Uwazi

The wives of Cambodian opposition activists jailed on “incitement” charges were roughed up by police as they staged a protest Friday outside the U.N.’s human rights office in Phnom Penh, demanding that the government drop the charges against their husbands and release them.

The group of about 10 women — known as the “Friday Wives” for their weekly rallies on behalf of their husbands from the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) — demanded the release of their spouses following reports that the men had been infected with the coronavirus in prison.

Several police officers roughly manhandled the women as they tried to pry large posters with their husbands’ images from their hands during the protest in the capital’s Chamkar Mon district, the women said.

Prum Chantha, one of the protesters, said it was beyond belief that police resorted to manhandling them while breaking up the group in front of the U.N.’s office.

“They dared to abuse us in front of the U.N office… This is very unjust for the family members of politicians,” she said.

The women submitted a petition to the U.N.’s human rights office to intervene, saying that they were concerned about the health and safety of their husbands because they have been banned from communicating with them for the last three months while the pandemic has spread rapidly in Cambodia.

They complained that their husbands are at risk for contracting the virus because they are being held in overcrowded prison cells and don’t have enough food to eat.

The women have said that authorities should allow them access to their detained spouses during the COVID-19 pandemic so that they can monitor their health.

Dos Kimteang, another protester, told RFA that the women did not violate any laws by gathering because they did not impede traffic or disrupt social order, and that they adhered to the Health Ministry’s guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“We never provoked any social chaos,” she said. “Please don’t abuse us and then accuse us of violating the law.”

‘They gathered without permission’

A coronavirus outbreak has surged unabated through Cambodia’s prisons in recent weeks amid a nationwide outbreak. As of Friday, the government reported a total 33,075 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 886 news ones, and 242 total related fatalities.

San Sok Seiha, spokesman for the Phnom Penh municipal police, said police prevented the women from gathering because they did not request official permission to assemble.

But when RFA asked him to cite the regulation that requires people to ask for permission to hold public gatherings, he refused to elaborate.

“They gathered without permission,” he said. “This county has laws, so authorities are obligated to implement them. We can’t let a few people to provoke problems in Phnom Penh city.”

On Friday, 20 civil society organizations and unions issued a statement repeating a call for the government to release all prisoners of conscience in light of the growing number of COVID-19 infections.

“In view of the reports of mounting COVID-19 cases within Cambodian prisons, compounded by prison overcrowding, we call on the RGC [Royal Government of Cambodia] to release all nonviolent prisoners of conscience as a mitigation measure to minimize the risk posed by the spread of the virus,” the statement said.

Soeung Sen Karuna, spokesman for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) who monitored the Friday Wives protest, said that the police crackdown on the women in front of the U.N’s human rights office indicates a further decline of human rights in the Southeast Asian nation.

“This is yet more evidence showing that … the authorities should consider their actions and coordinate them, so that people can express themselves and their demands,” he said. “It would give the government a better image.”

Soldiers fired bullets at land protesters on Thursday in Kandal province, hitting one man in the shoulder, as a group of about 100 Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) soldiers faced off against villagers involved in a land conflict in Kandal province, about five kilometres from Phnom Penh. The injured man remains hospitalised, while some local villagers resumed protesting on Friday morning.

The shooting occurred in Tuol Prich commune, Angk Snuol district, in an area that houses several military bases and outposts and has seen a boom in development in recent years. Villagers reported that the soldiers were from the nearby Thmat Pong military school. Videos of the incident show an excavator digging up land while local villagers try to stop it and block National Road 51. Uniformed soldiers can be seen advancing on the villagers and firing dozens of live rounds from handguns and assault rifles into the air, at the ground, and into the crowd of villagers, hitting one man in the shoulder.

The land conflict involves more than 150 hectares that have been farmed for many years by more than 300 local families from at least seven villages. Satellite data shows that the land around the location of the shooting has been farmed continuously since at least 2008, which is the earliest satellite imagery available on Google Earth. Government-produced maps dating from 2001 also mark the area as containing farmland. The Kandal provincial government issued a letter on Thursday saying that all of the land was state land, while some villagers have said they have farmed on the land since 1979.

There have been several shootings of land protesters by mixed forces including military soldiers in recent years. In January 2019, a man was shot in Preah Sihanouk province and left paralysed after mixed forces descended on protesters and opened fire during the enforcement of a Supreme Court decision over a land conflict in the province. In March 2018, three people were shot in Kratie after mixed forces fired into a crowd of 300 villagers protesting a violent eviction.

Several protesters captured the improper deployment of soldiers and excessive use of force using smartphones, and videos of the shooting were posted to Facebook.

On 2 June 2021, border control authorities at the Fuzhou airport prevented Beijing-based human rights lawyer Tang Jitian from boarding a flight to Japan to see his ill daughter. The authorities told the human rights defender that the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau has imposed an exit ban on him because his travel abroad “may endanger national security”. Tang Jitian (唐吉田) is a Chinese human rights lawyer who has taken on human rights casesacross a range of areas, including land rights, freedom of religion, freedom of expression and freedom of association. As a result of his persistent activism, his license to practise law was revoked in 2010. The human rights defender continued his human rights work since his disbarment and has been subjected to beatings, torture, surveillance, travel restrictions, and arbitrary detentions on multiple occasions. In November 2017, he tried to enter Hong Kong from Shenzhen to seek medical treatment, but the mainland border control authorities told him he was not allowed to leave because he “may endanger national security”. Tang Jitian’s 25-year-old daughter, who has been studying in Japan, fell ill in April 2021 with tuberculosis and has since been hospitalised in an intensive care unit. She is said to be in serious condition due to multiple complications triggered by tuberculosis.After his daughter was hospitalised, Tang Jitian obtained a visa to travel to Japan and contacted public security officers in Beijing to seek the lifting of his exit ban. However, the officers he contacted said they were discussing the matter with their superiors and failed to give him a definitive answer despite repeated follow-up. On 1 June 2021, the human rights defender flew from Beijing to Fuzhou. On the morning of 2 June 2021, he checked in his luggage and obtained his boarding pass at the Fuzhou airport for his flight to Japan, but was stopped and turned back at the border control area. The border control officers told the human rights defender that he was prohibited from leaving the country on the basis of article 12(5) of the Exit and Entry Administration Law, which grants the authorities the power to impose exit bans on Chinese citizens if they “endanger national security”. The officers did not provide any legal documents or any detailed explanation as to why and how his departure would endanger national security. They also initially refused to disclose the officials who ordered the exit ban. After Tang Jitian insisted on knowing who issued the order, the officers said it was the Beijing Public Security Bureau, but refused to disclose the names of the officials who made the decision.Chinese authorities have a history of imposing arbitrary restrictions on freedom of movement,including both domestic and international travel bans, as well as forced temporary relocation during politically sensitive periods, in order to target human rights defenders. These restrictions based on such ill-defined concepts as “endangering national security” are inconsistent with the Chinese Constitution, which prohibits unlawful deprivation or restriction of citizens’ freedom of the person,and are also incompatible with international human rights standards protecting the right to freedom of movement.

Two reporters working for independent media outlets in Myanmar were jailed for two years on Wednesday for reporting on the demonstrations against the February takeover by the military junta, a family member of one of them and other sources said.

Aung Kyaw, a 32-year-old Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reporter, was charged by the military regime with violating Section 505(a) of the Penal Code and sentenced by a court in Myeik Prison in the southern Tanintharyi region, his wife Nay Chi Moe told RFA.

The section pertains to the circulation of statements, rumors, or reports with the intent to cause military officers to disregard or fail in their duties, and carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

“I don’t know why he was sentenced to two years in prison under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code,” Nay Chi Moe said. “Our family was not allowed to hear the case held at the prison court.”

Junta forces arrested Aung Kyaw when they stormed his home on March 1. He streamed his arrest live on Facebook, and the arrest video has been watched millions of times since then, according to a statement issued Wednesday by DVB.

The day before his arrest, the journalist broadcast live news that soldiers raided and destroyed some houses in Myeik township.

Because Aung Kyaw’s attorney was under threat by the junta, he decided not to hire another lawyer and instead defended himself in court during his last two hearings, DVB’s statement said.

Aung Kyaw argued that non-criminal charges should have been brought against him under Myanmar’s Media Law, rather than the Penal Code, and that he subsequently would have been found not guilty because he was doing his work as a journalist. The judge refused to accept the argument, however.

“I have no confidence in the judiciary under the military council, so I will not appeal,” Aung Kyaw said after the verdict, according to his wife.

Nay Chi Moe said she would not submit an appeal.

“The 505(a) charge should not have been used against a journalist,” she said. “He did not want to file an appeal because he does not believe in the law. He said his case was meant to create a news blackout. It is totally unfair that he was given a two-year sentence under 505(a).”

Aye Chan Naing, DVB's executive director and chief editor, called the sentence “total injustice.”

“There is no reason our reporter Aung Kyaw should be jailed,” he said. “The legal system is so flawed, and it was an unlawful arrest.”

Situation is ‘deteriorating’

Aung Kyaw’s jailing followed that of Min Nyo, a DVB reporter based in Pyay, Bago region, who was sentenced to three years in prison on May 12.

“The military junta is illegally detaining Aung Kyaw and Min Nyo, and there is not a single reason to keep them in prison,” DVB said in its statement. “The junta has currently 57 journalists detained for doing their work. This is a clear violation of both national and international laws by the Burmese junta.”

In another sentencing Wednesday in Myeik, Zaw Zaw, a freelance journalist who works for the outlet Mizzima, was sentenced to two years in prison for violating Section 505(a) of the Criminal Code. RFA could not reach his lawyer or family for comment.

Myint Kyaw, a former Myanmar Press Council member, says the current situation of the press in Myanmar is at its worst under the military regime.

“The situation of the press is deteriorating,” he said. “It is likely to become even worse. No one can say for sure whether it will lead to a censorship regime as existed under the previous junta, but we can say it’s heading in that direction.”

“There had been no such situation like this for a decade with putting more than 50 journalists in jail in Myanmar,” he said. “Press freedom is in a free fall at the worst rate.”

More than 80 journalists have been arrested since the Feb. 1 coup, and over 50 of them face criminal charges wile detained in prisons across the country.

“Myanmar’s junta started with zero respect for independent journalism and has gone downhill from there as the military tries to stop any reporting on the atrocities it's committing every day against the people,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

“The military’s move to go after journalists from respected Burmese media outlets like DVB and Mizzima is all about strangling any independent narratives about what’s happening in Myanmar, and trying to drag the people of the country back to the dictatorially imposed isolation that characterized the rule of previous military regimes in the country,” he said in a statement from Bangkok.

Correspondents say many journalists now are fleeing the country because of the junta’s crackdown on the media, with some going abroad to continue their reporting and others out of jobs and struggling to make ends meet.

Following the coup, the junta banned 11 independent news outlets, including DVB and Mizzima, from operating.

A court in southern Vietnam’s southern Hau Giang province on Wednesday sentenced a Facebook user to seven years in prison for posting writings said by prosecutors to have misrepresented state policies, Vietnamese sources said.

Dang Hoang Minh, 28, had been charged with “creating, storing, and disseminating information, items, and materials opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s 2015 Criminal Code, state media reports said.

Reports by local media did not say when Minh—a resident of the Phu Khoi hamlet in Hau Giang’s Phung Hiep district—had been arrested or whether he had been represented by a lawyer at his trial.

Citing the provincial People’s Procuracy indictment against him, state media said Minh had posted several “untrue stories” concerning current and former leaders of Vietnam’s one-party communist government on his Facebook page from June to December 2020.

Former Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, founder of the country’s communist party, was among the leaders Minh had defamed, prosecutors said, adding that Minh’s postings had been aimed at opposing the national government and ruling party and had caused “confusion and anxiety” to his readers.

Reporting by RFA shows that at least 21 Vietnamese citizens have been charged with political offenses involving social media posts since the beginning of the year, with 21 now serving prison terms following convictions under Article 117.

Among those jailed this year, former RFA blogger Nguyen Tuong Thuy, now in his 70s, was sentenced on Jan. 5 by a court in Ho Chi Minh City to an 11-year prison term following his conviction on charges under Article 117.

On Friday, April 23, a court in coastal Phu Yen province sentenced an independent journalist, Tran Thi Tuyet Dieu, to an eight-year prison term for writing “anti-state” stories and sharing them on social media.

And on May 5, a court in northern Vietnam’s Hoa Binh province sentenced land-rights activist Can Thi Theu and her son Tring Ba Tu to eight years in prison each for posting online articles and livestream videos criticizing the government for its handling of a deadly land-rights clash last year.

Harsh forms of persecution

With Vietnam’s media all following Communist Party orders, “the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution,” the press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says in its 2021 Press Freedoms Index.

Measures taken against them now include assaults by plainclothes police, RSF said in its report, which placed Vietnam at 175 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide, a ranking unchanged from last year.

“To justify jailing them, the Party resorts to the criminal codes, especially three articles under which ‘activities aimed at overthrowing the government,’ ‘anti-state propaganda’ and ‘abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state’ are punishable by long prison terms,” the rights group said.

Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.

A Pakistani television station Monday took a prominent journalist off air, removing him as host of a popular talk show after he criticized the country’s powerful military, the journalist and rights groups said.

The development comes just days after the journalist, Hamid Mir, made a fiery speech at a rally in support of a fellow reporter, Asad Ali Toor, who was beaten up by three unidentified men in his apartment in Islamabad.

Geo News TV did not comment on the changes regarding its “Capital Talk,” a five-days-a-week program during which Mir would invite guests to debate current events in the country. Journalists and press freedom advocates often accuse Pakistan’s military and its agencies of harassing and attacking journalists. The government insists it supports freedom of speech.

In a statement on Twitter, Amnesty International denounced the ban on Mir and asked Pakistani authorities to protect free speech. “Censorship, harassment, and physical violence must not be the price journalists pay to do their jobs,” it said.

Also on Monday, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan denounced Geo News for taking Mir off air. It said the action against him comes after he spoke fervidly against the escalation of curbs on freedom of expression in the country.

Local journalists’ groups, which document attacks or violations against journalists in Pakistan, say the period from May 2020 to April 2021 saw 148 such attacks.

Mir confirmed his removal in a text message to The Associated Press. He later tweeted that it was nothing new for him. “I was banned twice in the past,” said Mir, who had also in the past been fired by Geo News.

Mir was attacked in 2014 in the port city of Karachi, when a gunman critically wounded him. His family at the time blamed the country’s intelligence service for orchestrating the attack. The perpetrator was never publicly known.

Geo News’ move drew swift condemnation by journalists, politicians, and members of civil society groups. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists asked the TV station to explain whether the step was taken under government pressure.

The station’s owner, Mir Shakilur Rehman, was arrested last year in a decades-old case related to allegations of tax evasion in a real estate purchase. He was freed months later on a court order.

Toor, the journalist beaten in his apartment, works for the Aaj News Pakistani TV. He later told police his attackers claimed they were from the Inter-Services Intelligence. However, the spy agency days later distanced itself from the attack.

On Friday, Mir along with dozens of Pakistani journalists attended a rally in Islamabad to condemn the attack on Toor. So far, authorities have not arrested anyone in connection with the attack and police say they are still investigating.

A popular blogger in China was sentenced to eight months in prison on Monday for "defaming martyrs" after he suggested that the number of Chinese soldiers killed during last year's border clash with India was higher than the official count.

In February, well over six months after the clashes, the Chinese military said four of its soldiers were killed in a skirmish with Indian troops in the disputed Galwan Valley.

Qiu Ziming posted on China's Twitter-like social media platform Weibo saying that the actual death toll on the Chinese side might have been higher.

He also said that the commanding officer survived "because he was the highest-ranking officer there" — a remark that outraged Chinese officials.

Indian and Chinese soldiers clashed with iron rods, sticks, and stones last June in what was the deadliest clash between China and India in more than four decades.

New Delhi said Chinese troops had intruded into its side of the territory, triggering tensions. China had denied the transgression and accused Indian troops of provocative behavior. Timeline of Qiu's case

Qiu was arrested on February 20, a day after his Weibo post. He was subsequently charged under a new provision of China's criminal law that bans the "defamation of martyrs and heroes."

The 38-year old was also ordered to publicly apologize through national media outlets within 10 days.

"I feel extremely ashamed of myself, and I'm very sorry," he was quoted as saying by the state-run newspaper The Global Times.

A court in the eastern city of Nanjing on Monday ruled that Qiu had "infringed on the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs ... and confessed to his crimes." China's new provision

Qiu is the first person to be jailed under the new provision which came into effect in March.

In 2018, China's national legislature passed a law making "defamation of martyrs and heroes" a civil offense.

This was made a criminal offense in February and police have since arrested at least six bloggers for allegedly defaming the dead soldiers in online comments of Qiu's post.

The crackdown highlights the political sensitivity of the border clash in China.

Hong Kong police have arrested an elderly democracy activist as she made a solo demonstration over China's deadly Tiananmen crackdown in a vivid illustration of the zero protest tolerance now wielded by authorities in the financial hub.

Alexandra Wong, 65, was detained on Sunday on suspicion of taking part in an unlawful assembly as she walked towards Beijing's Liaison Office in Hong Kong.

Wong -- known locally as "Grandma Wong" -- was a regular fixture of the huge democracy protests that swept Hong Kong in 2019.

She could often be seen waving a Union Jack flag, a symbol of her dissatisfaction with Beijing's rule since the city was handed to China by former colonial power Britain in 1997.

Protest is now all but outlawed in Hong Kong.

Authorities have used both the threat of the coronavirus and security concerns to ban demonstrations.

A vigil planned for this Friday -- the 32nd anniversary of Beijing's 1989 crackdown on democracy protests in Tiananmen Square -- has been denied permission for the second year in a row.

Authorities have cited the coronavirus, although Hong Kong is currently celebrating no local transmission cases of unknown origin for the last month.

Activists had also sought permission for a small Tiananmen-themed march on Sunday to the Liaison Office, which represents the central government in the city, but it was also denied permission.

