' affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, visited Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

A Foreign Ministry statement said the purpose of the visit was to see the ground situation and gauge public sentiment following Aug. 5 ``illegal Indian actions'' in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Hollen and Hassan met with President Masood Khan and Prime Minister Farooq Haider of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, who both urged the senators to play a role in saving the people of Kashmir from India's repressive measures and pressing India to resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Multiple media violations against journalists were recorded during the fourth round of Afghanistan’s presidential elections on Saturday, September 28. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its Afghanistan affiliate, the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) in highlighting the challenges for journalists in covering elections and calls for stronger efforts to stop election-related violations that impact the media’s ability to report.

According to AIJA, at least three journalists were attacked during the weekend election, which was covered by local and international media in various parts of Afghanistan. AIJA also fielded at least ten complaints by journalists regarding access to information, access to voting sites and telecommunications shutdowns.

In the early hours of September 29, the journalists Maqbol Noori, of Salam Watandar, reported he was threatened and humiliated and his phone taken when the brother of the chief of the provincial council of Parwan province entered the Jul Saraj voting site with his bodyguards. The incident occurred when the journalist requested to take a picture of him. His phone was later returned when police were called in to intervene.

Blocking of access to reporting was also recorded in the first hours of the election at around 10 am in provinces including Kabul, Khost, Bamyian, Balkh and Faryab. AIJA reported that some issues were resolved with the help of Afghanistan’s election commission and other security agencies. One complaint recorded by journalist Said Ismail Sadat, of Sima radio, in Samangan province was that media were denied access to report during vote counting at a local school voting site at Ajani Malika.

In a statement AIJA said it “appreciates efforts of Independent Election commission for cooperation with media which lead to unprecedented coverage of elections and hopes that these problems will not be seen in future elections.”

The IFJ said: “With further voting still to come in Afghanistan’s presidential election campaign, we call on Afghanistan’s election commission and security forces to ensure that all officials are educated and trained to respect the importance of transparency, safety and access to information for the country’s media during elections.”

Multiple media violations against journalists were recorded during the fourth round of Afghanistan’s presidential elections on Saturday, September 28. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its Afghanistan affiliate, the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) in highlighting the challenges for journalists in covering elections and calls for stronger efforts to stop election-related violations that impact the media’s ability to report.

According to AIJA, at least three journalists were attacked during the weekend election, which was covered by local and international media in various parts of Afghanistan. AIJA also fielded at least ten complaints by journalists regarding access to information, access to voting sites and telecommunications shutdowns. The reporter Abdul Rahman Hamad, of Kawoon Ghag Radio, was wounded on September 28 in Baghlan province. He was treated in hospital in Kabul, before returning to work.

In the early hours of September 29, a third journalists Maqbol Noori, of Salam Watandar, reported he was threatened and humiliated and his phone taken when the brother of the chief of the provincial council of Parwan province entered the Jul Saraj voting site with his bodyguards. The incident occurred when the journalist requested to take a picture of him. His phone was later returned when police were called in to intervene.

Blocking of access to reporting was also recorded in the first hours of the election at around 10 am in provinces including Kabul, Khost, Bamyian, Balkh and Faryab. AIJA reported that some issues were resolved with the help of Afghanistan’s election commission and other security agencies. One complaint recorded by journalist Said Ismail Sadat, of Sima radio, in Samangan province was that media were denied access to report during vote counting at a local school voting site at Ajani Malika.

In a statement AIJA said it “appreciates efforts of Independent Election commission for cooperation with media which lead to unprecedented coverage of elections and hopes that these problems will not be seen in future elections.”

The IFJ said: “With further voting still to come in Afghanistan’s presidential election campaign, we call on Afghanistan’s election commission and security forces to ensure that all officials are educated and trained to respect the importance of transparency, safety and access to information for the country’s media during elections.”

Multiple media violations against journalists were recorded during the fourth round of Afghanistan’s presidential elections on Saturday, September 28. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its Afghanistan affiliate, the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) in highlighting the challenges for journalists in covering elections and calls for stronger efforts to stop election-related violations that impact the media’s ability to report.

According to AIJA, at least three journalists were attacked during the weekend election, which was covered by local and international media in various parts of Afghanistan. AIJA also fielded at least ten complaints by journalists regarding access to information, access to voting sites and telecommunications shutdowns.

The first incident occurred the evening ahead of the election at around 5.30pm on Friday, September 27. Rahmatullah Nikzad, a reporter for Al Jazeera TV, was injured when a bullet hit him in his leg in Ghazni province.

Blocking of access to reporting was also recorded in the first hours of the election at around 10 am in provinces including Kabul, Khost, Bamyian, Balkh and Faryab. AIJA reported that some issues were resolved with the help of Afghanistan’s election commission and other security agencies. One complaint recorded by journalist Said Ismail Sadat, of Sima radio, in Samangan province was that media were denied access to report during vote counting at a local school voting site at Ajani Malika.

In a statement AIJA said it “appreciates efforts of Independent Election commission for cooperation with media which lead to unprecedented coverage of elections and hopes that these problems will not be seen in future elections.”

The IFJ said: “With further voting still to come in Afghanistan’s presidential election campaign, we call on Afghanistan’s election commission and security forces to ensure that all officials are educated and trained to respect the importance of transparency, safety and access to information for the country’s media during elections.”

According to the information received,the Chhattisgarh Police have registered an FIR on September 16, 2019 at Kirandul police station of Dantewada district against Soni Sori and Bela Bhatia,Nanda,sarpanch of Kirandul village and her husband,Bhima,and 150-200 unnamed villagers for protesting against an alleged fake encounter in the region.

The FIR registered under IPC Section 188 relates to disobeying instruction issued by a public servant. They have been booked for allegedly holding a protest illegally and shouting slogans against the administration and the police in Dantewada during the Model Code of Conduct. According to the FIR, Soni Sori and Bela Bhatia"instigated tribal" from remote villages to gherao a police station in Kirandul in violation of prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC, which are in place because of the by-electionscheduled for September 23, 2019. According to the police,the protest obstructed operations of the police station, hence a FIR was registered.It is pertinent to mention here that two alleged Maoists, Lachu Mandavi and one Podiya Sori were killed in the encounter on the intervening night of September 13 and 14, 2019,in a forest near Kutrem village in the Kirandul police station area in Dantewadadistrict. Police claimed that both the Maoists were commanders of Malangir area committee of CPI (Maoist)carrying rewards of Rs fivelakh each for information leading to their capture.According to the activists, the purpose of the FIR is to counter their support for villagers who have been suspicious of the circumstances under which the saidencounter with alleged Maoists took place.Sources informed that Bela Bhatia first raised suspicions about the encounter and the death of the two on being fired uponby district reserve guards (DRG) personnel. The villagers also alleged that the two had in fact been murdered by the forces. On September 15, 2019,Soni Sori and Bela Bhatia visited the place where the alleged encounter took place. On September 16,2019,about 150-200villagers along withBela Bhatia and SoniSori, the sarpanch of the village and her husband,protested claiming that the encounter was fake and the killed were innocent villagers, not Maoists.Sources informed that on the evening of September 16, 2019,the two women activists along with the mother of the villager who was in custody and another villager had submitted a complaint against the extra-judicial killingof Podiya Sori and Lachchu Mandaviand disappearance of Ajay Telam in Kirandul police station. Instead of filing a FIR based on their complaint,the Kirandul police lodged a FIR against the two women activists and others that very evening.They have been wrongly accused of instigating and mobilising the few hundred people who had come on their own volition to Kirandul police station for a peaceful protest against this injustice and to secure the release of Ajay Telam from illegal police custody.It is clearly a retributive action by the police which was intendedto intimidate those speaking up for rightsand against extra-judicial killings.