Wong turned up anyway that afternoon holding as sign that read "32, June 4, Tiananmen's lament" and a yellow umbrella -- the latter a symbol of Hong Kong's democracy movement.

The South China Morning Post said the pensioner started chanting slogans in a park before heading towards the Liaison Office by herself, while being followed and filmed by police.

She was stopped twice.

"I'm only by myself, just an old lady here. Why stop me?" the Post quoted Wong as telling officers.

Soon afterwards she was arrested.

Police confirmed a 65-year-old woman surnamed Wong had been arrested for "knowingly participating in an unauthorized assembly and attempting to incite others to join an unauthorized assembly."

Hong Kong's democracy movement has been crushed by a broad crackdown on dissent over the last year, including the imposition of a sweeping security law that criminalizes much dissent.

In the middle of the 2019 protests Wong disappeared for more than a year.

She resurfaced saying she had been detained by mainland authorities during a trip to Shenzhen, a neighboring city where she lived at the time.

For Hong Ly, the dispute over her family’s hectare of farmland in Kien Svay district was frustrating, but it became personal on Monday when authorities arrested her 40-year-old brother.

As the woman recounted his unexplained arrest on Wednesday, dozens of people huddled in the shade of her stilted house, discussing how authorities have disappointed them in their response to a yearlong land dispute and to the residents blocking National Road 1 in protest, and now for a new offense: the arrest of Hong Sok.

“He’s a gentleman. He never hurt anybody,” said Ly, 52.

A Kandal province land dispute that was supposed to be solved in 2017 has continued, as residents of three villages say they’ve been forcefully stopped from using their land, leading residents to block roads in protest of the dispute and one man’s arrest.

In less than an hour after reporters arrived, more than 60 people were murmuring to each other, occasionally raising their voices to explain the two-day protest and vent about the land they feel they’re losing to neighbors.

The dispute ignited on Sunday, when residents of Kien Svay district’s Banteay Dek commune decided to block National Road 1 in order to garner attention to their dispute, over about 3,000 hectares of farmland distributed among three villages.

The residents who were gathered under Ly’s house told VOD that they were awarded 1 hectare of land per family a few years ago, when Prime Minister Hun Sen intervened in their dispute with Lok Hour, a CPP lawmaker, and granted the area back to residents of Prek Pol, Kandal Krom and Samrong Thom villages. However, villagers said they never received titles for the area.

About 3 km away from their homes, past fields of rice, eggplants and other crops, the residents constructed a number of farm shacks to guard their land, marked with Cambodian and Buddhist flags. At the intersection of two dirt motorbike paths, residents hung large laminated posters of Hun Sen, deputy prime minister Sar Kheng and Hun Sen’s wife Bun Rany.

But since that government intervention, residents of another nearby village, Chong Ksat, have been trying to stop their community from using the farmland, explained resident Cheang Sinoun, 48. She said she had been able to clear and plow her land but wasn’t able to cultivate it, and some of her neighbors had been attacked with slingshots while trying to clear the land.

When asked why people would be attacking others for their land, Sinoun said she did not know, later adding, “I think someone hired the people to claim this land.” Powerful people have been interested in the area, she said.

Sinoun said a group of villagers — she couldn’t remember how many — gathered at the Kien Svay district office on Sunday at 8 a.m. to meet with officials, alleging that residents from another village were trying to prevent them from using land that was granted to them. They were ignored by district officials, so instead they went to block the national road at about 10 a.m. to demand attention. Sok, the arrested man, was with them during this protest.

“They threatened us to stop blocking the road. Police told us they could arrest us for blocking the road,” Sinoun said, saying this was the first time the frustrated residents took this action.

Recounting what she learned later from peers, Ly said her brother Sok had gone for a meal and coffee early Sunday evening, and was arrested at about 6:30 p.m. He participated in the protest, but Ly said she did not know why he was targeted, saying he wasn’t a community leader.

“We do not know whether someone called him [for a meal] to target him or not,” she said.

The residents then gathered again that night, blocking the road a second time, now to demand Sok’s release as well as for a solution to their dispute, Sinoun said.

“Only this way can break through to them,” she argued, saying authorities ignored their concerns before. “We are ignorant, but we don’t think it’s illegal.”

Sok’s 24-year-old daughter, Sok Kakada, said she saw her father briefly on Monday morning, when the residents reported to the Kien Svay district hall for a discussion. While others were worried about Sok’s health because he has diabetes, he told the crowd he was okay.

“We wanted to ask authorities” what Sok was charged with, Kakada said. “But they wouldn’t talk.”

Sin Siphoeun, another resident who joined the roadblock protest, said the authorities had promised protestors they would release Sok on Monday morning, but they had not. She called Sok’s short visit with the protestors an attempt by authorities to appease the angry residents, but she warned that they could block the road again. Siphoeun said she and her neighbors just wanted an explanation for his arrest.

“He has not killed anybody nor stolen anything from anybody, and what he has done was for all the people to find a solution, but [authorities] accused him of being a bad person and arrested him,” she said. “We’re not scared because we have not done anything illegal. … Why did they arrest [him] and what kind of offense did he commit?”

When asked about the dispute, Kandal’s deputy provincial governor, Nouv Peng Chandara, told reporters to check the provincial administration’s Facebook post from Monday, which said that residents who blocked the road had accepted the government’s mediation.

According to a Phnom Penh Post report from 2017, the Council of Ministers ordered the Land Ministry to return 2,997 hectares of land in Kien Svay and Sa’ang districts to villagers, with some 2,391 hectares taken from CPP lawmaker Hour.

Mao Phirun, a Kandal provincial councilor and former governor, said the land was returned to residents via a sub-decree in 2017 after Hour had taken the land illegally from residents. Hard titles from this area were made, he said, but people who were not granted land by the government could be jealous.

“People know it, and they have no land and they see other people’s land. … They have been provoked by other people,” he said.

“There are brokers behind this … the one who is behind it, they have been known [by the people], and the one who is being detained pushed the cyclo only to be crushed by the car,” he said. “[The protestors] will be the ones to bear the blow.”

On May 29, Zhanar Sekerbaeva and Gulzada Serzhan, co-leaders of the feminist group Feminita, were holding a private event to discuss gender equality in Shymkent, a city in southern Kazakhstan, when unidentified men tried to break up the gathering by harassing and filming participants.

A police officer arrived at the hotel where the event was taking place, but instead of trying to get the men to back off, the officer confronted Sekerbaeva. A video recording of the encounter posted on Facebook shows the officer forcibly grabbing Sekerbaeva and manhandling her into his car.

Sekerbaeva told Human Rights Watch that after she was shoved into the vehicle, another man opened the opposite door and tried to pull her out of the car by her hair. He was not successful, she said, but he did punch her in the face.

Ignoring the attack that happened in his own car, the officer took Sekerbaeva and Serzhan to the police station, threatening to press criminal charges for “offending a police officer.” Police held Sekerbaeva and Serzhan at the station for eight hours, interrogating them about what they were doing in Shymkent.

At around midnight, the police insisted the two activists leave Shymkent immediately. They were not charged. Sekerbaeva said she asked the police to allow them to travel back to Almaty, where they live, by train, but the police refused.

Instead, five police officers escorted Sekerbaeva and Serzhan to Almaty in a police vehicle – an eight-hour journey – telling them the reason they had been detained and were being driven back was “for their own safety.” A police officer even accompanied her to the toilet, Sekerbaeva said.

Embassies of the United States, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom issued statements of “deep concern” over the attack on the feminist activists, and called on Kazakh authorities to respect equal rights for women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Kazakhstan.

The police’s response to Saturday’s events – targeting the activists rather than their attackers – shows just how urgent the need is for better protection of women’s and LGBT rights in Kazakhstan today.

Authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan are holding prominent rights activist Huang Xiaomin under criminal detention for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Huang was detained on May 29 by police in his hometown, the provincial capital Chengdu, his friends said.

"I heard from a friend he called using the police phone that he had been detained, and that this time he was looking at a sentence of more than three years in prison," a friend of Huang's who gave only a surname Li told RFA on Wednesday.

"What he did for them to detain him isn't clear yet," Li said. "We don't understand it."

Li said Huang had been writing about vulnerable groups of people fighting for their rights on Mala -- an online forum on Sichuan-related matters.

Huang is a former teacher at a bingtuan CCP party school near Kashgar, in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

He took part in the student-led pro-democracy movement that ended in the massacre of unarmed civilians by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on June 4, 1989.

In 2019, the Jinniu District People's Court in Chengdu handed down a two-and-a-half year jail term Huang for supporting a call for direct elections to choose the leader of the CCP.

Huang pleaded guilty to "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," a charged based on interviews given by Huang to foreign media organizations including RFA, in which he allegedly "attacked the government."

He was earlier sentenced in 2010 by Sichuan's Leshan County People's Court to two years and six months in jail for "gathering a crowd to disrupt social order" for taking part in a street protest outside a court in February 2009.

Another friend of Huang's, Feng Gang, said his most recent detention was likely linked to his advocacy work for disadvantaged groups in Chengdu.

"He helped local human rights defenders and posted details of their cases online, especially to overseas websites, including Twitter and Facebook," Feng told RFA. "He also exposed local corruption and ... criticised the political and legal system."

He received a visit from local police after he gave an interview to RFA in November 2020 about CCP leader Xi Jinping's claim to have eliminated poverty in China.

"Huang has been a thorn in the sides of the local police in Chengdu," Feng said. "He has been detained around the 32nd anniversary of the June 4 crackdown, and ahead of the CCP centenary [on July 1], as part of the local stability maintenance plan."

Huang is also a member of the Independent Chinese PEN Association and one of the conveners of the Sichuan Pan-Blue Alliance, which is politically aligned with Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang (KMT).

A 14-year-old girl (name withheld) has been summonsed by the police in Phitsanulok on a royal defamation charge under Section 112 of the Criminal Code.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported last Friday (28 May) that the girl received a summons from Mueang Phitsanulok Police Station on a Section 112 charge and is required to report to the police on 1 June.

The complaint was filed against her by former Action Coalition for Thailand (ACT) MP candidate Nangnoi Assawakittikorn, who has previously filed complaints under Section 112 against activists Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, Anon Nampa, Panupong Jadnok, and Parit Chiwarak. She has also filed a libel complaint against a Facebook user for calling her a “slave of the dictator”.

The girl told Voice Online that a police officer delivered the summons to her house and it was received by her father. She said she does not know why the complaint was filed and does not know Nangnoi personally.

She also said that during the protests in Phitsanulok in 2020, she made comments about the royalist groups who were against the protests. One of her friends then commented about Nangnoi, who saw the comment. Even though she said the comment was not directly to do with Nangnoi, the girl was told by Nangnoi to meet at the police station.

Police officers then contacted her and told her that a Section 112 complaint had been filed against her, but did not show her an arrest warrant or a summons, so she decided not to speak to the officers until she received the summons last Friday (28 May).

Special Branch police also contacted the girl’s mother on 23 February, asking to discuss with her about sharing Facebook posts about the monarchy. The officers wanted the girl to delete the posts, saying that she would face no charges if she did so.

The girl said that she is surprised that an adult would press a politically motivated charge against a minor, and even use Section 112. However, she said that she will enter the judicial process and has already contacted a lawyer. She is likely to ask to postpone her appointment with the police, as her lawyer is unavailable on that day.

Accord to TLHR, the girl is the 7th person under the age of 18 to face charges under Section 112.

A timber company operating in Malaysia’s Sarawak state has threatened to take legal action against Penan and Kenyah Indigenous communities that are campaigning against the company’s certified-sustainable production plantations.

For more than a year, the Indigenous communities have been speaking out against Malaysian timber, plantation and construction conglomerate Samling Group and its subsidiaries. They allege the company has encroached on community land, has withheld key documents about the certification process, and failed to obtain free, prior and informed consent of affected communities during the certification process.

Samling has consistently refuted these allegations, saying it has followed all due and lawful processes in its certification process, and has met all document disclosure requirements.

Sarawak-focused environmental justice NGOs Bruno Manser Fund and the Borneo Project call the recent legal threats an attempt to silence the Indigenous communities who have spoken out.

In a letter dated May 26 and seen by Mongabay, Samling subsidiary Syarikat Samling Timber warned the Long Moh village community in Sarawak’s Miri division that it reserved the right to take legal action against parties alleging the company was involved in trespass, damage or destruction. According to Syarikat Samling, such allegations were “astonishing” given that the community is aware the company has the correct permits to operate in the disputed area, and has already accepted payments for a share of the timber harvested.

The threat of legal action comes after the Penan community complained through news articles that Samling, whose subsidiaries operate a certified-sustainable timber plantation in the area, was crossing into an area that was within their demarcated village.

Earlier this month, Penan and Kenyah communities filed complaints with the Malaysia Timber Certification Council, accusing Samling of failing to properly consult the communities and disregarding the way they use the land.

The Borneo Project and Bruno Manser Fund have partnered with grassroots groups like the Penan community NGO Keruan, whose CEO, Komeok Joe, is visiting communities bordering and within the Samling forest management units or FMUs (government-granted concessions that aim to use funds from timber production in parts of a concession to conserve forest in other parts of the concession) to take reports from the communities. The residents around two of Samling’s certified FMUs were nomadic up until the 1970s, Joe said. Now, the remaining untouched forest is vital to their lives.

“They tell me, ‘Even if they offer us millions in money [for the forest], we won’t accept, we want our land,’” he said of the Penan communities. “They want to fight for their rights.”

Samling Group operates three FMUs in Sarawak, in which 60% and 76% of the granted land is designated for timber production. The concessions are certified as sustainable timber producers by Malaysia’s Timber Certification Council, but critics of the program say that Malaysian Borneo’s decentralized governance and history of corruption make sustainable certification programs illusory.

Representatives of the Penan and Kenyah communities in May filed formal letters of complaint to the MTCC over its decision to certify the 117,941-hectare (291,439-acre) Ravenscourt FMU in Sarawak’s Limbang division and the 148,305-hectare (366,470-acre) Gerenai FMU in Miri division.

In their complaints, the communities, represented by grassroots Indigenous NGOs, allege that full environmental and social impact assessments for the timber projects have not been made publicly available; that Samling failed to properly consult them on the project; and that projects don’t consider how Indigenous communities use the land for their livelihoods.

However, filing an actionable complaint about an FMU is difficult, requiring an in-depth understanding of the certification process and its many players.

When asked about the legal warnings against Indigenous communities, Siti Syaliza Mustapha, senior manager of FMUs for the MTCC, called for open dialogue between parties over legal action whenever possible, adding that good communication is key to the certification process.

“We maintain that the best method for dispute resolution would be through open communication, mutual respect and understanding between the concerned parties,” Mustapha said. “Legal proceedings would be the least preferred option.”

According to Mustapha, the timber certification council she represents does not have the ability to grant or revoke FMUs, nor does it have the final say over whether to certify FMUs. Instead, the MTCC responds only to complaints about the standard-setting process.

Complaints regarding the decision to certify specific FMUs should be sent to the certifying body, Mustapha said. Under Sarawak law, these bodies are hired by the company that holds the concession for an FMU to conduct audits of the areas and eventually certify the planned FMU. For the Ravenscourt and Gerenai FMUs, Samling hired the Selangor-based testing, inspection and certification firm SIRIM QAS International.

Mustapha added that the MTCC encourages people to “make full use of the complaints mechanisms,” and that the council could provide assistance. She said the council in general takes complaints very seriously, without clarifying whether the MTCC was looking into this case after receiving the May complaints.

SIRIM QAS International’s audit of the Gerenai FMU says the concession follows the criteria set for forest management bodies, but the audit — conducted in 2019 and published in 2020 — flagged nine major and minor issues with the management. Among the problems, SIRIM QAS found via conversations at Indigenous community meeting houses that residents were not sufficiently consulted, and that most were not aware of a community relations committee that’s supposed to be established for communication on the FMU.

Thorsten Arendt, head of communication for the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, an international group for sustainable forest certification boards that counts the MTCC among its members, said the body had met with the MTCC, Indigenous communities and NGOs over Samling’s FMUs to discuss the certification process and their concerns. He noted that complaints against a national member like the MTCC could be appealed to the PEFC if it can’t be resolved at the country level, and could result in suspension or termination of PEFC endorsement if upheld.

While the Penan communities near the Ravenscourt FMU were informed about their new corporate neighbor from the village’s government-appointed leaders, Joe, the Penan community NGO leader, said Penan and Kenyah residents near the Gerenai FMU only found out about it after its certification.

Joe said community representatives came to him with a document informing local people of plans for an agricultural development, but when he looked into the case further, he found that it was actually an approval for the Ravenscourt timber production plantation.

“The logging companies and FMU [holders], they don’t do right by the communities. This is why the situation is worldwide,” he said, referring to the global attention raised by campaigns against the company. “It’s very simple to solve this issue if everyone respects the [Penan community’s] area.”

Peter Kallang, chairman of Sarawak-based environment and land rights NGO SAVE Rivers, says it’s clear the company had limited knowledge of the land when an auditor came to check Samling’s documentation of the Gerenai FMU. He says the auditor asked to see one salt lick — a place where animals go to lick salt and other essential minerals in a natural habitat — in Tanjung Tepalit village, but a Kenyah community member had to explain there are actually three salt licks within the village’s area.

“It means to say the [environment impact] assessment was not done correctly, so for the audit process, it puts a big question mark there,” he said.

Kallang also noted that the audit process is diluted by the fact that Samling pays the auditor, calling it a “conflict of interest” that would push the auditor to approve the company’s claims.

Joe, the Keruan CEO, emphasized how important the forest was to the Penan people, of which he is part. The untouched patches of forest in Sarawak are troves for food and medicine for Penan communities, and though many have adopted Christian beliefs, the forest still holds spiritual significance for their communities.

“We treat the forest as ourselves,” he said. “Before we go into the forest, we pray to our elders, so the spirits of the forest will protect us and give us what we want.”

Joe said he was bothered by the company’s claim that Penan people don’t use the forest. He said Samling probably drew this conclusion because the few community consultation meetings it had were held with English-speaking representatives in the city of Miri, but if company officials came to the forested villages, they would see differently.

“If there is a consultation, they need to make it proper,” he said. “Maybe the big boss from Samling or MTCC [should] go to the forest, sit down with the people, talk to the people, explain [their plans] to the people nicely.”

A Chinese human rights activist was reportedly lured from his home and detained by police on Friday, in a sign of a more severe environment for political dissidents in the run-up to the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party.

Wang Aizhong received a phone call on Friday from someone who claimed his car had been damaged, Chinese human rights blog Weiquanwang reported. When he left home to check on the vehicle, police took him away.

Up to nine police officers then presented a warrant to Wang’s wife and searched his home. They confiscated 29 books, two computers and a cell phone. Wang’s wife was later summoned to the local police station, where she was questioned about her husband’s contacts and remarks. Police reportedly warned her against speaking out.

A few weeks ago, public security officers prevented Wang from attending a dinner on May 5 with a group of entrepreneurs in Guangdong province. Police broke up the meal gathering and interrogated the attendees until the early hours of the following morning.

Wang is known for his involvement in the “Southern Street Movement,” a democracy reform movement originating in Guangdong. In May 2014, he was subjected to four weeks of administrative detention in the provincial capital city of Guangzhou on suspicion of “disorderly behavior.”

The activist has more than 39,000 followers on Twitter, which is officially banned in China, where the authorities frequently monitor dissidents’ accounts.

Senior NagaWorld union leaders all received dismissal notices amid the casino’s plan to lay off more than 1,000 employees, a union official said, in what some labor and civil society observers labeled an attempt to eliminate the active union from the workplace.

NagaWorld has begun a process of laying off 1,329 employees, which it has explained is due to declining revenues, according to the union. But the workers targeted for dismissal have been long-time union members, and on Thursday the union’s top leadership all received notice, said NagaWorld union vice president Chhun Sokha.

Sokha said on Friday that she and other leaders, including union president Chhim Sithar and more than a dozen core activists, received a dismissal message from the company on Thursday.

As of Friday, more than 600 employees — mostly union members — had received notice, she added.

Sokha said the company wants to eliminate protests, which the union has led. She said recent protests were about protecting workers rights.

“It is a violation of the freedom of association. We have the right to be an independent union, which has been registered and recognized by the Ministry of Labor. And now the company is terminating the leaders as well as the union activists, to make the leaders and activists unable to fulfill their obligations on behalf of workers,” she said.

She added that NagaWorld should not be allowed to do whatever it wanted, and the union was preparing a legal complaint to file to the Labor Ministry.

She said most workers had declined the redundancy compensation offered by the company so they could fight the dismissals together.

“They are also waiting to see what Naga wants to do to the union. They said as they already cut [the leaders], they might as well cut all 8,000 employees in the company. Then let’s wait and see how the company will operate without any employees working for them.”

Labor Ministry spokesman Heng Sour said he hadn’t received any complaint from the union yet, but any dismissals of union leaders needed to be justified.

“In principle, union leaders cannot be fired unless they have made serious mistakes or violated any of the company’s internal regulations, or [due to] the actual financial situation of the company. We need to look at the facts and the root of the problem first,” Sour said.

NagaWorld chief operating officer Mike Ngai could not be reached.

International Labor Organization national coordinator Sophorn Tun, when asked if the ILO would be taking action in the case, said: “It will, as soon as it receives from the union of the workers affected a request detailing the circumstances of the case.”

He added that ILO staff have no authority to pronounce whether the case was a violation of labor rights or Cambodia’s Labor Law — “only its competent supervisory bodies, including the Committee on Freedom of Association [can do that].”

Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation, said he believed NagaWorld’s layoff plan was not about Covid-19 economic disruptions, but a way to eliminate union activities. The NagaWorld union had been unafraid to strike and protest.

“I can say that there can be some discrimination against the union, and [the company] wants to take advantages of workers’ rights. For example, dismissing old workers, recruiting new workers, eliminating unions, et cetera,” he said. “Laying off unionists in particular sets a bad example for other employers.”

Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, said the company was taking advantage of the Covid-19 outbreak to “crush” the union.

“There is nothing other than intent to destroy the union,” Sina said. Dismissals due to genuine financial difficulties were fine, but “dismissals focusing on union activists, union leaders — these show that the real intention is to discriminate against the union.”

Cambodian Center for Human Rights executive director Chak Sopheap said mass layoffs amid Covid-19 went against the Labor Ministry’s advice to support workers during the crisis.

“If the termination refers to active individuals like union representatives, it means that the company has violated and harassed the union representative,” Sopheap said, calling it “revenge against active individuals.”

The casino and hotel company reported a net profit of $102 million in 2020 despite the Covid-19 crisis, down from more than $521 million in 2019.

Police in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi tried on Tuesday to arrest an independent journalist charged with reporting on corruption and other issues deemed politically sensitive by authorities, but missed him at home, taking away a laptop computer and two mobile phones instead.

Le Van Dung, also known as Le Dung Vova—owner of the online CHTV news channel—was not at home when officers from the Hanoi Police Department’s Investigation Agency arrived at around 1:30 p.m., Dung’s wife Bui Thi Hue told RFA on Wednesday.

“Around 20 officers came to our house and read a warrant to search our home and to charge and temporarily detain my husband Le Van Dung in accordance with Article 117 [of Vietnam’s Criminal Code],” she said.

Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code imposes penalties for “creating, storing, and disseminating information, documents, items and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” and is frequently used by authorities to stifle peaceful critics of the country’s one-party communist state.

Dung was away from home when the police arrived and is now “temporarily safe,” Hue said, adding that officers searching the house found nothing belonging to her husband, but left with a laptop computer and two mobile phones of her own.

Hue said that she had not touched or looked at the warrant that was read to her and had to stand back from the officers because of COVID concerns.

“They documented their search, but I didn’t sign the document, and therefore they didn’t leave me with any papers,” she added.

Dung’s CHTV channel has used Facebook’s live-broadcast feature to transmit information on social issues such as land disputes and corruption, and to give ordinary citizens a chance to discuss matters of concern, drawing the attention of law enforcement and security agencies.

'Useful and good'

Writing on his Facebook page on May 25, Dung said he had received repeated calls since January to report to local authorities for questioning concerning a denunciation filed against him by the government’s Cybersecurity Department, alleging he had created videos with “anti-State” content.

Half of the 12 videos used by police investigators to accuse him showed signs of outside editing, though, Dung said.

“I think that I’ve done is useful and good for other people and for our country. We need to join hands and work to create a better society,” Dung said, writing on his Facebook page. “What I have done is in line with my responsibilities as a citizen.”

“I understand that by telling the truth, my family and I may suffer. But I will always do this, even if I am imprisoned for doing what my conscience tells me to do,” he said.

With Vietnam’s media all following Communist Party orders, “the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution,” the press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says in its 2021 Press Freedoms Index.

Measures taken against them now include assaults by plainclothes police, RSF said in its report, which placed Vietnam at 175 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide, a ranking unchanged from last year.

“To justify jailing them, the Party resorts to the criminal codes, especially three articles under which ‘activities aimed at overthrowing the government,’ ‘anti-state propaganda’ and ‘abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state’ are punishable by long prison terms,” the rights group said.

Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.

Asad Ali Toor, an Aaj Television journalist and vlogger often critical of the Pakistani military, was attacked by unknown assailants in his apartment in Islamabad on May 25. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Pakistan affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), urges the authorities to investigate the case objectively and for justice to be delivered.

According to a statement from Asad Ali Toor, more than three gunmen broke into his house at 11pm (18:00 GMT) on May 25, and savagely assaulted him, “I was threatened by showing the pistol, dragged to my bedroom, beaten up mercilessly. When I shouted for help, they gagged off my mouth, threw to the hard floor and hit on my elbow with buts of pistol”, the statement reads. Toor’s electronic devices, including his mobile phone, were snatched. CCTV footage shows that the journalist’s hand and feet were tied.

Toor’s arms were bruised and his sleeves were coloured red with his blood. Immediately, the journalist was taken to a local hospital for treatment and his health condition is reported to be stable.

According to Toor, the assailants identified themselves as being agents of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and warned him not to cover the ISI. He was told to say ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ (Long Live Pakistan) to prove his patriotism.

The journalist who is also the host of the YouTube channel, "Asad Toor Uncensored” is known for this critical report about the Pakistan military. In September 2020, a First Information Report (FIR) was filed against Toor accusing him of defaming the military by spreading propaganda through his facebook posts. However, the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) dismissed the case and described it as ‘infructuous’.

According to the IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report 2020- 2021, nine journalists and media workers were murdered and 36 media rights violations were committed in Pakistan from May 2020 to April 2021.

The pro-democracy activist brother of a high-ranking official in Myanmar’s military junta died under suspicious circumstances while in custody of the junta’s security forces this week, their family told RFA.

Soe Moe Hlaing, 55, also known by his alias Mae Gyi, was the younger brother of Lt. Gen Than Hlaing, who was appointed the country’s chief of police and deputy home affairs minister on Feb. 2, one day after the military ousted the country’s democratically elected government and seized control.

Authorities arrested Soe Moe Hlaing and eight others on May 22 in the central city of Bago for running a charity school. Two days later, his family received a notice to retrieve his body.

His wife, Myat Muyar Win, told RFA’s Myanmar Service Tuesday that the military planned to cremate his remains at Mingaladon War Cemetery that day.

“We didn’t have to see or do much. It was as if we were attending a funeral they were holding. We wanted to take his body back to Yangon but they refused. We asked them to postpone the funeral for a day, but they refused that, too. We are on our way to Mingaladon right now,” she said.

Local outlet Myanmar Now quoted Myat Muyar Win as saying a regime official told her that he died of “some disease,” but she asserted that her husband was healthy. She also said that she heard reports that the 901st Artillery Operations Command beat Soe Moe Hlaing with the butt of a gun during his arrest. Than Hlaing reportedly went to see the body at the cemetery prior to the cremation.

In the report, Myat Muyar Win said the brothers had not seen each other in many years and they never contacted each other.

RFA attempted to contact the junta’s spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun but he was not available for comment.

Soe Moe Hlaing, an honors chemistry student at Yangon University, was active in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising. After the 1988 coup he joined and served as a battalion commander in the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF), a pro-democracy armed group.

After returning home in 1991, the previous junta arrested him and sentenced him to 15 years in prison for his involvement in the ABSDF. He spent 10 years in Insein and Thayarwaddy prisons. Since his release, he had dedicated his life to charity work.

After Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) came to power in the 2015 elections, Soe Moe Hlaing founded a community-based tourism network for local development, leading the development of the Zalon Taung Pagoda, a religious facility on a scenic mountaintop in the northwestern Sagaing region.

Over the past few years, he established and taught at the Winkabaw Ex-Political Prisoner Education Network, which has a mission to educate family members of political prisoners.

“Even though his brother had a high position in the military, he never took advantage of that,” a friend of Soe Moe Hlaing told RFA on condition of anonymity.

“The local military authorities in Bago did not know he was related to the sitting deputy home affairs minister during his arrest or detention,” Soe Moe Hlaing’s friend said.

According to Myanmar Now, the two brothers have nine other siblings. The invitation for Soe Moe Hlaing’s memorial service mentioned his ties to Deputy Minister Than Hlaing, and said he was survived by his wife, three daughters and two sons.

According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 21 people, including two women, have died since the coup after being arrested and tortured at interrogation camps.

Thai authorities should immediately and unconditionally drop insulting the monarchy and other politically motivated charges against children who peacefully express their opinions, Human Rights Watch said today.

On May 24, 2021, the Central Juvenile and Family Court informed 17-year-old Thanakorn Phiraban that he has been indicted on lese majeste (insulting the monarchy) charges related to his speech at a pro-democracy rally on December 6, 2020, in Bangkok. Under Thailand’s draconian article 112 of the Criminal Code, Thanakorn faces 3 to 15 years in prison if found guilty.

“By punishing outspoken children with lese majeste charges, the Thai authorities are seeking to intimidate peaceful critics by demonstrating that they will all be harshly punished regardless of their age,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These senseless, rights-abusing charges should immediately be dropped against Thanakorn and all others peacefully expressing their views.”

The number of lese majeste cases in Thailand has significantly increased in the past year. After almost a three-year hiatus in which lese majeste prosecutions were not brought before the courts, in November 2020 Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha ordered the authorities to resume lese majeste prosecutions because of growing criticisms of the monarchy. Since then, officials have charged at least 82 people with lese majeste crimes in relation to various activities at pro-democracy rallies or comments on social media. Six of them are children, under age 18.

In a February 8 statement on the situation in Thailand, United Nations human rights experts said that lese majeste laws have “no place in a democratic country.” They also expressed serious concerns about the growing number of lese majeste prosecutions and harsh prison sentences the courts in Thailand have meted out to some defendants.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Thailand has ratified, protects the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. General Comment 34 of the Human Rights Committee, the international expert body that monitors compliance with the covenant, specifically states that laws such as those for lese majeste “should not provide for more severe penalties solely on the basis of the identity of the person that may have been impugned” and that governments “should not prohibit criticism of institutions.”

Children from middle school and high school have become commonplace at most pro-democracy rallies across Thailand, even giving speeches onstage. Groups such as the Bad Students have held their own rallies on school grounds and occasionally conducted street protests. But despite concerns publicly raised by the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and human rights groups, the Thai authorities continue to punish children for expressing views, participating in peaceful public rallies, and otherwise taking part in activities to demand democratic reforms.

The Thai Lawyers for Human Rights has reported that at least 41 children have been charged for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly since the youth-led pro-democracy rallies started in July 2020. Many other children have faced various forms of intimidation by the authorities to try to stop them from taking part in political activity or making critical comments about the government and the monarchy. The government’s actions violate Thailand’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which ensures children’s rights to participate in peaceful protests and to express their opinions.

“Thai authorities should not be suppressing the voices of Thailand’s children expressing their views and demanding democratic reforms,” Adams said. “Instead of responding to children’s appeals with prosecutions, the authorities should listen to their views, and protect their rights to express their opinions without fear or intimidation.”

Nearly 50 people in Ayeyarwady Region initially charged with violating Section 505a of the Penal Code for incitement were hit with additional charges on Wednesday for treason.

The new charges—violating Sections 122 and 124a of the Penal Code—carry the death penalty or a lifetime prison sentence.

The plaintiff in the case is the chief of the Pathein District police station. He has directed the charges against 31 activists and 17 current and formerly elected National League for Democracy (NLD) parliamentarians, one of the affected MPs said.

“They’ve already opened cases against us under 505a. I heard they’re adding more charges to those who are part of CRPH [Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw] or close to them. I also heard we are facing more charges in our township as well,” Ni Ni Moe, a former NLD regional parliamentary representative for Nyaungdon Township’s Constituency 1, said.

Ni Ni Moe went into hiding after being charged with Section 505a for incitement, and is now facing the two additional charges in Pathein.

Since the February 1 military coup, 12 people including four NLD lawmakers have been detained in Ayeyarwady.

Thein Tun, a Lower House representative for Tharpaung Township; Aung Aung Oo, a regional parliamentarian for Tharpaung’s Constituency 1; and Than Htut, a regional representative for Pathein District’s Constituency 1, were arrested on March 31 and charged with incitement.

Dr. Tin Min Htut, a lawmaker from Pantanaw Township and secretary of Ayeyarwady Region’s NLD office, was arrested on the night of May 15. He is among those facing additional charges for treason.

Ni Ni Moe told Myanmar Now that while many NLD MPs are facing persecution by the junta, some have opted to side with the coup regime and have given up their elected posts.

“Before, they filed charges against almost all of the representatives under 505a and now there are additional charges. However, some representatives are casually relaxing at home. I heard some of them have already resigned [from the legislature],” Ni Ni Moe said.

After seizing power, the military amended Section 505a of the Penal Code, increasing the prison sentence for those convicted from two to three years.

Like Section 505a, Section 124a was also amended by the coup regime. It carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for inciting “disaffection towards the Government [...] or the Defence Services.”

Conviction of high treason under Section 122 is accompanied by the death penalty or 20 years’ imprisonment.

The mother of student activist Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul has received a police summons on a charge under the Emergency Decree, after she joined a protest demanding her daughter’s release

Panusaya posted a picture of the summons on her Facebook page yesterday (19 May). The summons states that her mother violated the Emergency Decree by organizing an unauthorised gathering of more than 20 people at risk of the spread of disease, after she joined the “Stand Against Detention” protest in front of the Supreme Court on Ratchadamnoen Avenue on 28 April 2021 to demand the release of Panusaya and other activists who were detained at the time.

The “Stand Against Detention” protests were organised by the activist group Resistant Citizens to demand the release of activists being detained pending trial on charges relating to the recent pro-democracy protests and have been held continuously since 22 March 2021 at various locations across Bangkok. Similar events have also been held in other provinces.

According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), no other participants in the “Stand Against Detention” protest have so far been charged with violating the Emergency Decree.

However, TLHR reported today (20 May) that two other people have received a police summons for participating in one of the “Stand Against Detention” protests: activist Punsak Srithep, a member of Resistant Citizen and whose son Samapan was killed during the the military crackdown on red shirt protesters in May 2010; and another protester named Napatsorn Boonrey.

Panusaya said in her post that participants in the protest kept a distance from each other. Resistant Citizen also required registration for each protest and only 20 participants were allowed.

Panusaya was granted bail and released on 6 May, after she had been in detention for 74 days. 7 people are currently still detained pending trial on charges relating to political expression.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday denied bail to five members of activist group Khmer Thavrak and two members of the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association, as the defendants urged that they had already been in jail for as long as nine months.

Khmer Thavrak members Hun Vannak, Chhoeun Daravy, Tha Lavy, Eng Malai and Koet Saray were arrested in August and September amid protests in support of jailed unionist Rong Chhun; KSILA’s, Muong Sopheak and Mean Prom Mony were arrested in September for their involvement in the same protests.