On 3 September 2019 at 8h30 am, the Ratanakiri Provincial Court has unfairly summoned Mr. Pen Bunnar ADHOC Senior Officer to appear. He is accused for “incitement to commit crimes On June 2017, Seda’s community required the support of ADHOC concerning a land issue. Indeed, the community was trying to prevent land clearing in the Lumphat district and ADHOC is providing a legal support to the communities with their land rights issues in the course of a program financed by USAID. On June 22 and 23, 2017, the communities tried to obtain help from the authorities with the monitoring and support of ADHOC represented by Mr. Pen Bunn. Then considering the lack of interest concerning this case from the government, they determined that the legal way was the best option to solve this issue. Mr Pen Bunnar and other community members have lodged a complaint against the land clearers but the court refused to take its responsibilities in this case. Instead, a lawsuit was launched Mr Pen Bunnar the ADHOC’s member that was supporting communities.”. Tomorrow convocation is for the second trial since the defendant have been already summoned by the investigating judge Mr Sreng Simsorya on 12 August 2019. On the first trial, where Mr Pen Bunn wasn’t present or represented because he couldn’t hire a lawyer and come to Phnom Pen in time (he got informed very late). During this first court, a few community members lied, under the pressure of the trial, and told the court that Mr Pen Bunn he was encouraging people to clear the lands. In exchange, the accusers received the right to use the cleared land from the court. ADHOC is very concerned that Mr Pen Bunnar could face charges and/or arrest and detention under Article 494 and 495 of the Criminal Code. This is a basic and vicious attempt to attack a defender of human rights and a violation of community’s rights. This trial is placed under the mark of corruption and is threatening a dedicated human right advocate from our organization. We call upon local, regional and international partners, embassies and UN representatives to intervene before the situation continues to deteriorate.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association deplores the use and threat of violence towards journalists covering events in Hong Kong.

HKJA notes with grave concern, reports by Radio Television Hong Kong ( RTHK) of serious injury to a journalist covering protests in Hong Kong on Sunday 29 September 2019.

Reports have stated that the journalist, working for an Indonesian-language publication based in Hong Kong, was injured in the eye by a rubber bullet or beanbag round whilst covering demonstrations in Wanchai.

Media video footage of her receiving medical attention shows her wearing a high visibility jacket with press markings as well as press card on display. HKJA also understands that the journalist was also wearing a helmet with press markings.

We are gravely concerned by these reports of serious injury to a journalist whilst covering events in HK. We are particularly concerned by reports that the injury was caused by a rubber bullet or bean bag round and that the journalist was not in the immediate vicinity of protestors at the time of the incident, she was clearly identifiable as being a member of the press and was with a number of other journalists at the time also wearing high visibility press markings.

Police have a duty to assist the press and facilitate reporting by members of the press. It is self-evident that this means that police should not cause injury to members of the press.

The HKJA will be investigating this incident and if substantiated, will be taking action to protect the rights and safety of our members

The HKJA also expresses grave concern about recent online threats, purportedly by radical protestors, to TVB journalists if they cover events in Hong Kong from today onwards.

We deplores the use and threat of violence towards journalists covering events in Hong Kong from any source and calls on police and protestors to allow journalists to carry out their job of reporting the facts without risk of serious injury or threats of violence.

(Hengyang, Hunan—Sept. 25, 2019) Authorities controlled human rights lawyer Xie Yang and a Chinese citizen, Chen Yanhui, this evening when they were discussing the Sept. 23 death of Wang Meiyu, a prisoner who died in the Hengyang Detention Center.

In the middle of Xie and Chen’s conversation at the Shennong Hotel in Hengyang, Hunan, six armed SWAT team members rushed in and contained them. Plainclothes police and hotel employees watched the room’s doorway, while the SWAT team members handled the staircase.

Xie’s wife, Chen Guiqiu, noted on social media that he was still being controlled as of 1:16 a.m. on Sept. 26 Beijing time. Her attempts to contact him have been unsuccessful, leading her to believe he is still being restricted by the officials.

Xie was previously taken into police custody for his human rights work on July 11, 2015, as part of a nationwide crackdown on rights attorneys known colloquially as the "709 Incident." During Xie's time in prison, he revealed that he had been tortured and that the lawyers appointed by his family were prevented from meeting him numerous times. To combat these accusations, China launched a propaganda campaign, claiming the reports were false. They also forced Xie Yang to deny his torture allegations during his trial.

Prior to his trial, Xie made a written declaration stating that he was not guilty of subversion, the charge which authorities used to imprison him, and said he would not plead guilty unless it was for the sake of his family or because of torture.

Xie was ultimately ruled "exempt from criminal penalty," a decision that means Xie should be legally free but also that the court had convicted him. He continues to be constantly monitored by the authorities.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an independent investigation into this week’s severe beating of a reporter in India’s east coast state of Andhra Pradesh who has repeatedly criticized a local legislator and the corruption associated with the state’s sand mafia. Those behind this attack, the third this journalist has received in as many years, must be identified, RSF said.

Nagarjuna Reddy, who works for the local Telugu-language daily Neti Surya, was nearly killed in this latest assault, which occurred shortly after he left a police station in the town of Ongole on the evening of 23 September.

He was intercepted by around 25 individuals armed with sticks, steel bars and knives, who took him to an isolated spot, proceeded to beat him and torture him, and finally dumped his body, presumably believing him to be dead. He was found by passers-by who took him to a hospital in the neighbouring town of Chirala, where he is being treated for severe injuries all over his body, including a broken leg.

“He is very badly injured and may be bed-ridden for the next four or five months,” RSF was told by Ravi Kumar, an Ongole-based journalist with the newspaper Sakshi who is a friend of Reddy and who visited him in hospital two days after the attack.

“This is the third major attack on Reddy since 2017,” said Charan Teja, a journalist with The News Minute in the nearby city of Hyderabad. “He had openly said he faced threats to his life from a local politician.” Reddy had even filed a complaint about the threats with the police.

Courageous reporter

“Nagarjuna Reddy embodies a courageous and determined journalism that does not hesitate to investigate the private interests of certain persons when they conflict with the public interest,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

“The repeated extremely violent attacks, like the one he has just sustained, are therefore all the more shocking. In view of the widespread corruption prevailing within the local elites, we urge Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy to order an independent enquiry that identifies the real instigators of these attacks and brings them to justice.”

After questioning Reddy in hospital and interviewing his wife, Jyothi, the police announced that they have arrested five individuals. Everything indicates that the attack was motivated by Reddy’s articles about Amanchi Krishna Mohan, a member of the state legislative assembly, and about Mohan’s alleged links with the Chirala sand mafia.

It was Reddy’s coverage of illegal sand mining that prompted the severe beating he received in 2018. “It was the same leg that was broken when he was beaten up by miscreants in 2018,” an Ongole-based journalist told RSF on condition of anonymity.

Police inaction

An extremely violent mob nearly lynched Reddy in the street in February 2017. In a shocking video showing part of this attack, Mohan’s brother can be seen beating Reddy with a steel bar.

A few months later, an independent panel of journalists, lawyers and academics concluded that this attack took place in front of Chirala’s main police station and that the police was looking on without intervening. Worse still, the police subsequently registered complaints against Reddy based on spurious allegations of extortion and deception.

At least six journalists were killed in connection with their work last year in India, which is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

Hong Kong authorities should conduct a swift and credible investigation into the recent assault of an Apple Daily reporter and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Yesterday, four men dressed in black and wearing yellow helmets rushed into a restaurant in Hong Kong’s Kwun Tong district where a reporter from the pro-democracy Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily was dining with her family, and kicked and punched the reporter and then fled the scene, according to a report by Apple Daily and other news reports.

During the assault, the attackers mentioned Jimmy Lai, founder and chair of Next Digital, which owns Apple Daily, according a report by the newspaper.

The journalist was taken to a hospital with injuries to her head and right ear, according to the newspaper, which published photos of her injuries but did not release the reporter’s name.

“If the rule of law means anything in Hong Kong, police must take swift action to apprehend not just the men who carried out this assault on an Apple Daily reporter, but anyone who planned the attack as well,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Attacks against journalists have gone unpunished for far too long in Hong Kong.”

Apple Daily editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong said in a statement on the newspaper’s website that the reporter was targeted for her reports and live-streams of the protests that have taken place in Hong Kong since June. The protests were originally sparked by an extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to face trial in mainland Chinese courts, as CPJ reported at the time.

The journalist’s personal information had recently been published by an anonymous website opposed to the protesters, according to a statement published on Facebook by the Hong Kong Journalists Association.

Hong Kong authorities have asked the website to remove identifying information of about 20 Apple Daily journalists, as well as more than 70 activists, student leaders, and protesters, but the website, which is registered to a Russian domain, has kept the information online, according to the South China Morning Post.