On Tuesday, Malai, with a visible swollen leg, held hands with Daravy as their lawyers made their arguments for bail.

Vannak spoke out that even though the courts had not found them guilty, it had already jailed them for many months.

Judge Tith Sothy Borachat tried to cut him off, telling him that only lawyers would be permitted to speak.

“Please release us. We have clear home addresses and we are prepared to show up when the court needs to do any interrogation,” Vannak said.

Sam Chamroeun, one of three defense lawyers, argued that the pretrial detention had continued too long. The crime for which they had been charged — incitement to disturb social security — carried a potential jail sentence of six months to two years.

The seven defendants had already been in jail for longer than the low-end of the potential sentence, he said.

Pretrial detention of more than six months also breached the requirement for a quick and fair trial, Chamroeun argued, citing the Criminal Procedure Code.

“The court needs to consider this case as urgent and necessary,” he said.

Bail would reduce challenges for the defendants, including the risk of Covid-19 and mental health pressures, as they could be in the care of their families, Chamroeun said.

Deputy prosecutor Sam Rithy Veasna said the defendants had already had two trial hearings, and their release now would obstruct the court process.

The trial had been delayed due to Covid-19, he added. “We will continue the procedure when the Covid-19 situation is better,” he said.

Prum Mony was questioned during a trial hearing in February, when he was asked about links to a Cambodian-Australian former member of parliament in Victoria, Hong Lim.

Sopheak, the other KSILA member, said on Tuesday that he was chronically ill and he was not getting the care he needed.

“It is very difficult to endure this and it is very difficult to live there,” especially without money to spend in prison, Sopheak said.

He did not want to stay in prison as he was afraid that he would have mental health issues, he said.

During a 15-minute break, the defendants talked with each other and visiting family members. Some family members could be heard asking about their health and seen handing over bundles of 20,000 riel notes, worth about $5 each.

After the break, Sothy Borachat, the judge, said there was not enough evidence to release the defendants on bail, and rejected the defense’s arguments.

“To guarantee their presence for the charges at the upcoming trial, [the court] does not allow their release on bail,” he said.

A specific trial date was not announced.

Chamroeun, the defense lawyer, said he would discuss appealing the decision with his clients.

Bangladesh authorities should drop all oppressive charges against the renowned Bangladeshi journalist Rozina Islam, Human Rights Watch said today. Islam’s colleagues believe she was detained over her reporting on corruption and mismanagement in the public health sector, including the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Islam is accused under sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act and sections 379 and 411 of the Penal Code, for allegedly attempting to “collect sensitive government documents and taking photos of them” at the Health Ministry. If convicted, she faces up to 14 years in prison and the possibility of the death penalty. Journalists across Bangladesh are protesting to seek her release.

“Bangladesh authorities should produce evidence of wrongdoing or immediately release Rozina Islam and stop arresting journalists for doing their job, which is also to highlight governance flaws,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “Instead of locking up critics, encouraging a free press should be central to the government’s strategy to strengthen health services in combatting the pandemic.”

Media reported that Islam went to the Health Ministry at around 3:30 p.m. on May 17, 2021, for a meeting with the health services secretary. She was confined to a room there for nearly six hours, during which she fell ill and fainted, then was taken to the police. According to the complaint filed by the Health Ministry, she had taken government documents related to the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines. She denies these allegations.

In a video recording by another journalist after her hearing on May 18, Islam said that, “because of my reporting on the Health Ministry, I am being wronged.” Her recent work includes reporting on bribery in recruitment at the health directorate, irregularities in the purchasing of emergency medical supplies to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, and for holding much-needed donated emergency medical supplies at the airport for ten months.

On May 18, a magistrate court turned down the police department’s request for 5-day remand and instead sent her to jail until her bail hearing on May 20. The court ordered the police to submit a report on their investigation into the allegations by July 15 and for the jail authorities to ensure that Islam has access to necessary medical care according to national law.

The Bangladesh Editor’s Council said that Islam’s arrest under a colonial-era law is “the manifestation of the negative attitude and the evil mentality of the authorities concerned to gag newspapers.” The Committee to Protect Journalists called for her release, while a spokesperson for the UN secretary-general expressed concern.

Bangladesh authorities have frequently gone after journalists and the media for reporting critically on the government’s response to the pandemic. For instance, in May 2020, the authorities arrested four people and charged seven others for “spreading rumors and misinformation on Facebook” because they criticized the government’s response to the pandemic.

Mushtaq Ahmed, a writer who was among the four, died in custody on February 25 after being held in pre-trial detention for nine months during which it has been credibly alleged that he was tortured. After a public outcry over Ahmed’s death, Ahmed Kabir Kishore, a cartoonist arrested at the same time, was granted bail. He described being tortured after he was taken into custody and also said that Ahmed had been brutally beaten.

The authorities have also increased surveillance of anyone who might spread “rumors” about the Covid-19 pandemic and ramped up media censorship.

Human Rights Watch and eight other organizations wrote to Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on World Press Freedom Day, on May 3, raising concerns over continuing attacks on the media including arbitrary arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

“The arrest of Rozina Islam sends a terrifying message to journalists uncovering corruption in Bangladesh,” Adams said. “By speaking out for Islam, concerned governments will be standing with Bangladeshi journalists across the country.”

Prominent activists Bela Bhatia and Jean Dreze alleged on Monday that they were not allowed to proceed to Silger in Chhattisgarh, where three persons were killed in a police firing on May 17 in what the police claimed was an 'encounter' with Maoists present in a crowd of people.

The activists were also allegedly interrupted when they were meeting people injured in the firing that took place on the inter-district border of Bijapur and Sukma in Bastar region on Wednesday. The duo were asked to undergo COVID-19 tests before being allowed for any further movement.

Bela Bhatia, talking to THE WEEK on telephone from Bijapur, said that she and Dreze both underwent repeat COVID-19 tests (both rapid antigen test and the RTPCR) on Wednesday and got negative reports on Thursday. “We are now waiting to talk to the Bijapur district collector and show him the reports. On our part, we think we have cooperated fully with the administration despite both of us being vaccinated with both the doses. Now we want to be allowed to meet the injured as well as to visit Silger and interact with the local people,” Bhatia said.

District Collector Ritesh Agrawal told THE WEEK that he was yet to confirm the COVID-19 test reports of the two activists and any further decision or action would be taken only after that. He refused to comment further.

Questions have been raised on the “encounter” after videos of local villagers claiming death of nine persons and injuries to about 18 people in a “unilateral” firing by the police on a crowd of protesting villagers on May 17, made rounds on social media. The villagers were seen claiming that there was no Maoist presence in the crowd.

The villagers had gathered in the area to protest against a newly set up camp of security forces which, they said, had infringed on their livelihood and natural resources like forest, land and water.

Bastar Inspector General Sudarraj P. had claimed that three persons were killed in an encounter with Maoists present in the crowd who had fired at the camp of security forces in Silger. He, however, added that it was not yet confirmed whether those dead were Maoists or villagers. The state government has not made any official statement regarding the incident or the villagers' allegations.

Civil society organisations have demanded a judicial probe into the incident and filing of criminal cases against responsible police officers, apart from compensation to the families of those dead.

Bhatia told THE WEEK that she and Dreze were interrupted by the authorities when they tried to speak to five injured persons in the district hospital on Wednesday and were asked to leave the place.

“We saw three seriously injured persons with bullet injuries in back, shoulder and leg respectively and two others—one man and one woman—with injuries due to alleged lathicharge by the police. Later, relatives of these people, who were present on the hospital campus, told us that they, too, had been present at the protest rally for five days before the incident and that there was firing from the police side,” she said.

Later in the evening, the activist said, they were stopped at the Chiramangi CRPF camp before Avapalli on their way to Silger and told that they could not proceed. “I saw a document with my name and photograph that said I should not be allowed to go to Silger. I was not given any reason and the only thing they asked us was to get COVID-19 tests done, which we have fulfilled. We saw journalists and others from outside Bijapur proceeding to Silger and coming back while we were waiting at Chiramangi camp,” Bhatia said.

“We want to talk to the local people around Silger to know their version of the incident and what they felt. We have always found that no counter-complaint of such incidents (disputed 'encounters') are ever entertained. But if the villagers feel so, we will help them with the legal action,” Bhatia said.

She said there seemed to be further attempts to hold up their (activists') plan. On Thursday morning, she was initially told that her COVID-19 test sample was invalid and re-sampling would have to be done. “However when Jean went to get his report, my report, too, was handed over to him and we both have tested negative in both the tests. So now, we want to proceed with our plan,” Bhatia said.

Police in Kazakhstan have detained an Instagram blogger over satirical posts he made on the social media platform as the government continues to pressure political opponents.

Police searched the home of Temirlan Ensebek in Almaty on May 15 and seized his equipment, his wife told RFE/RL.

Yensebek is a member of Oyan, Qazaqstan (Wake Up, Kazakhstan!), a group that supports political reform in the authoritarian Central Asian nation.

A few supporters of the blogger protested outside the police station where he was being questioned.

Ensebek's wife said he could face charges of knowingly spreading false information that puts public order in danger.

His wife said she did not know which post could have caused the police investigation. All posts on his Qaznews24 Instagram page have been deleted.

Some of Ensebek's satirical posts poking fun at the nation’s authoritarian system were widely discussed on social media.

In one of his posts, he joked that Muslim leaders in Kazakhstan had proposed giving former President Nursultan Nazarbaev that status of a god and recommended incorporating that into the constitution.

Kazakhstan changed the name of its capital to Nur-Sultan in 2019 to honor Nazarbaev, who ruled with an iron fist from the nation’s independence in 1991 until 2019.

He continues to wield considerable influence as chairman of the Security Council.

In another post, Ensebek said the Interior Ministry was preparing a law that would limit the right of Kazakh citizens to travel abroad to just one time a year.

Under President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, who was handpicked by Nazarbaev, Kazakhstan continues to clamp down on freedom of speech and harass opposition members.

Police last year detained dozens of journalists and bloggers and launched criminal cases for alleged crimes such as spreading false information and inciting the public, according to Adilsoz, a local media watchdog.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's lawyer has filed a report with the police against Suthipongse 'Heart' Thatphithakkul under the lèse majesté law and the Computer Crime Act. Suthipongse, a famous Thai singer with a political profile, is one among many who have been charged for speaking out against the government's vaccine policy.

Seksakon Atthawong, also known as Rambo Isan, assistant to the Minister of the Office of the Prime Minister, threatened on 15 May that the matter could be withdrawn if Suthipongse truly loves the monarchy and wants to help the country.

According to the Thai legal system, a criminal charge cannot be withdrawn unless a suspect is proven innocent. Suthipongse’s case was reported on 13 May at Nang Loeng Police Station, together with evidence of his Facebook post criticizing the government's Covid-19vaccine policy.

“The medicine of the boss is not selling. The stock is not moving. The lackeys have to come out to help with the marketing (I copied this from someone else) #vaccine monopoly, unless you are really ruthless, cannot be done," said one of the Facebook posts which made him a suspect under the lèse majesté law and the Computer Crime Act.

Apiwat Kantong, the Prime Minister’s lawyer, said that the term “boss” might refer to the monarchy and even if it was copied from someone else it might still constitute disinformation and lèse majesté.

After Suthipongse was reported to the police, he posted on Facebook asking ”how come that the Prime Minister sues the people?”

In a separate Facebook post, Suthipongse asked the government to drop the charges because he ran out of money to hire lawyers. Suthipongse also said that he was not interested in entering politics and the government may even get his help if it talks to him nicely.

Who is Heart? Suthipongse ‘Heart’ Thatphithakkul was a famous singer in Thailand. After he earned a Bachelor of Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Master of Economics from the University of Southern California, he returned to Thailand not only as a singer, but also as an economic analyst and famous TV host on many channels and programmes.

Suthipongse entered politics briefly in June 1997 when he became an executive committee member of the Prachakorn Thai Party under Samak Sundaravej as the party leader. However, he was disqualified from the party only 6 months later.

At the time, Prachakorn Thai was an important player in the Thai political landscape. After Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh resigned from the premiership because of the financial crisis in 1997, Prachakorn Thai defected from Chavalit’s New Aspiration Party coalition and forged a new government led by the Democrat Party with Chuan Leekpai as the Prime Minister.

In 2015 (one year after the military coup by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha), Suthipongse invited Anutin Charnvirakul to sing a song in his show “Byrd & Heart” which he made with his old colleague Kulpong “Byrd” Bunnag. Anutin became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health in the current government after the election in 2019.

In 2018, Suthipongse revealed that he had 3 wives and 7 children.

When the protests erupted in Thailand, he became more vocal against Prayut Chan-o-cha’s government. In 2019, Narisroj Fuangrabil, former Thai ambassador to Argentina who posted on Facebook against the pro-democracy protesters, filed a report with police against Suthipongse for defamation after Suthipongse criticized him in a comment on the Facebook page of political exile Pavin Chachavalpongpun.

Suthipongse gave Narisroj flowers and apologized so the case was withdrawn.

Not the only one Suthipongse is not the only one to criticize the government’s vaccine policy who now faces legal charges.

On 18 January, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit of the Progressive Movement went Live on Facebook with a presentation on “The Royal Vaccine: Whose benefit, Whose loss?” Thanathorn was charged with violating the lèse majesté law and the Computer Crime Act on 21 January by the Prime Minister’s lawyer Apiwat.

On Facebook Live, Thanathorn said that although there were many vaccine providers, the Thai government bought only from AstraZeneca and Sinovac and in insufficient quantities because the government wanted to support Siam Bioscience Co. Ltd. Nikkei Asia reports that King Vajiralongkorn owns all but 2 of the company’s shares.

On 25 January, student protesters led by Benja Apan and Parit Chiwarak held an activity at the Srijulsup Building, where Siam Bioscience’s registered office is located, to publicize the problems surrounding the government’s vaccine policy. They too face 4 charges under the lèse majesté law, the Emergency Decree, the Communicable Diseases Act, and the Advertisement by Using Sound Amplifiers Control Act.

On 25 January, 5 students and citizens in Lampang Province were also served with summons as suspects under the lèse majesté law for displaying a banner which said “Budget for monarchy > Covid-19 vaccines.” The suspects were named as Phinit Thongkham, Wannaphon Hutakowit, Phattharakan Khaengkhan, Yupadee Kulkittanon), and Wan (alias).

In February 2021, a female student from Rajabhat University, Chiang Rai, and an admin of the page “Free Youth - CEI” was arrested under the lèse majesté law and the Computer Crime Act for sharing the “budget for monarchy > Covid-19 vaccines” banner on Facebook. Police believe that she was involved in hanging the banner near to King Vajiralongkorn’s portrait.

On 3 March, Piyarat Chongthep, a leading activist of the We Volunteer group, was detained in Kalasin Remand Prison on charges under the lèse majesté law and the Computer Crime Act for 7 protest signs against the government’s vaccine policy and for his social media posts of the protest signs. After 33 days in detention, he was allowed bail with a security of 200,000 baht.

A court in southern Kazakhstan has handed a parole-like sentence to an activist for his links with the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement amid an ongoing crackdown on individuals supporting the opposition group and its associate, Koshe (Street) party.

The Qarasai district court in the Almaty region on May 14 sentenced Abaibek Sultanov to one year of "freedom limitation" after finding him guilty of participating in the activities of the DVK.

The court also sentenced the 45-year-old activist to 100 hours of community work.

Sultanov's lawyer, Zhanar Balghabaeva, told RFE/RL that her client rejects the charge and will appeal the sentence.

Several activists across the Central Asian nation have been handed lengthy prison terms or "freedom limitation" sentences in recent years for their involvement in the activities of the DVK and the Koshe party, as well as for taking part in the rallies organized by the two groups.The DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government. Kazakh authorities labeled the DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018. Human rights groups have said Kazakhstan’s law on public gatherings contradicts international standards as it requires preliminary permission from authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies even though the nation’s constitution guarantees its citizens the right of free assembly.

MANILA – Peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas is calling for the release of their two elderly and ailing leaders who were arrested on “trumped-up charges” in separate incidents in Caraga region on May 14.

Police arrested Marcela “Silay” Diaz, 59, who was taken at 4:30 A.M. on May 14 from her home in barangay Bayan, Marihatag, Surigao del Sur; and Virgilio “Yoyong” Lincuna, 70, who was taken at 11 A.M. in barangay Banza, Butuan City, Agusan del Norte.

Diaz, a member of Mag-uuma sa Surigao del Sur-Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KAMASS-KMP) is a stage 4 cancer patient who is in remission, while Lincuna is a former political detainee and a stroke patient who suffers from partial paralysis, said KMP.

The two elderly and sickly activists were charged with murder and attempted homicide.

The arrests happened on the same day of the burial of KMP national vice chairperson Joseph Canlas who died after contracting COVID-19 in jail. Canlas, who died on May 11, was arrested on March 30 in Pampanga on trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Although he had hypertension and diabetes, Canlas was well and stable when he was arrested. He was transferred from one detention facility to another, and was denied medical attention when he complained of feeling ill. He was rushed to a hospital only when his condition worsened.

“The brutality of the Duterte regime is boundless,” said KMP in a Facebook post, as it denounced the arrest and detention as “a form of silent extra-judicial killing via COVID.”

The group said that Diaz and Lincuna both faced constant red-tagging and harassment from government forces. “Both are veteran peasant leaders campaigning for farmers’ right to land and against the militarization of peasant and indigenous communities in Caraga region,” KMP said.

Diaz is charged with attempted homicide, while Lincuna is accused of two counts of murder. The case against Diaz was in connection with a shooting on 29th infantry soldiers on combat patrol in Santiago, Agusan del Norte on Nov. 21, 2020, said PNP Region 13.

Lincuna, who has been an activist since the 80s, was first arrested in October 2019 on a trumped-up case of attempted murder. He was released on bail after several days in detention. He later suffered from stroke, and now “can barely walk and needs constant assistance in his daily chores,” said KMP.

The Philippine National Police Region 13 said the arrest warrant for Diaz was issued by the municipal circuit trial court, 10th Judicial region, Tubay-Santiago, Agusan del Norte. The arrest was made by a combined force of the Regional Intelligence Unit 13, Butuan City Police Intelligence Unit, Butuan City Mobile Force Company, Surigao del Sur Police Provincial office Intelligence unit, 1st Surigao del Sur Provincial Mobile Force Company, and 7th Special Forces Company of the Philippine Army.

Diaz is detained in Camp Rafael Rodriguez in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, while Lincuna is in PNP-Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

A pro-democracy activist in the Sagaing Region town of Monywa was murdered on Friday after being set on fire in an unprovoked attack, according to a witness to the incident.

Factory manager Taing Aung said that he was talking to the victim, 60-year-old Sein Win, on Friday morning when a factory worker poured gasoline over his head and set him alight.

“I saw him pour the gasoline and then immediately set him on fire. I shouted and tried to put out the fire on Ko Sein Win,” said Taing Aung, who was a friend of the victim.

“He poured the gasoline on him just like we do with water during the Thingyan water festival,” he told Myanmar Now.

Sein Win was immediately admitted to the Monywa General Hospital, but died at around 11pm on Friday, he added.

“He had severe burns on his legs, hands, and head—almost his entire body. His face was burned black. The skin on his legs and hands peeled off,” said Taing Aung.

The assailant was identified as Aung Ko, a resident of Monywa’s Myawaddy ward. At the time of reporting, he was still at large.

Officials at the Monywa police station could not be reached for comment when contacted by Myanmar Now on Saturday.

Sein Win’s family will hold a funeral for him on Sunday afternoon.

A longtime supporter of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Sein Win had been active in politics since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising and campaigned for the party in the 1990 election.

According to his daughter Thin Thin Nwe, his political activism often made life difficult for him and his family, including his three adult children.

“None of us ever applied for jobs that required documents or references from ward administrators or the police,” she said, explaining that the regime actively discriminated against those known to oppose its rule.

She added, however, that she understood her father’s position because he shared his political beliefs with his children and educated them about the nature of the dictatorship.

As a veteran pro-democracy activist, Sein Win joined anti-regime protests in Monywa soon after the military seized power on February 1. He was also close to youth activists and supported the anti-coup activities of Generation Z protesters in the town.

“He believed this revolution would win. He saw rays of hope, and so do we. I am very sad that my father will no longer be able to see our victory,” Thin Thin Nwe said.

Sein Win was also a charity worker and a lover of poetry whose poems have been published in a number of magazines.

A fellow poet in Monywa who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity said that it was unlikely that the motive for the attack was personal.

“He was an honest and active charity worker and political activist,” he said.

At least nine civilians, including poet Kay Za Win and writer Kyi Lin Aye, have been murdered in brutal crackdowns on anti-coup protesters in Monywa.

Monywa-based poet Khet Thi died last week in the regime's custody a day after he was arrested in Shwebo, another town in Sagaing about 100km from Monywa.

Two digital news journalists reported harassment by authorities Tuesday while covering villagers protesting two separate land disputes.

Though government officials dismissed the confrontations with reporters from outlets VOD and TN Hot News as a matter of enforcing public order, media advocates are again sounding the alarm of ever-tightening restrictions of press freedom in Cambodia.

VOD reporter Khut Sokun, 33, said he had arrived at about 11 a.m. at the scene of a dispute in the Krakor district of Pursat province when an armed man in military uniform approached and seized his smartphone, recorder and notebook.

“I parked my motorbike and rushed to report,” Sokun told CamboJA of the day’s work in Ansar Chambak commune. “I turned on my recorder, and wrote what they were saying, but after that one official came to ask my identity, and where I had come from.”

Authorities had come to tell villagers mostly from the nearby Boribor district of Kampong Chhnang province to stop cultivating paddy rice in a location deemed state land, an area that authorities are measuring to reserve as a social land concession. They had come on Tuesday with military police, at least one of whom eventually focused on Sokun.

“I told him that I am a reporter at VOD, and I came to report something related to land issues, and he asked me to delete the pictures I’d taken from my smartphone,” Sokun recalled. “A man with a RCAF uniform and an AK-47 confiscated my recorder and notebook. They also tore up my notes of what I wrote and [deleted] audio from the recorder.”

Sokun said authorities returned his equipment more than a half-hour after talking with Pursat province Deputy Governor Cheng Lai, who had led the meeting to resolve the dispute.

“I tried to ask him why they didn’t allow pictures and reporting, but they did not tell me the reason,” Sokun said. “I think that it was threatening, intimidation, and it has restricted the right of press freedom because I did nothing wrong. I just went down to report and listen to what [the villagers] were saying.”

A VOD colleague who interviewed Cheng Lai after the incident told Sokun the deputy governor had claimed informally that his reporting on Tuesday had caused incitement among the villagers, a potentially serious charge often used to silence dissent. After hearing of this allegation, Sokun said that he is now scared to report land disputes in that area.

“Now, I dare not report this story because I am afraid of the accusation. I am also living near that area,” he said. “And yes, I am worried about my security and safety.”

Lai denied the accusation of harassment to CamboJA, saying officials had confronted the journalist only to learn who he was. Though he confirmed Sokun’s recorder had been confiscated and later returned, he denied that anyone had destroyed the reporter’s notes.

“Our authorities were working [to resolve the land dispute] and we did not know who he was, and at that time there were military police, police and soldiers accompanying me,” he said.

“We just asked what he was doing,” Lai said, adding that any claim otherwise was subjective. “It is just their opinion, because no one threatened him.”

As for the land dispute, Lai said people who have cultivated the area for a long time will be excluded from government action but that newcomers will have their access revoked. He said a directive was issued in 2017 to prepare a 5,400 hectare social land concession to benefit 3,000 families in the Ansar Chambak commune.

Though the deputy governor described the encounter with Sokun as benign, at least one witness described it otherwise.

“In fact, I saw they [authorities] scuffled with him, seized his phone and deleted pictures, and checked his press card,” said Pen Phol, 43, who attended Tuesday’s meeting and said authorities had not allowed photography and reporting. “I feel pity for him because he is a journalist that comes to help villagers who are suffering.”

After the confrontation, Phol said she didn’t see anything else, as authorities then dispersed the gathered villagers.

Phol is now concerned authorities will take her land away, noting that her family has been cultivating about 2 hectares since the 1980s.

“I am worried because I heard that they will revoke our land and provide it to other villagers,” she said.

When asked about the incident at Ansar Chambak, Information Ministry spokesman Meas Sophorn said local authorities had only implemented the law in their jurisdiction to maintain security and public order.

“Authorities and police have their duty to fulfill too,” he said, declining to comment further.

But Sokun wasn’t the only reporter to face a confrontation Tuesday from authorities while reporting on a land dispute case.

Keo Ratana, 36, journalist and publisher of TN TV, or TN Hot News Online, said that he suffered harassment while covering villagers protesting that same day against a decision of the Kampong Chhnang Provincial Court in favor of a wealthier landholder.

The protest was complicated when a bodyguard named Lon Leng intervened apparently on behalf of the landholder and, according to Ratana, physically confronted the journalist at the event. Ratana said Pheng ordered police to detain the reporter, but the officers did not due to the many villagers around him.

“He came and pushed me away and attempted to use violence, and I pushed his hand back,” Ratana said of the bodyguard. “As a journalist, I think it is a threat to press freedom as we carry out our professional journalism.”

Ratana was previously arrested in July 2019 by military police for his role in covering a long-running land dispute in Sihanoukville between local villagers and the Thai Boon Roong development company.

Ith Sothoeuth, media director at the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, condemned the harassment against working journalists who amplify important viewpoints for the public to hear.

“For me, it seriously threatens press freedom because journalists have just gone to fulfill their duty in reporting land disputes between villagers,” he said of the Tuesday incidents.

Sotheouth, whose center produces VOD, said the media plays a significant role in a democratic society by providing voices for those who can’t express their concerns by themselves to the government or the general public.

“It is an extreme violation of press freedom in Cambodia, while it has already narrowed its space,” he said, pointing to the confrontation in Ansar Chambak.

Nop Vy, executive director at CamboJA, said that any activities that obstruct the work of journalists run directly against government policy to cooperate with the press.

“It is a message of warning and intimidation to the duty of journalists,” he said, urging officials and the head of state to review law enforcement policies of lower authorities and advise them on correct implementation.

Police detained an informal-workers union official and placed him in two-week quarantine in Banteay Meanchey province as he was gathering names of members facing economic difficulties amid the nation’s ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.

Poipet city deputy police chief Born Seiha said on Wednesday that Kang Nakorn, an official for the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association, or IDEA, was brought in after he went to a noodle shop that had previously been visited by people who tested positive for Covid-19. Nakorn had collected as many as 170 names, Seiha said.

Officers had yet to question Nakorn, as he was placed in quarantine at Nimit High School in the city, Seiha said.

“[We] have not arrested him. We called him in for questioning, called him in for questioning for collecting [names], of 170 people. For what purpose?” the deputy police chief said. “People complained to us.”

Seiha said he could not say whether the authorities would release Nakorn after 14 days of quarantine, as authorities were still investigating.

Vorn Pov, the union’s president, said there were others at the noodle shop, so it did not make sense to only detain and quarantine Nakorn.

“A lot of people,” Pov said. “Why was only he taken in?”

Nakorn had collected names and ID numbers of members linked to or facing challenges in relation to Covid-19 cases, Pov said.

“It is just a matter of charity — purely charitable activities, not political incitement,” he said. “So I think it is unusual to call him in for questioning. Yes — it’s regretful.”

He asked for Nakorn’s release, saying he suffered from health problems like high blood pressure.

Police in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, have detained at least nine protesters who have been picketing the Chinese consulate for 93 days to demand the release of relatives they say are being "illegally" held in China.

Two of the protesters, Baibolat Kunbolat and Tursungul Nuraqai, were released several hours after they were detained late on May 11. The whereabouts of the others is unknown.

Kunbolat told RFE/RL on May 12 that he and other protesters, mainly women, were detained after they rallied in front of the Chinese Consulate and then moved to picket a Chinese bank and a Chinese gasoline station in Almaty.

According to Kunbolat, police held him for several hours and interrogated him over his role in the ongoing protests.

"I did not sign a protocol and did not write down any testimony. They let me go after 9:00 p.m. but ordered me to come back for questioning the next day," Kunbolat said.

In recent years, many similar protests have taken place in Kazakhstan, with demonstrators demanding Kazakh authorities officially intervene in the situation faced by ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang.

The U.S. State Department has said that as many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers.

China denies that the facilities are internment camps but people who have fled the province say that thousands of ethnic Kazakhs, Uyghurs, and other Muslims in Xinjiang are undergoing "political indoctrination" at a network of facilities known officially as reeducation camps.

Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs. The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans. Han, China's largest ethnicity, is the second-largest community in Xinjiang.

Two Chiang Mai University students reported to the police yesterday (11 May) after being summoned on a royal defamation charge over an art installation piece, while an artists’ network has called on the University to defend their freedom.

Withaya Khlangnin and Yotsunthon Ruttapradid went to Phuping Rajanivej Police Station at 9.00 to answer charges under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, or the lèse majesté law, and the 1979 Flag Act. They were summoned by the police after Srisuwan Janya, Secretary-General of the Association for the Protection of the Constitution, filed a complaint against them for an art installation piece they exhibited during a 14 March 2021 protest at Chiang Mai University.

The installation piece was also shown during an event on 25 March 2021, when students from the Faculty of Fine Arts gathered in front of the University’s Office of Strategy Management to demand an explanation from University and Faculty management for an incident on 22 March 2021, when the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts and several other faculty personnel attempted to remove students’ art projects from the Media Arts and Design Department building without first informing the students, claiming that some pieces could violate the law.

The art piece features a mannequin wrapped in plastic in the middle of two red and white strips, on which participants at the 14 March protest were invited to write down messages. Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that, according to the police, the messages violated Section 112. The police also said that, since the art piece looks like a Thai flag without the blue stripe, which represents the monarchy, it means that the artist does not wish for the monarchy to exist in the country.

Withaya and Yotsunthon denied all charges. Their lawyer requested that they be released at the inquiry stage on the ground that they are not likely to flee and are not able to tamper with the evidence. They were released after police officers took their fingerprints, and were not taken to court for a temporary detention request as they were initially told by the inquiry officer. They are required to report to the police again on 31 May 2021.

Before he went into the police station, Withaya staged a performance during which he used a razor to cut the number “112” into his chest. Police officers tried to stop him, but were not successful.

Police officers also used metal fence to block the entrance to the police station, while around 15 uniformed officers and at least 20 plainclothes officers were stationed around the building as a group of around 40 supporters gathered.

Somchai Preechasinlapakun, lecturer from the Faculty of Law, Chiang Mai University, who came to the police station with the students, said that he is very concerned that this is happening to the students, as the university should be protecting their freedom of expression, and that the students’ way of expression is not unusual among those who are interested in freedom of expression and those who are involved in the arts. He questioned how the evidence in the case ended up in the hands of the police, and that it would be very bad if it was sent to the police by university personnel.

Meanwhile, the Art and Cultural Activist Network for Democracy (ACAND), a network of artists, activists, and academics, issued a statement signed by 518 people, calling for the university to protect academic freedom and support the students.

ACAND demands that the Faculty of Fine Arts defend the students’ creativity and expression, and that Chiang Mai University must grant the students’ right to legal protection and moral support. They also called on the Thai authorities to respect the students’ right to bail.

“We, the Art and Cultural Network for Democracy, will monitor this case to inform the international art and cultural communities. We will watch the Chiang Mai University Administration’s response to the role in defending artistic and academic freedom and its response to the use of legal action against artistic and academic freedom too,” says the statement.

The family of Delhi University Associate Professor Hany Babu, who is standing trial in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case and is lodged in Taloja Central Jail near Navi Mumbai, has alleged that he is being denied treatment for an acute eye infection. Jail authorities have, however, denied the allegation and said he was taken to hospital for a second time Wednesday.

Speaking to ThePrint, Hany Babu’s wife Jenny Rowena, who teaches at DU’s Miranda House, said he had first complained about the eye infection to the prison authorities on 3 May. “He was taken to the Civil Hospital, Vashi, only on 7 May. The medication he was given there hasn’t been working, and we have made repeated requests to the authorities to take him to the hospital again, but they still haven’t taken him. Even now, we don’t have any information on whether he has been taken to the hospital or not,” Rowena said.

However, Taloja jail superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar told ThePrint: “We have already sent him for a check-up today. He has not been denied any treatment. We had earlier taken him to the ophthalmologist on 7 May as well when he was given medicines.”

But this claim was denied by Babu’s lawyers, who said they had received no information about him being taken to a hospital Wednesday.

“Between 3 and 6 May, Hany Babu himself told the jail authorities multiple times about his infection and tried to get himself treated, but to no avail. Since 6 May, we have sent two emails, and called the superintendent and authorities 13 times to request them to take him to the hospital, but we still don’t have any information on him being taken there,” said a member of Babu’s legal team, who did not wish to be named.

The lawyer added that the authorities had been promising since 10 May to take him to hospital. “On 10 May, we were told that they have sent a requisition request for guards to take him to hospital on 11 May. After five calls on that day, we were told that he hasn’t been taken to the hospital, and maybe taken today.”

ThePrint approached Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil and MoS Home Satej Patil through phone calls for a comment, but did not receive any response.

The family has also alleged that the infection has got worse due to delay in treatment. “He has little or no vision in his left eye due to the swelling, which has spread to the cheek, ear and forehead, compromising other vital organs as well, and posing a significant risk to his life if it spreads to the brain. He is in agonising pain and is unable to sleep or perform daily chores,” said a statement issued by the family Tuesday.

Rowena also alleged that Babu does not have access to clean water to help treat his eye. “There is a water shortage in the prison; he doesn’t have access to clean water to bathe his eyes. He is being given soiled towels to dress his eyes, which is only making it worse,” she told ThePrint.

Superintendent Kurlekar, however, denied any such crisis. “There are no such problems in the jail. He is getting clean water access; the family is saying what they want,” he said.

This is not the first time that an accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case has alleged denial of medical treatment — lawyers for Gautam Navlakha, Father Stan Swamy and Anand Teltumbde had also made similar claims in the past.

Swamy, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, was allegedly denied a straw sipper, while Navlakha was allegedly denied access to spectacles. Other accused Sudha Bharadwaj and Shoma Sen, lodged in Mumbai’s Byculla Women’s jail, have also raised health issues.

With Maharashtra clocking the highest Covid-19 cases in the country, Hany Babu’s family is also concerned about him contracting the virus.

“The jail is very crowded. At least 40 people stay together in one hall. If one person contracts the virus, there will be a severe outbreak in the jail. Some people said eye infection can be a Covid symptom, but we don’t know for sure,” said Rowena.

Babu’s lawyers acknowledged the Covid threat, but said they were focussing on getting his eye treated first. “He got a rapid antigen test done, which came back negative, and then an RT-PCR test done on 7 May. We are assuming that it is negative because high court rules ordain that prison authorities have to inform us if any inmate is positive,” said the anonymous lawyer quoted above.

“While there is a Covid threat, since he is not showing any other symptoms, our focus is to get his eye infection treated,” the lawyer added.

Myanmar poet Khet Thi, whose works declare resistance to the ruling junta, died in detention overnight and his body was returned with the organs removed, his family said on Sunday.

A spokesman for the junta did not answer calls to request comment on the death of Khet Thi, who had penned the line "They shoot in the head, but they don't know the revolution is in the heart." His Facebook page said he was 45.

Khet Thi's wife said both of them were taken for interrogation on Saturday by armed soldiers and police in the central town of Shwebo, in the Sagaing region, a centre of resistance to the coup in which elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted. "I was interrogated. So was he. They said he was at the interrogation centre. But he didn't come back, only his body," his wife Chaw Su told BBC Burmese language news in tears from Monywa, around 100 km away by road.