Jimmy Lai’s home was firebombed earlier this month, but no one was hurt in the incident, according to news reports.

The Hong Kong Police Force told CPJ in an email that the case is under investigation and no arrests have been made.

Journalists were protesting against the sacking of three journalists from Radio Nepal in Doti on Monday. Radio Nepal is the government-owned radio. The three journalists were sacked without any prior notice or administrative work.

NPU and FNJ were demanding the reinstatement of the journalists’ jobs during the protests. At 2pm nine union leaders, including Ajaya Babu Shiwakoti, NPU general secretary, Ram Prasad Dahal, FNJ secretary, Janmadev Jaisi, Yam Birahi, Min Bam, FNJ central committee, Dilip Paudel, NPU central committee, Chakra Kuwar, NPU Doti Branch Vice President, Yogendra Balayar, FNJ Doti Branch President and Prakash Bam, NPU Doti Branch President were arrested. They were detained for three hours, and released at 5pm.

NPU general secretary Ajaya Babu Shiwakoti said: “NPU condems the removal of three journalists from Doti from their job and demands their immediate restoration into their job. We also demand that government create an environment that is conducive to the freedom of expression, a guaranteed provision in the constitution.

Government is dealing harshly with the working journalists so that they do not feel safe to report against the government independently. Latest detentions of journalists show the intention of the government toward journalists and journalism in Nepal.”

The IFJ said: “The arrest of nine union leaders and journalists for simply protesting the sacking of their colleagues is a deplorable act by Nepali authorities and threatens press freedom and right to association in the country. Journalists in Nepal are working in a volatile environment where they do not feel safe to report. This kind of environment only weakens press freedom and ultimately Nepal’s democracy.”

Update on September 23, 2019:

Federation of Nepali journalist (FNJ), Central Committee has picketed all the broadcasting stations of Radio Nepal in all seven provinces, demanding the reinstatement of the working journalist removed from Radio Nepal Deepayal broadcasting centre. At Kathmandu, Bipul Pokhrel, Vice president of FNJ led the protest. The FNJ has warned the government that it will continue agitating broadcast stations until journalists are reinstated. The government is taking away the job of journalists on the basis of political faith.

Addressing the protest, Vice President Pokhrel warned the government not to play down FNJ. He said "journalists were fired from the job, and that this act confirmed that the administration and executive director of Radio Nepal were irresponsible.” He said that the expelled journalists should be immediately reinstated, adding that the FNJ would be forced to embark on a more powerful movement.

FNJ General Secretary Ramesh Bista urged the Minister of Communication and Information Technology Gokul Baskota, who himself was a journalist in the past, to remember that 'we had struggled together'. He warned that the FNJ would go against it if the government moved in a non-democratic manner.

The FNJ has been protesting for reinstatement of Sunita Rawal, Prakash Bam and Chakra Kunwar, who were fired by Radio Broadcasting Development Committee last August. Representatives of different media organizations and a significant number of journalists participated in the program. Central members of FNJ led the protests outside Kathmandu.

Anti-corruption reporter Kieu Dinh Lieu of Vietnam Lawyers journal, was brutally beaten by a group of three thugs in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai on September 26.

Due to the assault, he fell into inconscious, suffering from cerebral hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury. Currently, he is under special medical treatment.

He was reported to be stopped and beaten by a group of three thugs when he was in Truong Chinh street in Pleiku city, immediately after he informed the Gia Lai province’s Forest Ranger Department about three trucks full of illegal wood from Duc Co district.

The attackers also destroyed his car in a bid to search for videoclips and other documents regarding illegal forest lodging and trade of illegal timber in Gia Lai province. He was sent to the Central Highlands to investigate the illegal forest lodging in recent weeks.

A rights activist who called publicly for the resignation of Chinese president Xi Jinping has died in a police-run detention center in the central province of Hunan, rights groups said.

Wang Meiyu's widow received notification of her husband's death in the Hengyang Detention Center on Monday.

Wang, 38, was detained two months ago after holding up a placard in public calling on President Xi to step down, and for democratic elections in China.

"Wang Meiyu died in the detention center," his mother, who declined to give her name, told RFA. "Wang Meiyu was only 38 years old. His father passed away 20 years ago, and now my only child is dead too."

Wang's widow Cao Shuxia said Wang was initially detained on July 8, and had been in normal health when his detention began.

Then, he was reported as having died suddenly in a military hospital. Cao said Wang's body was "unrecognizable" when she went to identify it.

"He was a healthy, normal man when he went in there," she said. "Then, at 4.00 a.m. on Sept. 23, I got a call from the village [ruling Chinese Communist] Party secretary, who told me that Wang Meiyu was dead."

"I asked how he died, and he said he didn't know, and that he had been informed by his superiors," she said. "He didn't even know the time of death. Later, I found out when I called up to enquire that he had died in the emergency room of Hengyang 169 Hospital."

"When I saw his body, it was like another person; he was totally unrecognizable," Cao said. "They wouldn't let me take my cell phone in with me, and there were a lot of police officers there with us, and they stopped me from getting too close."

Solitary confinement

Cao said Wang had received two visits from a lawyer after being detained. During these meetings, the lawyer heard that he was initially held in a large cell along with dozens of other inmates.

But by the time the lawyer visited again at the end of August, Wang had been transferred to solitary confinement, she said.

She said Wang's death was a huge blow to his family, especially to his two children, the older of whom is just 11. The couple had already lost their jobs as a result of Wang's activism, she said.

"My husband didn't commit any crime: he did nothing wrong," Cao said.

An acquaintance of Wang's surnamed Chen said Wang had been campaigning for democratic elections in China, which was why he had called on President Xi and Premier Li Keqiang to resign.

"Last year, he held up a placard outside the gates of the Hengyang Normal University in Hunan, and he did it again last July, outside the Hunan provincial police department, where he was detained," Chen said.

"He was already under very tight surveillance and had no source of income, and relations with his family were already strained," he said.

The authorities had already been in touch to warn off anyone thinking of showing support to the family, or speaking out on Wang's behalf, he said. "I will likely have to go and meet with state security police tomorrow."

'Step down and enable general elections'

In November 2018, Wang wrote on the social media platform WeChat that he had been visited by five officers of the state security police from Hengyang's Zhoushi county.

"They accused me of making random comments online, calling on Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang to step down and enable general elections," Wang wrote at the time.

"They said this was attacking our national leaders and told me to ... write a letter of repentance and a guarantee [of future good behavior]."

"Morons: it never occurred to them that three days and three nights of torture with dripping water and electric batons until I was spitting blood and my soul had nearly left my body wouldn't bring about my surrender," he wrote.

"What have I done wrong? I didn't give these state security morons the time of day: eventually, they went away with their tails between their legs."

An employee who answered the phone at the Hengyang People's Liberation Army 169 Hospital declined to comment, saying she wasn't on duty when Wang died, and that nobody was discussing the incident at work.

Repeated requests to the Hengyang police department for comment went unanswered at the time of writing.

The Metro Jaya Police has arrested human rights activist Ananda Badudu for raising funds to support the nationwide students protest via KitaBisa crowdfunding platform on September 23-24.

Ananda’s Twitter account on Friday, September 27, stated that he was picked up by the police for transferring funds for students.

The KitaBisa crowd fund he made has managed to garner around Rp175 million up to this day.

The musician and former journalist wrote at the crowdfunding page that he was moved to contribute the college students who are expressing their aspirations and that his intention in making the KitaBisa page was to fund the protesters’ consumption and mobile sound systems used in the protest against the House of Representatives.

Activist and documentary filmmaker Dandhy Dwi Laksono has been accused by the Jakarta Police for spreading hate speech after he posted about clashes in Jayapura and Wamena, Papua, on his Twitter account.

Dandhy was arrested by the police in Bekasi, West Java, at 11 p.m. on Thursday, after which he was taken to the Jakarta Police headquarters for an interrogation that lasted until 4 a.m. on Friday.

He was named a suspect of violating Article 28 and Article 45 of the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law and accused of spreading information aimed at fueling hatred based on ethnicity, religion or race.

“In usual [practice], there should have been a summons [to testify] as a witness, but at about 11 p.m. [the police] suddenly handed me an arrest warrant,” Dandhy said after the questioning.

Dandhy’s lawyer Alghiffari Aqsa questioned the police’s decision to name his client a suspect, saying that the articles — which had been slammed by critics and activists for their potential to criminalize criticism — were irrelevant.

“The [information] that Dandhy wrote [on Twitter] is part of his freedom of expression in conveying his opinion on what happens in Papua,” Alghiffari said on Wednesday.

On Sept. 23, Dandhy wrote a thread on his Twitter account @Dandhy_Laksono about the clashes in Jayapura and Wamena, in which he posted the photo of students who were allegedly shot by bullets during the incident.

Papuan university students in exodus from campuses across Indonesia opened a crisis center in [Cendrawasih University]. Authorities pick them up from the campus to Expo Waena. Riots. Some died,” Dandhy wrote in his post.

High school students protest against racism by a teacher. [Security] apparatus handle them. The city is in chaos. Many are wounded by gunshots,” he went on.

Violent unrest erupted in the two cities of Papua on Monday, with some senior high school students reportedly being attacked by security staff as they dispersed a protest.

Papua Police, however, said that the protest occurred because of “baseless” provocation among students about an incident in which a teacher allegedly called a student a “monkey” last week.

After being named a suspect, Dandhy was released by the police on Friday morning. The police’s decision to name him a suspect has been met by criticisms from human rights and press freedom activists, who argue that Dandhy was facing prosecution for expressing his opinion, which in fact is guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution.

Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have criminally detained a prominent rights activist after he repeatedly showed public support for the anti-extradition protests in Hong Kong.

Chen Yunfei was taken away by state security police from his home in Gucheng township in Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu on Sept. 19, his friend told RFA on Monday.

"Eight or nine people came from the Gucheng township police station, some in uniform, some in plain clothes," Chen's friend Luo Kaiwen said. "The police station called his sister and offered to find a lawyer for him."

"I heard that it was because of interviews Chen Yunfei gave to overseas media during which he expressed his support for the anti-extradition movement, that's what this was," Luo said. "They didn't say what the charge was, but I read online that it was for 'supporting Hong Kong'."

"The authorities basically have a lot of different options if they want to bring charges," he said.

Chen's family received official notification on Sept. 21 that he is under criminal detention for publishing comments in support of the anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong, it said.

Chen has outspokenly defended the anti-extradition movement at a time when the ruling Chinese Communist Party is ramping up the nationalistic narrative that the Hong Kong protests are being carried out by a small minority of troublemakers in the pay of "hostile foreign forces."

In recent interviews with RFA, Chen has called repeatedly for a dialogue between Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and protesters to try to reach a resolution over the five demands of the anti-extradition movement.

Several Chinese dissidents have had their Twitter accounts taken offline or been called in for questioning by police after they voiced support for the Hong Kong protests.

Chinese authorities have also been checking the devices of anyone crossing the internal border from Hong Kong to mainland China, as part of a concerted campaign to ensure that no unedited news of the Hong Kong anti-extradition protests is able to reach residents of China.

Admiration for the anti-extradition protesters

In an interview with the Epoch Times on Aug. 31, Chen expressed his admiration for the anti-extradition protesters and said Hong Kong should serve as a model for people in mainland China, an idea that gives voice to concerns in Beijing that Hong Kong's liberal attitudes could lead to the overthrow of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Chen was only released last March from a jail term handed down on public order charges after he marked the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, politically sensitive and forbidden topic in China, in 2015.

Back then, he was detained after visiting the grave of Tiananmen massacre victim Wu Guofeng near Chengdu along with a group of fellow activists.

The government bans public memorials marking the event, and has continued to ignore growing calls in China and from overseas for a reappraisal of the 1989 student protests, which it once styled a "counterrevolutionary rebellion."

Chen has also campaigned vigorously for human rights protections and against environmental pollution in the past two decades.

Sichuan-based writer and activist Tan Zuoren declined to comment in detail, citing additional security measures ahead of celebrations of the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule on Oct. 1.

"Of course I'm worried about him, but there's not much I can do to help, particularly not before National Day on Oct. 1," Tan said. "I have been told not to make any comments, as part of the conditions of my current bail."

Chen's wife said she and her husband are currently estranged, and that she is also under pressure from the authorities over the birth of the couple's daughter, which was deemed a violation of family planning restrictions.

"I just saw on the group chat that he was in trouble," she said. "But I don't know any of the details. I'll go and visit him in a few days ... we are not living together at the moment ... and I don't have much time to take care of him."

National Day on Oct. 1

Calls to the nearby Wenjiang Detention Center rang unanswered during office hours on Monday.

An employee who answered the phone at the the Gucheng township police station said he knew nothing of Chen's detention.

"I don't really know about this," the employee said. "You could come to the police station and ask. Different people are on duty here every day."

Fellow dissident Zeng Rongkang said Chen's detention could also be linked to his attempts to make news of the Hong Kong protests available to social media users in mainland China.

"News from Hong Kong is usually deleted from WeChat, and a lot of ordinary people don't actually know about the anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong," Zeng said.

"Security is extremely tight across the whole country ahead of National Day on Oct. 1," he said. "There are police on all the buses and metro trains in the Chengdu area."

Zeng said Chen had previously been sentenced to four years' imprisonment over his commemoration of the Tiananmen massacre. "He didn't even do anything, just visit the grave of a 1989 student protester."

"Strictly speaking, that's not a crime."

A human rights lawyer based in Roxas City survived an ambush attack late morning today, Sept. 23, after attending a hearing.

Lawyer Criselda Heredia posted on her Facebook account that her car was strafed while traversing Timpas, Panitan town in Capiz, just a stone’s throw away from a military camp Antonio Belo.

Nine bullets were recovered from the car, she told Bulatlat.

Heredia was accompanied by her daughter and a client.

In a message sent to Bulatlat.com, Heredia said the target of the assailant could either be her or her client.

In a statement, lawyers group National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers chapter in Panay held state security forces accountable.

Heredia, according to NUPL, has been “red-tagged in posters and has been personally threatened by a military agent who visited her office and warned her to slow down on her human rights advocacy.”

Apart from being a lawyer, Heredia is also a cultural worker who used to perform musical presentations and has mounted painting exhibits in both Iloilo and Roxas City.

NUPL-Panay said the attack came in the wake of the call of international organizations to President Duterte to protect lawyers in the Philippines.

Under Duterte, 47 lawyers, including judges and prosecutors, have been killed.

Journalists covering student protests in cities across Indonesia were attacked by police in a series of brutal incidents on September 24. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) condemn the systematic harassment and brutality by Indonesian police and call for immediate action by authorities to hold all perpetrators to account.

Thousands of university students held rallies across Indonesia this week to protest the revision of several Indonesian laws in Jakarta, Bandung, Garut, Solo, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Malang, Palembang, Medan, Denpasar, Makassar and Palu. AJI said some journalists covering the rallies were injured by police, while others were intimidated to stop filming or were asked to delete the videos.

At least four journalists were attacked during the Jakarta protests. According to AJI Jakarta branch, a journalist for Kompas Nibras Nada Nailufar was intimidated by police to delete footage of alleged police brutality against a protester near the Jakarta Convention Centre during the evening of September 24. Vanny El Rahman, a reporter of IDN Times, was assaulted and also pressured to erase a video of police violence in Slipi, in West Jakarta. Tri Kurnia Yunianto, of Katadata, and Febrian Ahmad, of Metro TV, were attacked in Jakarta. Despite showing a press card, police confiscated Kurnia’s mobile phone and deleted a video of police firing tear gas at protesters. In a separate incident, Metro TV’s Febrian Ahmad was set upon by a mob of protesters who attacked his work car with sticks and stones.

In Makassar, South Sulawesi, AJI Makassar reported that three journalists were assaulted by police at a rally in front of the regional legislative council. Journalists Muhammad Darwi Fathir, of Antara news agency; Saiful, of inikata.com; and Ishak Pasabuan, of Makassar Today; were physically attacked by police during police clashes with student protesters. In Palu, on Central Sulawesi, police snatched the camera of Rian Saputra, a journalist with public broadcaster TVRI Central Sulawesi and demanded he delete videos.

AJI calls on authorities to investigate the attacks and urged Indonesia’s Press Council to establish an independent task force to deal with violence inflicted against journalists during the mass protests in the country.