"They called me in the morning and told me to meet him at the hospital in Monywa. I thought it was just for a broken arm or something ... But when I arrived here, he was at the morgue and his internal organs were taken out," she said.

She had been told at the hospital he had a heart problem, but had not bothered to read the death certificate because she was sure it would not be true, Chaw Su said. Reuters was unable to reach the hospital for comment. Chaw Su said the army had planned to bury him but that she pleaded with them for the body. She did not say how she knew her husband's organs had been removed.

"He died at the hospital after being tortured in the interrogation centre," the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group said in a bulletin that put the toll of civilians killed since the coup at 780.

The group, which monitors details of killings, did not identify the source of its information.

Indonesian authorities should drop politically motivated treason charges and unconditionally release an activist detained for peacefully advocating Papuan independence, Human Rights Watch said today. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo should publicly direct security forces involved in counterinsurgency operations in Papua to act in accordance with international law or be held to account.

On May 9, 2021, a special police unit, Satgas Nemangkawi, arrested Victor Yeimo, a spokesman for the West Papua National Committee (Komite Nasional Papua Barat, KNPB) in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province. Police charged him with treason for a 2019 statement, made during anti-racism protests and ensuing riots in Papua and West Papua, calling for a referendum on independence. Papua’s police chief, Mathius Fakhiri, said that the police are still “digging up” cases against Yeimo: “Let him get old in prison.”

“Indonesian police should investigate the deadly violence and arson attacks in Papua in 2019 but not use that as a pretext to crack down on peaceful activists,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “An independent investigation is still needed into the role of the security forces, and the authorities need to prosecute those responsible for wrongdoing.”

For decades, successive Indonesian governments have discriminated against the Indigenous people of Melanesian origin in the resource-rich and isolated provinces of Papua and West Papua, Human Rights Watch said.

Yeimo, 38, is a prominent activist who helped set up the KNPB after the fatal shooting of Opinus Tabuni, a Papuan celebrating International Indigenous People’s Day on August 9, 2008. No one was ever arrested for his killing.

Yeimo and others were arrested in 2008 and 2009 for advocating a United Nations-administered independence referendum in Papua and West Papua provinces. On his Facebook page, Yeimo has repeatedly written about racism against Papuans and called for negotiations between the West Papuan independence movement and Indonesia’s government. He has spoken at conferences in Indonesia and internationally about Papua’s environmental and human rights problems.

In August 2019, Papuans took part in protests across at least 30 cities in Indonesia in response to a racist attack by Indonesian militants and soldiers on a West Papuan student dorm in Surabaya. Videos showed some Indonesian soldiers repeatedly banging on the dormitory’s gate while shouting words such as “monkeys.” Police shot teargas into the dormitory and arrested dozens of Papuan students. Videos of the attack circulated widely and triggered widespread protests, including looting and arson attacks in Jayapura, Manokwari, Sorong, and Wamena.

At least 43 Papuan protest leaders and KNPB activists were charged with treason and sentenced despite the fact that they were not involved in violence. The activists included Surya Anta Ginting, the coordinator of the Front of the Indonesian People for West Papua, who was convicted along with five other Papuan activists, in April 2020. They were sentenced to between eight and nine months in prison.

In Balikpapan, seven KNPB activists and Papuan student leaders were sentenced to between 10 and 11 months for treason in June 2020. These included Buchtar Tabuni, another KNPB founder, and Agus Kossay, the KNPB chairman, who were jailed for their pro-independence speeches. The police then also put Yeimo, who had given interviews to international media, on their “wanted” list, though they took no further action at the time.

Human Rights Watch takes no position on Papuan claims to self-determination, but supports everyone’s right, including independence supporters, to express their political views peacefully without fear of arrest or other forms of reprisal.

Yeimo’s May 9 arrest came as Indonesian military operations in Papua intensified in response to the April 25 killing in an ambush of I Gusti Putu Danny Nugraha Karya, a Special Forces (Kopassus) brigadier general, in the Central Highlands. Nugraha is the first general to be killed in five decades of low intensity conflict in Papua. Yeimo called the death of General Nugraha a “sacrifice” caused by the reluctance of the Indonesian government and parliament to find a political solution in Papua.

President Jokowi responded to the killing by ordering the army and police to hunt down and arrest every member of the group responsible for the general’s death. The Jokowi administration later declared an unnamed “armed criminal group” a terrorist organization, apparently referring to the West Papua National Liberation Army.

The national police have dispatched an additional 12 companies (about 1,200 officers) from Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and the Moluccas, while the military has sent 400 troops from the 315/Garuda Battalion from Bogor, south of Jakarta. Human rights groups in Indonesia have expressed concerns that the government’s labeling the armed group “terrorist” could encourage serious abuses by the security forces in Papua.

“Papuan opposition to Indonesian rule and military and police oppression has often been met with further abuses,” Adams said. “The Indonesian authorities should ensure that all security force operations in Papua are carried out in accordance with the law and that peaceful activists and other civilians are not targeted.”

On 8 May 2021, immigration officers at the Shanghai Pudong Airport stopped human rights lawyer Lu Siwei from boarding his flight to the United States, where he is due to participate in a fellowship programme. The officers informed the human rights defender that an exit ban had been imposed against him on "national security" grounds.

Detained protest leader Arnon Nampa has fallen ill with Covid and been moved for medical treatment, his Facebook page and news reports said Thursday.

The protest leader is in Bangkok Remand Prison awaiting trial on charges of sedition and lese-majeste for organizing and making speeches at pro-democracy rallies.

The Facebook post said he has been moved to Medical Correctional Institution. An earlier post on Wednesday said Arnon had a fever and has been feeling nauseated for the past three days.

Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch in Thailand also posted on his personal social media accounts that Arnon has contracted the virus.

A call to his lawyer went unanswered.

If confirmed, Arnon would be the second protest leader to have contracted coronavirus in jail while awaiting their trial after Chukiat “Justin” Sawangwong tested positive for the virus last month.

Arnon had been tested for Covid-19 and the results were pending, according to a local news report.

In addition from Arnon, who was detained February 9, there are 22 other pre-trial detainees charged with violations related to political protests. Of those, 10 are being charged with lese-majeste.

Arnon was one of the first protest leaders to break the taboo of making speeches about the need to reform the royal institution last year. He is facing now 12 lese-majeste cases.

Prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong has been sentenced to 10 additional months in prison for taking part in an unauthorized assembly last year to commemorate the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

The 24-year-old Wong is already serving a 13-and-a-half-month sentence for organizing an unauthorized protest in 2019. He was sentenced Thursday along with fellow activists Lester Shum, Jannelle Leung and Tiffany Yeun, who received sentences of between four and six months.

Wong was also among 47 activists charged under Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law for taking part in unofficial primary elections last July to pick candidates to run in legislative elections. They were then postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

China has banned any public observance of the June 4, 1989 crackdown, when Chinese military tanks and troops raided Tiananmen Square to break up weeks of student-led protests. But Hong Kong traditionally held large vigils to mark the event under its Basic Law, which granted the city certain freedoms not allowed on the mainland, including the right to assembly.

Last year's event was banned for the first time, with police citing the pandemic and security fears following huge and often violent pro-democracy protests that engulfed the financial hub in the last half of 2019.

Hong Kong authorities have increasingly clamped down on the city’s pro-democracy forces since Beijing imposed the new national security law last June in response to the 2019 demonstrations.

Under the law, anyone in Hong Kong believed to be carrying out terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power or collusion with foreign forces could be tried and face life in prison if convicted.

a public prosecutor decided to charge Ms. Chonthicha “Lookkate” Jangreaw for violating Emergency Decree following her involvement in two pro-democracy protests on 18 and 21 October 2020 in Bangkok. The court later granted bail with a total of 40,000 Baht security for two alleged cases. The court set 9 August 2021 as the next hearing schedule.

ที่ศาลแขวงดุสิต พนักงานอัยการพิเศษฝ่ายคดีศาลแขวง 3 ได้มีคำสั่งฟ้องคดีของ “ลูกเกด” ชลธิชา แจ้งเร็ว ด้วยข้อหา ฝ่าฝืนประกาศสถานการณ์ฉุกเฉินที่มีความร้ายแรง ตาม พ.ร.ก.ฉุกเฉินฯ ใน 2 คดี ได้แก่ คดีจากการชุมนุม #ม็อบ18ตุลาไปอนุสาวรีย์ชัย ที่บริเวณอนุสาวรีย์ชัย และ คดีจากการชุมนุม #21ตุลาไปอนุสาวรีย์ชัย ซึ่งมีการเดินขบวนจากอนุสาวรีย์ชัยไปที่บริเวณหน้าทำเนียบรัฐบาล

หลังศาลรับฟ้อง ทนายจำเลยได้ยื่นประกันตัวระหว่างพิจารณา ศาลให้ประกันโดยวางหลักประกันเงินสดคดีละ 20,000 บาท รวมเป็น 40,000 บาท โดยเป็นหลักทรัพย์จากกองทุนราษฎรประสงค์ และกำหนดวันนัดพร้อมเพื่อสอบคำให้การทั้งสองคดีในวันที่ 9 ส.ค. 64 เวลา 09.00 น.

With the retirement of Police Chief Gen. Debold Sinas and with his birthday today, May 8, human rights group Karapatan believes that the recent series of arrests of activists is the general’s despedida.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, made this statement after four individuals were arrested on May 6 in the Southern Tagalog region. The day before, Karapatan alerted the public after receiving information that another series of police and military raids in Southern Tagalog is in the offing.

According to information received by Karapatan, on the night of May 5, search warrants were issued against 15 individuals. These search warrants were first denied by the courts prior to the May 7 incident, said Palabay. But these were eventually reapplied in different local courts and may have been approved resulting in the arrest of four people on Southern Tagalog on May 6.

These individuals, according to Palabay, are among the 15 people.

Among those arrested on May 6 were Gary Doroteo, a Dumagat from Tanay, Rizal who is opposing the Kaliwa/Kanan Laiban Dam and was arrested in his home in barangay Sta. Ines, Tanay, Rizal; Benito Lucio, president of the Integrated Association of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries and former president of the Anakpawis chapter in Rodriguez, Rizal, who was arrested together with his wife; and Loreto Balino was also arrested in his home in General Nakar, Quezon.

Prior to this, on May 2, Pastor Dan Balucio, secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Bicol, and Maria Jesusa “Sasah” Sta. Rosa, Jovenes Anakbayan spokesperson, were also arrested in simultaneous police raids in Bicol region.

According to Karapatan, the police used search warrants issued by Legazpi City Regional Trial Court Vice Executive Judge Edgar Armes on May 1 for the said raids and arrests.

Karapatan said it was 3:30 a.m. on May 2 when combined elements of the police and the military forcibly entered the Shannan Christian Academy in Brgy. San Isidro, Sto. Domingo, Albay, where Balucio, his wife and two children, and a staff of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines were staying. Balucio serves as the administrator of the said school.

The police forcibly brought out all the occupants including Balucio from the house and the police and military operatives went through their belongings inside.

“After 30 to 45 minutes, the barangay captain and a kagawad arrived — it was only then that search warrants were shown to Balucio — and the police and military conducted their so-called search for another 30 minutes after which they allegedly found guns, ammunitions, a grenade, and a red flag,” Karapatan said.

The same happened with the arrest of Sta. Rosa. State agents also forcibly entered her house and the residents were brought outside. Initially the authorities did not present search warrants. The police and the military began the search when barangay officials came after an hour. Afterwards, the authorities alleged they found guns, ammunition, a grenade, a book, a black t-shirt, a green envelope with documents, a wallet and a pack of panty-liners.

Witnesses in these raids assert that the firearms and explosives and other supposed evidence obtained from the search were planted.

The house of Justine Mesias, in Daraga, Albay, a second year Bicol University student and Youth Act Now Against Tyranny – Bicol spokesperson was also raided on the same day at 4:00 a.m. Afterwards a gun and explosives were allegedly found in his house. The group said Mesias was not in the house at the time of the raid.

Nica Ombao of Defend Bicol Stop the Attacks said there is no truth to the allegations made against the three activists. She said their weapon is only a megaphone as they are often present in protest actions held in the region.

Based on initial accounts of witnesses, Karapatan said that the patterns in the police raids are similar to the operations conducted in Negros, Iloilo, Metro Manila, Central Luzon and the Bloody Sunday raids in Southern Tagalog.

A pro-democracy defender Mr. Sirapob Phumphengphut was charged by a public prosecutor alleging him for violating Sedition and lèse-majesté offences following his involvement in pro-democracy gathering on 18 November 2020. The police alleged that he involved in throwing paints to Police Headquarter signage. The already detained defender, Mr.Saengwong, was also an alleged offender in the same case. Mr. Phumphengphut’s bail request was rejected by the court citing severity of the case

Three Mother Nature environmentalists were sentenced to jail for 18 to 20 months for incitement over their activism, while two others, including the group’s founder, were also found guilty in absentia.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court announced the verdict on Wednesday morning in a courtroom newly equipped with transparent screens and other Covid-19 preventative measures. Judge Li Sokha, wearing a mask, read out the verdict as the three defendants, Phuon Keoreaksmey, Long Kunthea and Thun Ratha, stood up holding hands.

Sokha said that based on the evidence, witnesses and the answers of the defendants, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court concluded that the three were guilty of incitement.

Ratha was handed 20 months in jail and a fine of 4 million riel, or about $1,000, for incitement to disturb social security. Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, the group’s co-founder who has been deported from Cambodia, was given the same sentence for being an accomplice.

Keoreaksmey, Kunthea and another activist tried in absentia, Chea Kunthin, were given 18 months and the same 4 million riel fine.

The court also issued arrest warrants against Gonzalez-Davidson and Kunthin and ordered the confiscation of materials belonging to them.

Ratha said aloud to reporters as he departed the courtroom: “This is very unjust. Sentencing people who just care about nature … they are very eager for trials.”

“The Khmer court is like this. Please tell people that we are still strong,” he said.

Defense lawyer Sam Chamroeun said he would discuss the verdict and a possible appeal with his clients.

Kunthea, Ratha and Keokeaksmey were arrested in September while planning a one-woman march by Kunthea to raise awareness about the infilling of Boeng Tamok, one of Phnom Penh’s last lakes.

Vietnam’s security forces have arrested Mr. Nguyen Bao Tien, a shipper and a collaborator of the unregistered Liberal Publishing House (LPH), and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code.

According to the state-controlled media, the Police Department of the central province of Phu Yen publicized the arrest and the criminal probe on May 5. The security forces were said to conduct a house search and confiscated dozens of books printed by LPH but considered harmful for the authoritarian regime in Vietnam.

According to the Phu Yen police, Mr. Tien, 35, participated in distribution of books illegally printed by LPH in August-October 2019. He was said to have received 68 postal boxes containing the illegally-printed, of which he handed over 24 to readers.

Phu Yen police said he was arrested recently while tried to send the books in a post office in Phu Yen province.

One day after the Phu Yen province’s police announced the arrest of Mr. Tien, LPH issued a statement confirming that Tien was among its collaborators, once time distributing its books when Vietnam’s authorities launched a campaign to halt activities of the unsanctioned publisher. It lost contact with him since early October 2019 while his Facebook and Whatsapp accounts were likely locked. The publisher suspected that the Phu Yen police arrested Tien in early October two years ago and kept him in police custody without informing his family.

Similar to other political cases, Mr. Tien will be held incommunicado for at least next four months.

LPH was established in February 2019 by a group of activists including prominent human rights defender and political blogger Pham Doan Trang who wrote a series of dissident books. It printed a dozens of books considered harmful to Vietnam’s authoritarian regime as their content is about human rights and democracy as well as bad nature of communism and communist regimes worldwide. Its uncensored products met great interest of Vietnam’s public. Due to its great work, in 2020, it was honored with Prix Voltaire of the International Publishers’ Association.

However, it met strong persecution from Vietnam’s security forces which detained several contributors of the publisher for interrogation. Some of them were brutally tortured in police custody and they were forced to relocate after being released or escaped from police. In October 7, Vietnam’s police arrested Ms. Pham Doan Trang on charges of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code (1999) and Article 117 of the Criminal Code (2015).

Tien’s arrest may be linked to the detention of Ms. Trang who may face imprisonment of between seven to 12 years in prison, even to 20 years. Due to fierce suppression of the Vietnamese government and its internal issues, LPH was forced to suspend its operation in 2020.

If Tien was truly arrested on May 5 as the Phu Yen police said, he would be 11th activist being detained so far this year and the 5th alleged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” while other six were charged with “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics. As of May 5, Vietnam’s regime has convicted 14 activists and sentenced them to a total 106 years in prison and 21 years of probation.

With his arrest, the number of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam rose to 261, the latest statistics of Defend the Defenders showed.

Vietnam’s authoritarian regime has convicted land rights activists and human rights defenders Can Thi Theu and her second son Trinh Ba Tu of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for their peaceful activities which aim to protest illegal land seizure in their locality and human rights advocacy for other victims of legal miscarriage.

The conviction was made by the People’s Court of Hoa Binh province in the first-hearing instance on May 5. The conviction was made by the People’s Court of Hoa Binh province in the first-hearing instance on May 5. The court sentenced them to eight years in prison and three years of probation each.

The province’s government deployed large numbers of riot policemen, police, plainclothes agents and militia to block all roads leading to the court areas. Only Theu’s daughter and daughter-in-law were allowed to enter the courtroom while her husband Trinh Ba Khiem and dozens of other land petitioners were kept in streets far from the court areas.

According to Saigon-based human rights lawyer Dang Dinh Manh who provided legal assistance for the mother and the son, when the judge asked their identity, both answered that they are victims of land grabbers and the communist regime.

Tu, 33, said he was insulted by procuror Vu Binh Minh during the pre-trial detention while Mrs. Theu said she was placed in a 7-square-meter cell with 9 others some of them are infected with HIV in the Hoa Binh temporary detention facility operated by the province’s Police Department.