AJI Chairman, Abdul Manan, said: “We must remind all sides to respect journalists’ safety while they are on the jobs. We also ask newsrooms to provide tools to keep journalists safe.”

The IFJ said: “We condemn the attacks against journalists in Indonesia while they are endeavouring to do their jobs and report in the public interest. Indonesia’s authorities need to respect the media’s role and ensure every effort to ensure the safety of journalists while they are covering protests.”

Journalists covering the demonstration in front of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in Jakarta, on Friday, September 13, were harassed, blocked and had their equipment damaged. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia condemn the attack and call the authorities to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the assault.

A group of 100 people calling itself ‘The Alliance of Students and Youth Volunteers who Love the NKRI’ and the Indonesia Students Association staged a protestoutside the KPK offices in Jakarta in support of the revisions of the KPK Law No. 32/2002. The demonstration turned violent when protesters started to smash floral bouquets sent by the activists of Indonesia’s anti-corruption movement and threw sticks and stones into the building. They also took down the black cloth covering the logo of KPK and names inside the building. The black cloth was placed there as part of the previous protest against the revision of the KPK Law, which will weaken the institution. The black cloth was a symbol of the gloom and mourning.

The journalists covering the protests were also targeted, stones and rocks were thrown at the press room beside the KPK lobby. Some of the journalists were attacked including on from Berita Satu who was hit. Protesters tried to obstruct the media from recording the violence and one reporter’s camera and tripod were destroyed.

AJI, in its statement, said it regretted the police officers who were on the scene did not take serious action during the riot. The officers allowed the attackers to go and asked the journalists to stop filming of taking photos.

“We urge the police to investigate the riot and prosecute the demonstrators who attacked journalists. We also demand the authorities to ensure the safety of the journalists in Indonesia while they are on duty. In conducting the activities of his profession, the journalist is protected by the Press law,” AJI added.

The IFJ said: “We stand with AJI in condemning the assault against journalists. We also call the Indonesian authorities to investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the attack. The incident was not the first time that the journalists were targeted during the riot. Indonesian authorities must ensure the protection of journalists so it will not occur again in the future.”

The Global Times, an English media owned by the state-run People’s Daily, published an article on September 23, which referred to a ‘campaign’ launched by several Hong Kong journalists against the Hong Kong Journalist Association (HKJA), and requested the IFJ to revoke HKJA’s membership. The journalists behind the campaign remain anonymous, and the accusations referred to against the HKJA on the campaign website [saynotohkja.mystrikingly.com], are not based on solid evidence, some are based on the disinformation by other state-run media.

The IFJ is aware of attempts to discredit HKJA, having received several complaints since June from anonymous emails. The complaints are almost identical in language and issues referred to, raising questions about their authenticity. The IFJ strongly condemns attempts to discredit professional journalist unions such as the HKJA, as well as the broader work of the journalist community with attempts to legitimise the authorities’ attacks against the media or suppress press freedom.

The IFJ said:"We strongly deplore this smear campaign against our affiliate the HKJA. The work of the HKJA is commendable, especially the continued support and campaigning for media safety in the past four months in Hong Kong. We stand in solidarity and support the HKJA. The IFJ was never sort for comment regarding the campaign to have HKJA's membership revoked. The attempts by some to share disinformation are part of a campaign to discredit the work done by HKJA, supported by the IFJ to ensure the safety and security of the media and press freedom in Hong Kong."

The HKJA is a strong professional media union, working to support the Hong Kong media community and promote press freedom. Since the start of Hong Kong wide protests in June 2019, HKJA has been active in working to support the media. Since June they have raised HKD3 million (USD 383,000) for an anti-violence legal fund for journalists. They have supplied more than 100 safety kids to journalists, organized medical service for 33 journalists injured with tear gas while covering the protests, provided professional counselling services to 20 journalists and filed complaints for over 40 journalists attacked covering the protests.

On September 19, an ongoing surveillance and a threat of a raid by the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) of the Philippine National Police into the joint office of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) and the Center for Environmental Concerns – Philippines (CEC-Phils) was reported by a reliable source to the two organizations.

This came after the two organizations participated in a number of important work on environmental defenders. Kalikasan delivered a testimony on the state of human rights and environment in the Philippines during the National Inquiry on Human Rights Defenders organized by the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) held last week, and CEC raised the issue of environment defenders during the ASEAN People’s Forum 2019 held in Bangkok, Thailand.

This is clear harassment and an obvious effort to silence civil society groups like CEC and Kalikasan.

Yesterday, a riot police officer beat and kicked Muh Darwin Fatir, a reporter at Indonesian national news agency Antara News, while he was covering a protest at the parliament building in Makassar, the capital of Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province, according to a report by his employer.

Fatir suffered bruises to his head and boot marks were visible on his body where he was kicked in the stomach; he was treated for his injuries at the local Awal Bros Hospital, according to Antara News.

At least two other journalists, Ishak Pasa'buan, of local outlet Makassar Today, and Muh Saiful Rania, of news website Inikata.com, were also beaten by police, according to a report by Makassar Today.

Several students were also injured during the protest against changes to Indonesia’s corruption and criminal laws, which turned violent when student protesters threw stones and police responded with tear gas and physical violence, according to Antara News and a report by local news outlet Tempo.

"We strongly urge Indonesian authorities to thoroughly and independently investigate the police beatings of journalists in Makassar, and to bring those responsible to justice," said CPJ's Senior Southeast Asia Representative Shawn Crispin. "Journalists must be free to report on civil unrest without fear of being targeted by authorities."

Akhmad Munir, news director at Antara News, called on police to open a serious and transparent investigation into the attack on Fatir in a statement.

The protests in Makassar occurred simultaneously with protests in other Indonesian cities, including Jakarta, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta, according to Tempo.

CPJ emailed Indonesia’s National Police for comment but did not receive a reply.

On 11 September 2019,Mr. Ashok Mahindra left his home on his bike in MuktsarSahibcity in Punjab at around 7 pm. As he barely moved a few meters from his house on the street in B R Ambedkar Marghe was attacked from behind and fell down from his bike. He somehow managed to escape from the spot and run towards his house. When he reached home, the two assailants mainly Soma Singh and his father Jaswinder Singh Sinder came to his house and Soma Singh was carrying an iron rod and Jaswinder was having a small baton (lathi). They both started hitting the Mr. Ashok Mahindra indiscriminately with the intention to kill him and after receiving a blow on his neck, he fell down and became unconscious. The assailants were unsuccessful in executing the brutal attack because of the intervention of some of his neighbours and other people at the site of the incident. Fortunately, Mr. Ashok Mahindra survived the attack but he received three severe injuries. His right hand suffered fracture and left hand also got injured. He was immediately rushed to the civil hospital at MuktsarSahib, Punjab. He was admitted in the hospital and treated from 11 September, 2019 to 13 September, 2019.The Station House Officer of the area police station came to record his statement. Although they have registered the case but they have not included IPC section 452 which is imposed for allegedly committing house-trespass, having made preparation for causing hurt to any person or for assaulting any person, or for wrongfully restraining any person. It is alleged that by not including section 452 the police has beenseekingto diminish the enormity of the crime committed against the defender. Mr. Ashok Mahindra was assisting Mr. Kamal Kumar, a Dalit who was attacked with a gun some time back. In his case the police did not invoke the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 against the assailants. The defender lodged a complaint with the Senior Superintendent of Policeof Muktsar Sahib district to charge the accused under these relevant sections. Mr. Ashok Mahindra also organized an agitation in this regard.About three years ago Mr. Ashok Mahindra helped Mr. Gurmeet in filing a police complaint against an accused who attacked Gurmeet with a rifle. On the same day the accused was arrested. According to the sources in the present case the accused are involved in the drug trafficking activities and are suspected to have been hired by the vested interests to target the HRD. Mr. Ashok Mahindra has been a victim of vendetta like so many human rights defenders in the countryand the state and police machineryhas not taken any proactive measures to helpthe victim. They have not taken the accused on remand so far.Pertinent to this particular case of Mr. Ashok Mahindra, it is pointed out that under the Declaration of Human Rights Defenders, it is stated that in the context of human rights violations by third parties, the obligation to protect, first, involves ensuring that defenders do not suffer from violations of their rights by non-State actors. Failure to protect could, in particular circumstances, engage the State‘s responsibility. Even acts and omissions committed by non-State actors under the instructions, control or direction of the State can, under certain circumstances, give rise to State responsibility. Therefore, it is paramount that prompt and full investigations are conducted and perpetrators brought to justice. Failure by States to prosecute and punish such perpetrators is a clear violation of Article 12 ofthe Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

According to sources on September 5, 2019 a criminal case wasfiled against Mr. Ashish Tomar and Mr. Shakeel Ahmadin the Mandwar police station of district Bijnor in Uttar Pradeshunder Sections 153 A (promoting enmity), 268 (nuisance) and 503 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Codeand Section 66 A of the Information TechnologyAct reportedly on a complaint by Senior Sub Inspector Pramod Kumarof the Mandwar police station of district Bijnor.According to the police FIR,reporterswerebooked for trying to vitiate social amity by manipulatingandspreading fake news about “Dalits threatening to leave” at Titarwala Basi village under Mandawar police station after influential Harijan Dalit family prevented them from drawing water from a hand pump.The FIR alleges that the two reporters instigated the Dalits to threatenthat they would leave the village. It further says that on the instigation of the reporters the Dalits put up a sign saying their houses were on sale.According to the journalists,they are being targeted by the police for factual reporting. They informed that the local police was apparently finding itself in an unhappy situation over their reporting on the case of caste discrimination against a Valmiki dalit family in a dalit-majority village in Bijnor district. They confirmed to HRDA that they have recorded versions of the person quoted in the story and the police personnel from Mandawar police station of district Bijnor putpressure on Lokesh Devi of the Valmiki family to add the namesof journalists in the statement given to the police toframe themin a false case. In Uttar Pradesh journalists, writers and activists are facing the risk of getting hounded by the government for exposing stark ground realities. In most scenarios, while doing their job honestly and dedicatedly, journalists being the crusaders of truth often encounter harassment, intimidation and even life-threatening situations. On 31 August, 2019in Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh, journalistPawan Kumar Jaiswal was booked for criminal conspiracy by the state policefor exposinga roti-salt “meal” being served to roughly 100 schoolchildrenunder the Mid-DayMeal scheme of the government.The FIR against Journalists and human rights defenders Mr. Ashish Tomar of Hindi daily Dainik Jagaran and Mr. Shakeel Ahmad has exposedthe malafide intentions of the local police and is a big blow to the freedom of press.Article 19, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) mandates right to freedom of opinion and expression and is protected in all relevant human rights treaties. Freedom of opinion and expression are fundamental rights that contain both a personal and a social dimension. As per General Comment No. 34 on Freedoms of Speech and Expression, Human Rights Committee has observed that free speech and expression is an “indispensable conditions for the full development of the person”, “essential for any society” and a “foundation stone for every free and democratic society”. Journalists who are human rights defenders as well face major risks as a result of their work. Governments and other powerful actors, seeking to escape scrutiny and stifle dissent, often respond to critical reporting or activism with attempts to silence them. Threats, surveillance, attacks, arbitrary arrest and detention, and, in the gravestcases, enforced disappearance or killings, are too often the cost of reporting the truth. The protection of journalists and human rights defenders, and ending impunity for attacks against them, is a global priority for safeguarding freedom of expression. States are under an obligation to prevent, protect against, and prosecute attacks against journalists and human rights defenders. Creating a safe and enabling environment for their work necessitates legal reform, the creation of special protection mechanisms, and protocols to guide effective investigations and prosecutions where attacks occur. Therefore, the action of the police in the present case tantamount to clampdown on freedom of opinion and expression of the journalists who were just doing their duty of covering action of abuse by Non State actors.

On 8thSeptember2019, Sunday, activists from Human Rights Forum (HRF), a civil rights organisation held a meeting in Shadi Manzil, Nellore, on the abrogation of Article 370, and thealleged human rights violations in Kashmir.

According to sources,a group led by the Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) local President Mr.Bellamkonda Malyadri approached police and accused the activists of provoking the people and disrupting peace in the regionand thatthe activists were spreading false narratives and trying to incite violence.Based on the complaint, the Kavali police have filed a case under Sections 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief), 153(A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race) read with Section 34 of IPC (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) against activists Mr. V S Krishna, ,Mr.K Bhaskar and Mr. Mohammed Abzal, a religious leaderand others for organising the meeting.The organisers denied there was any attempt to disturb peace and accused BJP leaders of filing police complaints to stifle opposing voices. Last week, the police had declined permission to Human Rights Forum to hold a meeting on Article 370 in Adoni and Kurnool, in Kurnool district, stating that it may disturb public peace.Article 19 of the Universal Declaration proclaims the right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom “to seek, receive and impart information and idea through any medium regardless of frontiers”. Further Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights sets forth the right to freedom of opinion, expression and information. Article 19 (1) (a) guarantees to all its citizens the right to freedom of speech and expression. The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Union of India Vs. Association for Democratic Reforms(2002) 5 SCC 294 had observed that “one sided information, and non information, all equally create and uninformed citizenry which makes democracy a farce. Freedom of speech and expression includes right to impart and receive information which includes freedom to hold opinion”, and can be read in the present case through participation in the said meeting.

Ref No: HRDA/South/AP/10/09/2019September 18, 2019ToMr.Khaleel Ahmed National Focal Point -Human Rights Defenders & Deputy RegistrarNational Human Rights CommissionManav Adhikar Bhawan,Block-C, GPO Complex, INA,New Delhi –110 023Email: hrd-nhrc@nic.inDear Sir,Sub:HRD Alert -India –Urgent Appeal for Action –Registration of case for organisinga meeting in protest of abrogation of Article 370 at Nellore, Andhra Pradesh–RegardingGreetings from Human Rights Defenders Alert -India!HRD Alert -India is a Forum of Human Rights Defenders for Human Rights Defenders. It endeavours to initiate actions on behalf of Human Rights Defenders under threat or with security concerns.On behalf of HRDA, we express our grave concern regarding registration of caseagainst human rights defendersfor organising a meeting in protest of abrogation of Article 370 at Nellore, Andhra Pradesh.Source of Information on the Incident:•Communication with the HRDs•Media sources•Communication with the activists in the region•The Regional Coordinator for the South & West of IndiaAbout the Human Rights Defenders under attack:•Mr. V S Krishna, is the Member of the State Coordination Committee of Human Rights Forum (HRF)•Mr.K Bhaskar, a member of Progressive Democratic Students Union.The Perpetrators:•Mr.Bellamkonda Malyadri President of Bhartiya Janata Party’s local unit•Mr. M Rosaiah,Circle Inspector (CI) Kavalipolice station Date of Incident:•September 10, 2019Place of Incident:•NelloreDistrict,AndhraPradeshIncident:On 8thSeptember2019, Sunday, activists from Human Rights Forum (HRF), a civil rights organisation held a meeting in Shadi Manzil, Nellore, on the abrogation of Article 370, and thealleged human rights violations in Kashmir. According to sources,a group led by the Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) local President Mr.Bellamkonda Malyadri approached police and accused the activists of provoking the people and disrupting peace in the regionand thatthe activists were spreading false narratives and trying to incite violence.Based on the complaint, the Kavali police have filed a case under Sections 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief), 153(A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race) read with Section 34 of IPC (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) against activists Mr. V S Krishna, ,Mr.K Bhaskar and Mr. Mohammed Abzal, a religious leaderand others for organising the meeting.The organisers denied there was any attempt to disturb peace and accused BJP leaders of filing police complaints to stifle opposing voices. Last week, the police had declined permission to Human Rights Forum to hold a meeting on Article 370 in Adoni and Kurnool, in Kurnool district, stating that it may disturb public peace.Article 19 of the Universal Declaration proclaims the right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom “to seek, receive and impart information and idea through any medium regardless of frontiers”. Further Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights sets forth the right to freedom of opinion, expression and information. Article 19 (1) (a) guarantees to all its citizens the right to freedom of speech and expression. The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Union of India Vs. Association for Democratic Reforms(2002) 5 SCC 294 had observed that “one sided information, and non information, all equally create and uninformed citizenry which makes democracy a farce. Freedom of speech and expression includes right to impart and receive information which includes freedom to hold opinion”, and can be read in the present case through participation in the said meeting. Further, in the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal v. State (2015) had observed that there are three concepts which are fundamental in understanding the reach of this most basic of human rights which are discussion, advocacy and incitement. Mere discussion or even advocacy of a particular cause howsoever unpopular is at the heart of Article 19(1)(a). It is only when such discussion or advocacy reaches the level of incitement that Article 19(2) kicks in. It is at this stage that a law may be made curtailing the speech or expression that leads inexorably to or tends to cause public disorder or tends to cause or tends to affect the sovereignty & integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, and so on.The protection of human rights defenders is critical to ensure that they are able to work in a safe, supportive environment and be free from attacks and reprisals. Article 21 of the Constitution of India ensures to all its citizen right to life –a life to live without fear, intimidation, harassment or mental torture. Also, The Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted in 1998 by the UN General Assembly, states that governments are under a duty to “take all necessary measures to ensure the protection of human rights defenders by the competent authorities against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary actions” as a consequence of their efforts to promote human rights. Therefore, the government is bound by its international legal obligations to ensure that all activists and human rights defenders are provided with security against harassment or intimidation so that they may enjoy their constitutional right to due process, life and liberty under Article 21, and the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.In the present case filing unnecessary FIR against Mr. V S Krishna, Mr.Bhaskar and Mr. Mohammed Abzaljust for holdinga meeting on a issue of public importance amounts to denial of right to freedom of speech and expression as guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