The procuracy representative in the trial said Theu and Tu posted a number of video clips on their Facebook accounts with the content causing confusion among the public, however, the two activists said any ordinary people have been confused but only the regime’s officials who were involved in land grabbing. Their posts aim to tell the truth about illegal land seizure in Vietnam and the regime’s persecution against farmers who protest the land grabbing so the general public and the international community understand the ongoing situation in the country.

This will be the third time Mrs. Theu was convicted of controversial allegations. In 2014-2018, she was twice imprisoned for a total 35 months for protesting Hanoi’s authorities to grab farming land in Duong Noi commune, Ha Dong district where her family lives. She was imprisoned for “resisting on-duty state officials” or “causign public disorders.” Her husband Khiem was also jailed for “resisting on-duty state officials.”

After her release in 2016, Theu and her family including two sons Tu and Trinh Ba Phuong involved in advocacy for other land petitioners nationwide whose number mounts to thousands and gather in Hanoi to daily go the government agencies to submit their petitions. Before and after the bloody attack of 3,000 riot policemen in Dong Tam commune on January 9, 2020, the trio provided great support for Dong Tam land petitioners, including posting news on the case, meeting with foreign diplomats to update information, and calling for financial supports for the families of detainees after the raid.

In order to suppress the support of local activists given for land petitioners in Dong Tam, Vietnam’s authorities arrested a number of people, including prominent political blogger and world-recognized human rights defender Pham Doan Trang, human rights advocate Nguyen Thuy Hanh who set up and managed the 50K Fund, and four human rights campaigners Theu, Phuong, Tu, and former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Thi Tam, all the four from Duong Noi commune, Ha Dong district, Hanoi.

Mrs. Theu and Mr. Tu were arrested on June 24, 2020 by the police of Ha Son Binh province while Mr. Phuong was detained by the Hanoi Police Department on the same day. The mother and the younger son were held incommunicado since their arrests until a few months ago when they were permitted to meet their lawyers to prepare for defense while Mr. Phuong has yet to be allowed to meet with his relatives or lawyers.

Since their arrests, many foreign governments and international human rights organizations have condemned the Vietnamese government’s acts and urged Hanoi to release them immediately and unconditionally. However, Hanoi claims that they were not arrested for their human rights activities but crime activities harmful for the regime. Two days ahead of their trial, Human Rights Watch issued a statement urging Vietnam’s authoritarian regime to free them, saying Hanoi should not imprison those who tell the trust like Theu and her sons.

The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam conducted its 13th National Congress on January 25-February 1 this year to select the country’s leadership for the next five years. With many conservative figures of the regime such as General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, former Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc now becoming state president, and Minister of Public Security To Lam, it is likely the crackdown on the political dissidents, social activists and human rights defenders which has been intensified since late 2015 will continue. Vietnam’s human rights records are unlikely to be improved in coming years after former police general Pham Minh Chinh gained power to become the government leader while other former police generals continue to hold leading positions in the procuracy and the court systems.

Since the beginning of this year, Vietnam has arrested at least ten activists, mostly on controversial allegations in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code. So far, it has convicted 14 activists and sentenced them to a total 106 years in prison and 21 years of probation. The toughest imprisonment of 15 years in prison and three years of probation was given to PhD. Pham Chi Dung, the president of the unregistered professional group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam who was convicted of “conducting anti-state propaganda.”

According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, Vietnam holds at least 261 prisoners of conscience. Hanoi always denies holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Information said local and foreign media coverage of the red zone has “confused the public and provoked social chaos that will lead to more COVID-19 spreading.”

“In order to protect social security and prevent COVID-19 from spreading, the Ministry of Information is advising journalists to halt all actions immediately,” it said in a statement issued Tuesday. “In the event that people continue to ignore this notice, [we] will take legal action.”

Ministry spokesman Meas Sophorn told RFA that journalists who went to “red zone” areas and broadcast live via social media made comments without any medical foundation that might risk the spread of the highly contagious virus. He also said that some reporters chased ambulances during live broadcasts.

“If they comply with the law, then they can continue their work,” he said.

Journalist Leng Det said even though he supports the ministry’s order, he wants the media to work with authorities so reporters can provide accurate news.

“In order to get accurate news, we need many sources,” he said. “We don’t have to chase ambulances and police to tell the news.”

Nop Vy, executive director of the Cambodian Journalists Alliance, said preventing the media from covering news in red zones will not be in villagers’ best interest, and he insisted that those who have received training on reporting on the coronavirus pandemic be allowed to cover news freely.

“I am very concerned that the ministry will completely ban journalists [from covering the red zone],” he said. “So far, journalists have broadcast about food shortages and people’s appeals to get food aid into the red zone. This has shown that journalists have contributed to disseminating news.”

Thai authorities should immediately investigate the killing of Somsak Onchuenjit, a lawyer and land rights activist, in Trang province in southern Thailand, Human Rights Watch said today. Successive Thai governments have failed to prevent or adequately respond to attacks against human rights defenders who represent landless farmers.

On May 4, 2021, at about 7:40 a.m., an unidentified gunman fatally shot Somsak, 54, while he was working in a rubber plantation near his home in Trang province’s Wangviset district. Somsak had recently told his family that he had been followed and was receiving death threats. But local authorities had neither investigated the threats nor arranged any measures to protect him.

“Thai authorities should not just stand by while grassroots activists in southern provinces are being murdered for standing up for their communities,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Thai government should urgently conduct a credible and impartial investigation and bring those responsible for Somsak’s death to justice.”

Somsak had led a campaign for the right to agricultural land for poor villagers in his district. Over the past five months, conflicts in the area have intensified between local villagers who occupied oil palm plantations that no longer have valid leases with government agencies and private companies backed by local politicians. Community members told Human Rights Watch that police investigations into Somsak’s murder so far appear half-hearted and ineffectual.

During the past decade, at least five land rights activists in southern Thailand have been killed. All were leaders in campaigns seeking community ownership of agricultural land used by palm oil companies in which the lease with the government for the land had expired. The police have not made any serious progress in any of these cases. Meanwhile, the remaining activists constantly face harassment, physical intimidation, and a barrage of lawsuits filed by palm oil companies.

The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders calls on governments to take all necessary measures to protect human rights defenders against violence, threats, retaliation, and other abuses because of their work. International law recognizes government accountability for failing to protect people from rights abuses and violence by private actors. According to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, governments must not only protect people from violations of rights by government officials but “also against acts committed by private persons or entities that would impair the enjoyment” of their rights. A government may be violating human rights by “permitting or failing to take appropriate measures or to exercise due diligence to prevent, punish, investigate or redress the harm caused by such acts by private persons or entities.”

“The Thai government is failing in its obligation to seriously and effectively investigate deadly attacks against human rights advocates and hold those responsible to account,” Adams said. “With each new killing, Thailand slides further into lawlessness, and the government’s frequent claims to be protecting rights defenders ring hollow.”

College students altogether with the element of civil society organised a demonstration to express their notion in front of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia to commemorate Indonesia’s Educational Day on 2 May.

The rally was giving the oration and the symbolic action of giving ‘red card’ to the Ministry. The ‘red card’ expresses dissatisfaction with the mass action to the Ministry of Education and Culture which had been failed to errands their duty of educational services during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The rally went well and orderly until 16.52. Yet, the rally was dissolved forcefully by the police officer around 16.52, when the mass action was waiting for their friends who were having negotiation with the member of the Ministry of Education and Culture inside the ministry building.

The police officer continuously using excessive excuse to dissolve the mass action. Noticeably, they were using a water cannon and aim the mass action, also the other things, such as, forceful arrest and seize the sounding commando’s car of mass action which belongs to FSBN-KASBI (The Congress Alliance of Labour in Indonesia). It hasn’t stopped yet, the police were intimidating with violence to the mass action who were taping the dissolving scene and the violation act by the police.

The police officer continuously using excessive action to dissolve the mass action. Noticeably, they were using a water cannon and aim the mass action, also the other things, such as, forceful arrest and seize the sounding commando’s car of mass action which belongs to FSBN-KASBI (The Congress Alliance of Labour in Indonesia). It hasn’t stopped yet, the police were intimidating with violence to the mass action who were taping the dissolving scene and the violation act by the police.

For the record, the demonstration is considered as one of the human rights which allow us to express our notion in front of the public, freely. It is written and protected by the Law and Article 9 of 1998, also in the other regulation of law. For that reason, the excessive power of action, the violation and the forceful arrest by the police officer are being charged as the violation of the law. Eventually, it will reveal the repressive actions of the government who ought to protect their people that conduct mass action in the public.

Two progressive leaders were arrested by state forces in simultaneous early morning raids in the provinces of Camarines Sur and Albay in Bicol region.

Sasah Sta. Rosa, spokesperson of youth group Jovenes Anakbayan was arrested at her home in Villa Obiedo, Cararayan, Naga City, Camarines Sur.

Anakbayan Naga City said in a Facebook post that at least 10 armed men came to Sta. Rosa’s house at 3 a.m. supposedly to serve a search warrant. They forced the family outside the house, then after 40 minutes, came out with a grenade, guns and a red flag.

In the same manner, in Albay, a team who identified themselves with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) served a search warrant to Pastor Dan Balucio, 61, of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines and spokesperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Bicol. The warrant was issued by Judge Edgar Armes, vice executive judge of the Regional Trial Court of Legazpi City. Karapatan Bikol said the Balucio family were made to lie on their stomach on the ground, while the police entered the house.

The Philippine National Police claimed they found a Remington .45 caliber pistol, seven bullets, two M-14 rifle magazines, a hand grenade, and a red flag at Balucio’s home.

Sta. Rosa is currently detained at the Naga city police substation 2. Balucio is detained at CIDG-Albay.

Police also raided the house of Justine Mesias, senior editor of student publication Cassipi Online and Youth Act Now Against Tyranny-Bicol spokesperson, in Daraga, Albay. at least 40 operatives from the PNP and CIDG forcibly entered the residence, pointed their guns at members of the Mesias family, and went through their belongings for two hours. A gun and explosive were allegedly found by the police and military in the said house. Mesias was not in the house at the time of the incident.

The arrests came just two weeks after two other Bicol activists were freed and acquitted of trumped-up murder charges. Jenelyn Nagrampa-Caballero, Gabriel’s national vice chairperson, and Pastor Dan San Andres, also of the UCCP and Karapatan-Bicol’s spokesperson, were arrested in July last year.

Human rights group Karapatan likened the incidents to the pattern of police raids in the operations conducted in Negros, Iloilo, Metro Manila, Central Luzon and the Bloody Sunday raids in Southern Tagalog.

Karapatan called on the Commission on Human Rights to conduct an investigation and the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice to immediately act on what it calls “disturbing pattern of use of the courts to judicially harass human rights defenders.”

Twelve activists including youth leaders and a campus journalist have been released two days after they were arrested in Castillejos, Zambales on their way to a Labor Day protest.

Youth activists from the League of Filipino Students (LFS) Zambales and a journalist from College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) Central Luzon, along with their driver, were detained on Monday for “lack of social distancing.”

According to CEGP, the police threatened to expose the victims’ personal information and posted their photos on a Facebook page called “Makatarungan Battalion.” In its post, Makatarungan Battalion labeled the activists’ placards with calls such as “Stop the attacks” and “Solusyong medikal, hindi militar” as “anti-government slogans.”

“Even with legitimate calls and demands for a systematic solution to the pandemic, these organizations and the people involved are still branded with hostility,” CEGP said.

CEGP added that posting photos of the victims and their vehicle’s plate number without their consent violates their right to privacy.

The police and military also forced the victims to sign a document linking them to the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), CEGP said.

Kabataan Partylist said the Duterte government has chosen to address calls for a safe return to school, economic aid and a comprehensive Covid-19 plan with violence and repression.

LFS-Zambales called the arrest a “manifestation that the police and the military, who are fascist and mercenary in nature, shouldn’t be relied on to interpret terrorism.”

CEGP said, “As legitimate organizations are red-tagged and members are silenced and arrested, the point becomes clearer: that the Duterte administration cannot take truthful criticism and is hiding behind the state forces to stifle and arrest those who dare to speak up.”

The activists have been released on bail amounting to almost P72,00 collected through donation campaigns.

In a Facebook post, Free Zambales 12 Network said they will continue to campaign for the release of many other victims of illegal arrest and detention in the “government’s militaristic pandemic response.”

“As long as the current administration considers it a crime to forward the people’s demands during a pandemic, it only proves that its pandemic response is a failure and its only way of addressing it is attacking critics and progressives,” Kabataan Partylist said

Mr. Mongkol Thirakot was arrested at his home by police officer citing new arrest warrant alleging that he violated Computer Crime Act and lèse-majesté offences following his two Facebook posts related to monarchy from 8 – 9 April 2021. He was brought to police station for detention and the officer later denied his bail request วันที่ 1 พ.ค. 64 เวลาประมาณ 13.30 น. ศูนย์ทนายความเพื่อสิทธิมนุษยชนได้รับแจ้งว่า นายมงคล ถิระโคตร หรือ “บาส” พ่อค้าขายเสื้อผ้าออนไลน์และนักกิจกรรมจากจังหวัดเชียงราย ได้ถูกเจ้าหน้าที่ตำรวจ เข้าจับกุมจากบ้านพักในอำเภอพาน จังหวัดเชียงราย ตามหมายจับในข้อหาตามประมวลกฎหมายอาญามาตรา 112 และ พ.ร.บ.คอมพิวเตอร์ฯ ก่อนถูกนำตัวมายัง สภ.เมืองเชียงราย

ก่อนหน้านี้เมื่อวันที่ 14 เม.ย. 64 มงคลเคยถูกเจ้าหน้าที่ตำรวจจับกุมดำเนินคดีในทั้งสองข้อหานี้ หลังจากเดินทางไปนั่งอดอาหารประท้วงที่หน้าศาลอาญา เพื่อเรียกร้องสิทธิในการประกันตัวแกนนำราษฎร เขาถูกพนักงานสอบสวน สภ.เมืองเชียงราย แจ้งข้อหาจากการแชร์และโพสต์ข้อความ รวมทั้งคลิปเกี่ยวกับสถาบันกษัตริย์ในเฟซบุ๊กจำนวน 25 โพสต์ ในช่วงระหว่างวันที่ 2-11 มีนาคม 2564 ต่อมาศาลจังหวัดเชียงรายอนุญาตให้ปล่อยตัวชั่วคราวโดยใช้หลักทรัพย์จำนวน 1.5 แสนบาท

Authorities at a second Hong Kong university have cut ties with the student union, saying that it had become a “platform for political propaganda” following its involvement in recent protest movements.

“The Hong Kong University Students’ Union (HKUSU) has become increasingly politicized in recent years, utilizing the University campus as a platform for its political propaganda,” the University of Hong Kong said in a statement on Friday.

“It has repeatedly made inflammatory and potentially unlawful public statements and unfounded allegations against the University,” it said.

“The university strongly condemns HKUSU’s radical acts and remarks,” the statement said.

It said the university would stop collecting membership fees on behalf of HKUSU and would “enforce its management rights” over the facilities currently used by the union.

“The University may also take further actions, if necessary,” it said, citing the need to protect “national security.”

A draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party from July 1, 2020, has targeted dozens of pro-democracy politicians and activists for “subversion” after they organized a primary election in a bid to win more seats in the city’s legislature.

The law bans words and deeds deemed subversive or secessionist, or any activities linked to overseas groups, as “collusion with foreign powers,” including public criticism of the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist Party.

Students oppose appointments

The HKU announcement comes after the union strongly opposed the appointment of two mainland Chinese scholars as vice presidents, saying that they would help to assert Chinese Communist Party control over the city’s oldest university.

Max Shen, who has previously been listed as a member of a Chinese Communist Party committee at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, and his former Tsinghua colleague Gong Peng started their jobs as vice presidents of research and academic development respectively from January 2021.

The severing of ties with the union comes after an article in the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, denounced HKUSU for smearing the government’s attempts to win public support for the national security law.

It called for “strong medicine to remove the malignant tumor in the ivory tower.”

Labour Party chairman and former HKUSU president Steven Kwok said the university’s action against the union appeared to have been triggered by the People’s Daily article.

“I think their actions were instigated by [authorities in] mainland China,” Kwok told Radio Free Asia. “It’s all part of the current political situation and carrying out Beijing’s wishes.”

The Chinese University of Hong Kong severed ties with its student union Syzygia on Feb. 26, banning the union from using university facilities or staff and accusing it of failing to clarify “potentially unlawful statements and false allegations.”

‘Getting rid of anything risky’

Current affairs commentator Johnny Lau said universities have been tripping over themselves to demonstrate loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party since the national security law took effect.

“They are minimizing their risk by getting rid of anything risky,” Lau said. “This is an active form of adaptation to the politicization process being instigated by mainland China.”

He said the recent moves by the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong show the ever-widening damage to freedom of speech and academic freedom in Hong Kong.

“The university management are the ones damaging HKU’s rankings and reputation, not the students,” Lau said, referring to the University of Hong Kong.

Former student activist Joshua Wong — currently serving a prison sentence on public order charges linked to the 2019 protest movement — pleaded guilty in a Hong Kong court on Friday to “taking part in an illegal assembly” in connection with a vigil commemorating the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Victoria Park last year.

Wong, together with pro-democracy district councilors Lester Shum, Tiffany Yuen, and Jannelle Leung, pleaded guilty to the charges, with sentencing expected on May 6.

Wong, Shum, and Yuen also face “subversion” charges under the national security law after they took part in the democratic primary for the canceled Legislative Council election in 2020. All three were returned to custody following the hearing.

Kandal provincial authorities have told farmers to stop posting photos of vegetables spoiling in their fields without a market amid lockdowns as they were affecting morale, an official said.