Authorities in Vietnam’s northern province of Yen Bai have convicted a local anti-corruption activist named Tran Dinh Sang of “Resisting a law enforcement officer in performance of his/her official duties” under Article 330 in the country’s 2015 Penal Code in a trumped-up case, state media has reported.

In the first-instance hearing on September 18, the People’s Court of Yen Bai City found the 39-year-old anti-corruption fighter guilty and sentenced him to two years in jail for his attempt to unveil local traffic police’s bribery case.

Mr. Sang was arrested in his private residence in Yen Bai city in early morning of April 9. Police also conducted search of his house. Three weeks earlier, in the evening of March 23, when a patrol unit of the Yen Bai city’s Mobile police was carrying out regular traffic check and imposing administrative fine on traffic violators, Sang stopped his car and filmed the police’s activities because he suspected that the police team took bribery from traffic violators. The two sides held quarrel as the policemen requested Sang to stop filming while Sang insisted that he has a right to observe and witness the police’s activities as a citizen.

The police patrol unit reported that Sang tried to attack one of police officers, however, no solid evidence was shown by the police side.

According to Sang’s post on his Facebook, he wanted to supervise the activities of the mobile police’s unit as a citizen. The policemen tried to take his camera and he resisted. Later, police took him to a police station where he was beaten brutally by police officers. He was left to go home in mid night with broken ribs and other severe injuries on his body.

Mr. Sang is one of Facebookers covering bribery of traffic police and activities against corruption related to the arbitrary placement of toll booths on national highways on his account “Tran Dinh Sang and his friends.”

A number of his fellows have been harassed and persecuted in recent months amid increasing public disatisfaction on systemic corruption, especially in traffic police forces, and the arbitrary placement of tens of toll booths on national highways across the nation.

In early March, Ha Van Nam, one of the most active figures against the fee collection of wrongly-placed toll booths, was arrested and charged with “causing public disorders,” two weeks after being kidnapped and brutally beaten by undercove policemen. In July, he and six others fellows were sentenced to between 18 months and 36 months in prison.

Vietnam’s communist regime verbally encourages citizens to take part in anti-corruption campaign, however, numerous activists have been imprisoned or intimidated after denouncing state officials of taking bribery or stealing state properties.

Sang has been the 8th Vietnamese Facebooker being arrested and charged with criminal offenses so far this year, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics.

Since the beginning of this year, Vietnam’s communist regime has jailed 23 activists with a total 106 years and six months. Currently, the regime is holding 233 prisoners of conscience, said Defend the Defenders.

On September 27, 2019, authorities in Vietnam’s Central Highlands province of Lam Dong confirmed the arrest of a local resident named Nguyen Quoc Duc Vuong with the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code.

The confirmation was made by the Don Duong district police on Friday, three days after authorities in Lam Dong deployed dozens of police and militia to detain him from his parents’ private residence in Hai Duong village, Lac Lam commune. The arrest was conducted by the police from the Security Investigation Agency of the Lam Dong province’s Police Department.

Police also conducted a search of his parent’s house and confiscated his personal computer and cell phones.

Police said he will be held incommunicado for at least four months for investigation. He will face imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison if is convicted, according to the current Vietnamese law.

Local media cited police’s information as saying that Mr. Vuong, 28, has used his Facebook account Vượng Nguyễn in the past two years to produce and disseminate information defaming the communist regime and its late leader Ho Chi Minh.

Vuong reportedly participated in the mass demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 which aimed to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. He was detained by police from Tan Tao ward, Binh Tan district who imposed a fine of VND750,000 ($32) before releasing him.

Vuong has been among more than a dozen of Facebookers being arrested for their posts on Facebook critical for the communist regime since the beginning of 2018 when Cyber Security Law became effective, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics. Vietnam’s communist regime has targetted Facebookers in provinces instead of other online activists in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other big cities, noted Defend the Defenders’ Director Vu Quoc Ngu.

So far this year, Vietnam has convicted 23 human rights defenders, online critics, and anti-corruption activists and sentenced them to a total 106 years and six months in prison, said Mr. Vu Quoc Ngu, adding the communist nation is holding at least 234 prisoners of conscience.

Chairwoman of the Karen Women’s Union Naw Ohn Hla has been detained under unlawful assembly charges for organizing a Karen Martyrs’ Day commemoration in Yangon last month without permission.

The long-term land rights and political activist, who herself is ethnic Karen, was arrested on Monday night and brought to the police station in Kyauktada Township, Ko Min Nay Htoo of the Democracy, Peace and Women’s Organization (DPW) said. Naw Ohn Hla also chairs the DPW.

Local authorities banned the use of the term “martyr” in reference to Karen revolutionary leader Saw Ba U Gyi, who was killed on Aug. 12, 1950. His death is commemorated annually as Karen Martyrs’ Day.

The 69th memorial was held—under the banner of Karen Martyrs’ Day—in front of city hall in Kyauktada Township this year. More than 100 people attended the event.

Police from Kyauktada Township opened cases against Naw Ohn Hla and two others under Article 20 of the Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law for organizing the unauthorized event.

Ko Min Nay Htoo said the two activists will also face lawsuits when they return, as they are currently out of town.

At a court appearance on Tuesday, Naw Ohn Hla declined to request bail.

“We didn’t do anything wrong. I am not seeking bail as this is unfair. We acted in accordance with the law [by informing authorities about the event in advance],” she told reporters outside the court.

Naw Ohn Hla was sent directly to Insein Prison after the court appearance.

The offenses carry one-month prison sentences, fines or both.

Police on Monday arrested more than a dozen Women's Rights Activists who picketed the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Nepal. The women's rights activists picketed the Embassy saying that hundreds of Nepali women were being sold as wives in China.

Women's Rights Activist Sita Jyoti said they picketed the Embassy to draw the attention of the Chinese foreign minister who is currently on a visit to Nepal towards this problem.

A Kachin rights activist found guilty of violating the Peaceful Assembly Law received an additional sentence of three months in prison on Friday for giving a set of broken scales to a judge in Myitkyina Township Court.

Ko Paul was sentenced to 15 days imprisonment on Sept. 2 for violating Article 19 of the Peaceful Assembly Law. When the sentence was handed down, he gave Judge U Than Tun a set of broken scales to show his dissatisfaction with the sentence.

The judge responded by filing a lawsuit against Ko Paul for disturbing the duties of a civil servant and for insulting and disrespecting the court.

“I gave him broken scales to represent the collapse of the judiciary in this country. The scales of justice in this country are broken. For that, I’ve been sentenced to three months imprisonment. This shows Kachin State, the country and the world that there is no justice,” Ko Paul said after leaving the court and before he was escorted to Myitkyina Prison.

Ko Paul and fellow Kachin activist Ma Seng Nu Pan were sentenced to 15 days imprisonment by the same court on Sept. 2 for organizing a street performance on June 9 to mark the eighth anniversary of the renewal of armed conflict in Kachin State.

Ko Paul’s lawyer U Mar Kha said his client did not interrupt or insult the judge.

“Insulting the judge means swearing. Paul did not do any brutal acts against the court, such as hitting something, kicking or beating the judge. The sentence is unjust. Ko Paul simply criticized the weakness and collapse of the judiciary, he did not insult it,” said U Mar Kha. “If we can’t have the chance to criticize or tell the truth, there will be no rights and we can’t achieve democracy.”

Demands for freedom of assembly and fair trails and complaints about the government’s prosecution and imprisonment of anti-war demonstrators have been mounting in Kachin State. Hundreds of protesters gathered in the state capital on Thursday and called for fair trails for Ko Paul and Ma Seng Nu Pan. They continued the protest on Friday and have plans for one more day of protest.

Members of the Students and Youth Congress of Burma (SYCB), an umbrella group of youth organizations from across the country, joined a protest in the Kachin State capital Myitkyina on Monday to demand judicial justice and freedom of expression.

The protest—the latest to be triggered by last week’s sentencing of two young activists found guilty of violating Burma’s Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law for staging an anti-war street performance in June—was organized by local Kachin youth groups.

Paul Lu and Seng Nu Pan, the organizers of the street performance, were both sentenced to 15 days in prison on September 2. Paul Lu later received an extra three months for handing a broken set of scales to the presiding judge in protest at the decision.

Say Pu, the secretary-2 of the SYCB, explained that his group decided to join the Myitkyina protests because it believed the sentence against the two Kachin activists violated their human rights.

“I think this sentence is unfair. [Paul Lu] even received an additional prison term. From a human rights perspective, this is unacceptable. That’s why we joined the protest to show our support,” Say Pu told NMG.

Regarding the reaction of the authorities to SYCB’s presence, Say Pu said that some members of the group had been questioned.

“They asked about our organization, our address, and so on,” he said.

The protesters, who have gathered three times in the past week, said they had four key demands—freedom of speech and expression, a fair and just legal system, understanding of the difficulties of people displaced by conflict, and an end to the civil war as soon as possible.

Twelve ethnic members of SYCB joined the protest in Myitkyina from Yangon.

“We are demanding freedom of expression because we have been denied this basic right. Youths in Yangon and Mandalay have been charged for their struggle for freedom of expression. So how can we speak about how we are suffering? How can we speak about human rights abuses?” Sut Seng Htoi, the spokesperson of the Kachin Youth Movement, said to NMG.

According to Sut Seng Htoi, the participation of SYCB members in the protest is a source of strength for Kachin youths.

“The participation of SYCB is great because these youths have had the experience of being charged by the authorities. We can work together to build a genuine federal democratic country. We can cooperate in non-violent demonstrations, which are a part of democratic culture,” Sut Seng Htoi added.

Meanwhile, the authorities have continued to press charges against activists. At a protest held last Thursday, Kachin activists N’khun La Nu and Malan Hkar Mai were charged by police for holding unauthorized placards.

Nearly 300 people, including Kachin civilians displaced by conflict, members of various Kachin youth groups and civil society organizations, local people, and SYCB members, joined the protest in Myitkyina on Monday.

A journalist from Haryana's Hisar district has been charged with defamation and illegal trespassing by the police for a report showing the mishandling of grains at a government storage facility, in the latest blow to press freedom in the country.

A First Information Report or FIR has been filed against Anoop Kundu on September 8 at the Uklana police station in Hisar district. Mr Kundu was investigating irregularities at the State Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department in Uklana.

The complainant, Assistant Food and Supplies Officer Sandeep Chahal, claimed that the story by the journalist carried a fake video that has been used to defame the department and its officials.

However, the journalist has maintained that his report was accurate and when it aired on his channel, he even received compliments from the food and civil supplies minister Karan Dev Kamboj.

After a protest by local journalists against the filing of the case against Mr Kundu, the district administration has promised that the case will be investigated again.

The incident comes less than two weeks after a case was filed against a journalist in Uttar Pradesh after he exposed how students at a government school were eating rotis with salt as their mid-day meal under a flagship scheme of the central government.

The case triggered massive outrage against the state government.

India dropped two places on a global press freedom index, coming in at 140th out of 180 countries in the annual Reporters Without Borders analysis released in April this year. 19 COMMENTS

"Violence against journalists including police violence, attacks by Maoist fighters and reprisals by criminal groups or corrupt politicians is one of the most striking characteristics of the current state of press freedom in India. At least six Indian journalists were killed in connection with their work in 2018. A number of doubts surround a seventh case, the index noted.

An appeals court in Kazakhstan on September 3 upheld a decision denying Feminita, a national feminist initiative, registration as a nongovernmental organization (NGO). The group’s focus includes the rights of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women.

The Almaty department of the Justice Ministry had refused the group registration on the grounds that it didn’t comply with the Law on Noncommercial Organizations. That refusal was upheld as lawful by both a lower-level court and the appeals court. Registration is required for the group to operate lawfully in the country, and to conduct activities such as raising money and hosting events.

“This appeals court ruling allows an arbitrary and discriminatory decision by the Ministry of Justice to stand,” said Laura Mills, Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Kazakhstan authorities should stop preventing groups from operating lawfully just because they are critical of the government or work on controversial issues.”

Kazakh authorities have denied registration to certain organizations that are critical of or work on issues deemed controversial by the authorities, for example an organization that campaigns against mass surveillance and detention of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang province in China. They have also repeatedly denied registration to independent trade unions.

Feminita, which has been operating informally since 2015, focuses on promoting the rights of marginalized women in Kazakhstan, from lesbian, bisexual, and queer women to those with disabilities, and sex workers. In December 2017, it first applied for official registration as an NGO, but registration was denied three times over the course of the year.

Each time, the Almaty department of the Justice Ministry said that the organization did not comply with the Law on Noncommercial Organizations. But even though it is required to do so by law, it did not explain what the shortcomings were or what steps Feminita needed to take to comply. Feminita told Human Rights Watch that it does comply with the law.

Feminita filed a case against the Ministry of Justice. In May 2019, a judge ruled that Feminita was not eligible to register under the Law on Noncommercial Organizations or the Law on Charities, holding that its stated goals did not “provide for the strengthening of existing spiritual-moral values … [and] the prestige and role of family in society.” Feminita had not sought to register under the charities law because it doesn’t provide any charitable services.

The appeals court ruled to uphold the lower court’s decision, but provided no further explanation supporting the decision to deny Feminita registration. Nor did it explain how the refusal to register the group could be compatible with the right to freedom of association.

“It feels like they are constantly searching for grounds to stop our work,” Zhanar Sekerbaeva, co-founder of Feminita, told Human Rights Watch. “There are and have been for a long time lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women in Kazakhstan, and with this [denial] it is as if they are excluding an entire group from society.”

In 2015, Kazakhstan changed its laws essentially to allow the government to regulate funding for nongovernmental groups through a government-appointed body. In addition, individuals can face hefty fines and administrative charges if they direct or participate in an unregistered organization.

Kazakhstan is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which requires it to respect the right to freedom of association. The Human Rights Committee, which oversees compliance with the ICCPR, has repeatedly said that “the existence and operation of associations, including those which peacefully promote ideas not necessarily favorably received by the government or the majority of the population, is a cornerstone of a democratic society.”

The committee has held that an arbitrary refusal to register an organization violates the right to freedom of association, and that preventing an organization from operating is only justified if it is “necessary to avert a real and not only hypothetical threat to national security or democratic order, that less intrusive measures would be insufficient to achieve the same purpose, and that the restriction is proportionate to the interest to be protected.”

Feminita members have experienced discriminatory treatment by the authorities before. In 2019, the authorities denied Feminita permission to organize a march for International Women’s Day multiple times. In August 2018, Sekerbaeva was detained, charged with “minor hooliganism,” and fined $30 because she organized a photo shoot that she said was intended to destigmatize menstruation. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Kazakhstan routinely face harassment, discrimination, and the threat of violence.

“Kazakh authorities should reverse course and allow Feminita and all other groups arbitrarily denied registration to register and operate lawfully within the country,” Mills said. “Kazakhstan has nothing to fear from independent organizations and has obligations to live up to.”