Hor Sophal, deputy director of the Kandal department of agriculture, said his department had visited farmers in Sa’ang district on Friday. There were in fact vegetables that farmers could not find a market for due to the Covid-19 crisis and lockdowns in the major markets of Phnom Penh and Takhmao city, he said.

But the officials had told the farmers to stop posting pictures publicly because it affected the morale of other farmers and affected society, Sophal said.

“This is his second time, so we went to instruct him, and now he took note and said [he would] stop posting in public,” he said about Tai Song, one farmer who had been posting photos to Facebook.

Song has uploaded pictures about having to clear and throw away his vegetables amid the lockdown’s closure of markets.

Song told VOD that he had been pressured to sign a contract saying he would stop.

“I’m very disappointed and have nothing to say to them,” Song said. “I asked them to go take a look at the vegetables in my village, but they didn’t go to look. Hundreds of hectares of sugarcane will be plowed in the future as well, and there’s no less than thousands of tons of vegetables that they did not help to find a solution for. They just ordered me.”

“They no longer allowed me to post and use Facebook extensively. Me!” he continued. “I’m just a normal farmer. … I don’t know what they think that they ordered me like this.”

Another farmer, who gave his name only as Bunly, said several farmers had posted the photos so that authorities are aware of problems and can help find solutions.

“They came down to hide the difficulties of the farmers, so we don’t know what to say when they spoke those words. We are discouraged because we give them information so that they can help solve it, but instead they say that [our] posting is [intended] to pollute society,” he said. “There should be encouragement to farmers who are smart in urging superiors to help find a market. But they turned on us to tell us to end the sharing, and not say that there is no market. But every day, there really is no market.”

The letter Song signed says the farmer must first provide information to local authorities, not post it publicly. This is to avoid sharing incomplete information, misleading the public and undermining the efforts of officials, the letter says.

Photos showing the destruction of vegetables affect public morale and feeling, and the photos can incite discrimination, the letter says.

Incitement to discriminate is a criminal charge that applies to inciting malice or violence against a particular ethnicity, nationality, race or religion, and carries a prison term of up to three years.

The Criminal Court has once again denied bail for 7 activists detained on royal defamation charges under Section 112, one of whom is Parit Chiwarak, whose health is reported to be rapidly declining due to his hunger strike.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that its lawyers went to the Criminal Court today (29 April) to request bail again for Parit Chiwarak, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, Anon Nampa, Chukiat Sangwong, and Parinya Cheewinkulpatom, who are detained pending trial on royal defamation charges under Section 112.

Parit, who has been detained for 80 days so far, has been on a hunger strike for the past 45 days to protest against the denial of bail for detained activists.

Lawyer Kritsadang Nutcharat said that one of the reasons for requesting bail is concern over the spread of Covid-19 in prisons, because even the court is concerned that the virus will spread among court officials. He also said that there is no more reason to keep the activists in detention, and that it would be acceptable if the court set a condition related with their trial. He also mentioned that the court previously granted bail for activists Jatupat Boonpattaraksa and Somyot Pruksakasemsuk.

He also said that he visited Parit on 28 April and spoke to him through teleconference. During the visit, Parit told Kritsadang that he has not been able to sleep, his skin is dry, and that he suffers from nausea and fatigue. Blood was also found in his stools, but he has not been sent to the Medical Correctional Institution to have his condition assessed.

Kritsadang said that, in addition to the bail request, they have also requested that the court allow Parit to be taken to Rama 9 Hospital for 30 days, because the hospital is better equiooed than the Medical Correctional Institution, and that the court may continue to detain him after the 30-day period, but the court has already dismissed that request.
Parit’s mother Sureerat Chiwarak also told reporters after she filed the bail request for her son that, while the Department of Corrections has denied that Parit's condition has worsened, she learned about his condition from what Parit said and Parit knows his own condition best.

She also said that she does not want him to be treated at the Medical Correctional Institution, where many inmates with Covid-19 are being treated. She would like her son released so she can care for him herself, and asked how the authorities will take responsibility if anything happens to him.

"I will fight to the very end. I will not lose my son," Sureerat said.

Meanwhile, a crowd of supporters started forming in front of the Bangkok Criminal Court building on Ratchadapisek Road at 12.00. At 13.45, student activist Benja Apan and a group of other students came to the Criminal Court to submit an open letter demanding the release of detained activists, signed by over 10,000 people.

Benja said during a speech in front of the court building that the students acted because they would like society to improve and for the monarchy to co-exist with society under the law. They are not a threat to national security. They are living humans and are students in their 20's.

Benja called on the court to grant bail to the detained activists and release them, because they have not yet been declared guilty and should have their humanity returned to them.

At 15.02, since judge Chanathip Muanpawong did not come to receive the letter, Benja scattered pieces of paper printed with the names of 11,035 people who signed the letter on the steps to the court building, but was blocked from going inside by court officials.

The crowd waited in front of the court building throughout the afternoon. At 16.50, Benja announced to the crowd that the court has postponed the decision on the bail requests to Friday morning (30 April), and that the hearing will be held online.

She demanded that the court read the ruling in person that evening, and said that the student activist group United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD) will also be moving their 'Stand Against Detention' event to the Criminal Court.

At 17.00, riot control police were seen lining up behind the Criminal Court building. They were seen arriving in several buses at around 16.30. However, their buses were blocked by the crowd and left the court after being stopped for around 5 minutes.

At 18.05, TLHR reported that the court denied bail for the activists on the ground that there is no reason to change existing court order.

The ruling was signed by judge Tawan Rodcharoen. Judge Tawan delivered the verdict in the Joe Gordon lèse majesté case in 2011. The Thai-born dual Thai-US citizen was convicted for translating parts of a banned book about the late King Rama IX and posting them on the Internet while in the United States. After repeated bail requests were denied, he pleaded guilty and was given a 5-year sentence, reduced by half because of his guilty plea.

The crowd then moved to the footpath in front of the Criminal Court, where they lit candles and gave speeches to protest against the denial of bail for detained activists and said they will stay until the activists are released.

However, the UFTD announced at around 22.00 that the activities have ended for the day and for people to return tomorrow (30 April).

About 100 residents in a Phnom Penh lockdown zone protested for food on Thursday night, according to a witness, as the local commune chief labeled the protesters an “opposition group” who are “not poor” and “give the authorities headaches.”

Stung Meanchey II commune chief Touch Sam Ol, in Meanchey district, said the protest was in Phneat village, and authorities would be distributing food to the residents on Friday morning.

“We hadn’t been able to [distribute food] in time for them because there have been too many and the supplies have not arrived on time, and there has been only rice so we couldn’t distribute just rice,” Sam Ol said late Thursday.

However, he said there was a “mastermind” behind the protest.

“In short, they are an opposition group and they are not poor,” he said. “The majority are rich, and firstly they were angry with us because we blocked the road … and they could not earn money to support their living.”

A few of the protesters had even received gifts of food from the state already, he added. “It gives the authorities headaches,” he said.

He also denied that the residents were hungry.

“The most important issue is the blocking of the road, which means they cannot do their business,” he said. “So they linked the blocking of the road with starvation.”

Stung Meanchey II is part of Phnom Penh’s red-zone restrictions due to high numbers of Covid-19 cases linked to garment factory workers living there. The government shut down markets and initially said the Commerce Ministry would take over all food sales in red zones, though local authorities have since allowed some vendors to sell in open, outdoor areas. The government has also set up a Telegram group so people in need can ask for donations for food, and it has been flooded with thousands of messages.

Mao Thora, a restaurant worker near Thursday’s protest, said about 100 people had gathered on the street, some carrying banners saying “My village is starving.”

The protesters had said the village had yet to receive food donations from the state, and without the ability to run their businesses they couldn’t pay rent, according to Thora. Some were workers who could not get to their workplaces, while others were small business owners who had been forced to suspend their operations, she said.

“It was crowded so I did not go very close to them since I am afraid of infection since I am in the red zone. They gathered and protested to demand that the authorities quickly provide food donations for them,” she said.

Today, the Saryarkinskiy District Court in the capital, Nur-Sultan, convicted Utepova of participating in two banned political groups, sentenced her to one year of “restricted freedom,” and banned her from conducting “public and political activities” for two years, according to news reports, a video recording of the court proceeding, and the journalist and her lawyer, Galym Nurpeisov, both of whom spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Utepova denied the charges, and she and her lawyer told CPJ that they believe the case was an attempt to silence her reporting critical of state authorities. Utepova said she plans to appeal the ruling.

Utepova worked as a correspondent for the Kazakh news website Newtimes.kz until 2019, when she started the independent political news and commentary outlet Aigul TV, which has about 8,000 subscribers on YouTube and 1,000 on Instagram, according to CPJ research. She also posts political news and commentary on her Facebook page, where she has about 8,000 followers.

“Kazakh authorities’ conviction of journalist Aigul Utepova on trumped-up charges once again demonstrates how the country’s laws banning so-called extremist groups are routinely used to stifle political dissent,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities should overturn this baseless sentence on appeal, and ensure that Utepova’s rights to conduct investigative journalism and express critical opinions are fully respected.”

The year of “restricted freedom” bars Utepova from leaving her home except for work and to complete 200 hours of compulsory labor, which was also issued as part of her sentence, according to the journalist, her lawyer, and the court video.

The two-year ban on public activities effectively makes it illegal for Utepova to work as a journalist during that time, according to those sources. Nurpeisov told CPJ that Utepova will be placed on the state’s unpublished list of “extremists,” which could prevent her from accessing her bank accounts for six years.

Nur-Sultan police arrested Utepova on September 17, 2020, and authorities charged her with participating in two banned political groups, the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan and Party of the Street, according to CPJ’s research; she has been held under house arrest since then. Both organizations are designated “extremist” in Kazakhstan but have been classified as “peaceful opposition movements” by the European Parliament.

From November 23 to December 11, authorities held Utepova in the City Center of Psychological Health in Nur-Sultan for a mandatory mental health evaluation, which she told CPJ she believes was retaliation for her journalistic work.

During Utepova’s trial, prosecutors cited social media posts by Utepova that allegedly supported those banned organizations and exiled politician Mukhtar Ablyazov, whom Kazakh authorities accuse of involvement in both groups, according to case documents reviewed by CPJ and video recordings of the court proceedings.

Utepova and her lawyer argued that the prosecution had failed to prove that Utepova had supported those groups, let alone participated in them, and said that she covered their activities as a journalist. They also said that allegations that Utepova supported the Party of the Street prior to a May 2020 ban on the group, which came into force the following month, were irrelevant, because the group was not banned at the time.

Utepova and her lawyer also challenged the prosecution’s heavy reliance on testimony from a doctoral student, whom Nurpeisov argued was not qualified to give expert testimony. Nurpeisov further objected that experts were appointed by the prosecution rather than a court, in contravention of a decree by the Supreme Court. In the court video, Judge Ibragim Alkenov is seen concluding that Utepova’s guilt was “fully demonstrated” by the evidence and the “expert” testimony.

According to news reports, studies, and Nurpeisov, who regularly defends individuals charged with affiliating with extremist groups, acquittals in such cases are extremely rare.

CPJ emailed the Kazakh Ministry of Interior for comment, but did not receive any response.

Student activist Wanwalee Thammasattaya has been detained pending trial on a royal defamation charge relating to a protest on 6 December 2020.

On Tuesday (27 April), the public prosecutor filed a case against Wanwalee and activist Chukiat “Justin” Saengwong in a royal defamation charge relating to speeches given during a protest at Wongwian Yai on 6 December 2020.

Thanakorn (last name withheld), 17, is also facing charges in the same case, but as he is a minor, his case is being processed by the Central Juvenile and Family Court. He will have to report to the prosecutor on 24 May 2021 to hear whether the prosecutor will file a case against him.

Meanwhile, Chukiat is currently being detained pending trial on another Section 112 charge. He has been in prison since 23 March.

The complaints against them was filed by Chakrapong Klinkaew, leader of the royalist group People Protecting the Institution.

The Thonburi Criminal Court ordered Wanwalee to be detained pending trial, and denied her request for bail with a security of 200,000 baht on the ground that the plaintiff objected to granting her bail and that she is likely to flee, since she is facing several counts on the same charge.

Wanwalee is facing 2 other counts under Section 112 for a speech given at a protest in front of the Siam Commercial Bank headquarters on 25 November 2020 and for posting a picture of a protest banner containing a message about the monarchy on her Facebook page on 21 November 2020.

Wanwalee is being detained at the Thonburi Women Correctional Institution, making her the 17th person to be detained pending trial in cases relating to political expression.

Of these 17 people, 10 are being detained pending trial on a Section 112 charge. Other than Wanwalee and Chukiat, Parit Chiwarak, Anon Nampa, Chaiamorn “Ammy” Kaewwiboonpan, Parinya “Fort” Cheewinkulpatom, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, Panupong Jadnok, Piyarat Chongthep, and Phromsorn Weerathamjaree are currently in detention.

The Thai police came to the Bangkok Remand Prison and additional filed lèse-majesté and Sedition charges against Mr. Chiwarak and Mr. Nampa following their involvement in the peaceful gathering on 29 November 2020

27 เมษายน 2564 เวลา 10.30 น. ที่เรือนจำพิเศษกรุงเทพฯ พ.ต.ท.สราวุธ บุตรดี รองผู้กํากับการ (สอบสวน) สน.บางเขน ในฐานะคณะพนักงานสืบสวนสอบสวนตามคำสั่ง บก.น.2 ที่ 101/2564 เดินทางเข้าแจ้งข้อกล่าวหากับ “เพนกวิน” พริษฐ์ ชิวารักษ์ และ อานนท์ นำภา จากการจัดขบวนแห่และขึ้นกล่าวปราศรัยให้กำลังใจ 8 ผู้ต้องหา ผู้ได้รับหมายเรียกในความผิดตามประมวลกฎหมายอาญา มาตรา 112 และมาตรา 116 ในคดี #ม็อบ29พฤศจิกา ซึ่งทั้ง 8 คนเดินไปทางไปรับทราบข้อกล่าวหาที่ สน.บางเขน เมื่อวันที่ 21 ธันวาคม 2563

ในวันนี้เป็นการแจ้งข้อกล่าวหาผ่านวิดิโอคอนเฟอเรนซ์ในห้องเยี่ยมของทนาย โดยมีทนายความ และผู้ไว้วางใจเข้าร่วมรับฟังด้วย

บันทึกแจ้งข้อกล่าวหาระบุว่า คดีนี้เริ่มมาจากการชุมนุมที่หน้ากรมทหารราบที่ 11 เมื่อวันที่ 29 พฤศจิกายน 2563 โดยมีวัตถุประสงค์ในการปราศรัยเรื่อง การปลดอาวุธศักดินาไทย ซึ่งเกี่ยวข้องกับสถาบันกษัตริย์ มีแกนนําที่ถูกดําเนินคดีในการชุมนุมในคราวนั้นรวม 8 ราย ได้แก่ อานนท์ นำภา, พริษฐ์ ชิวารักษ์, ชินวัตร จันทร์กระจ่าง, สมยศ พฤกษาเกษมสุข, พรหมศร วีระธรรมจารี, พิมพ์สิริ เพ็ชรน้ำรอบ, ณัฏฐธิดา มีวังปลา และอินทิรา เจริญปุระ ทั้งหมดถูกหมายเรียกให้มาพบพนักงานสอบสวนเพื่อรับทราบข้อกล่าวหาที่ สน.บางเขน ในวันที่ 21 ธันวาคม 2563 เวลา 10.00 น.

ต่อมา เมื่อวันที่ 21 ธันวาคม 2563 อานนท์และพริษฐ์ได้เดินทางมาถึงที่บริเวณลานจอดรถด้านหน้า สน.บางเขน หลังจากนั้นแกนนําในกลุ่มผู้ชุมนุมนี้ได้ผลัดเปลี่ยนกันขึ้นเวทีปราศรัย โดยอานนท์ได้ขึ้นปราศรัยมีเนื้อหาพาดพิงสถาบันกษัตริย์ รายละเอียดคำปราศรัย ในบันทึกแจ้งข้อกล่าวหาตอนหนึ่งระบุว่า

“…เขาบอกว่าการต่อสู้ของพวกเราครั้งนี้ อันนี้เรียนตามตรงมันเลี่ยงที่จะโดน 112 ไม่ได้ เลี่ยงไม่ได้เพราะอะไรก็เพราะว่าพวกเรา มาชี้ข้อบกพร่องของสถาบันกษัตริย์ มันเลี่ยงไม่ได้ที่จะพูดถึงข้อดีมันต้องพูดถึงข้อเสีย เพราะอย่างนั้นจะไม่มีการปฏิรูป ทรงพระเจริญ ทรงพระเจริญ อย่างเดียว แล้วจะเอาข้อมูลอะไรไปปฏิรูป ….ถ้าผมไม่พูดถึงสถาบันกษัตริย์แล้วท่านจะปรับตัวได้อย่างไร ในเมื่อมีแต่คนสรรเสริญเยินยอ วันนี้เรามาพูดแทนพี่น้องทั้ง ประเทศ เพื่อให้สถาบันกษัตริย์ปฏิรูปมันไม่ใช่การล้มล้าง ผมเรียนตั้งแต่ต้นมันไม่ใช่การล้มล้าง อย่ามากล่าวหากัน แต่ถ้าท่านไม่ยอมปฏิรูปปีหน้าเจอกัน”

“ทําไมเราต้องมาเรียกร้องให้ปฏิรูปสถาบันกษัตริย์ เพราะว่าเรายังเห็น ณ วันนี้ ว่าบ้านเมืองเรามันเป็นประชาธิปไตยที่มีกษัตริย์เป็นประมุขยังทําได้ เราจึงเรียกร้องให้มีการปฏิรูป… นอกจากหลักธรรมของกษัตริย์แล้ว การละเมิดต่อกฎหมายที่เราคิดว่าท่านทำผิดท่านต้องปรับปรุงตัว การเอากองกำลังทหารเป็นของตัวเองอันนี้คือเรื่องผิด และการเอาทรัพย์สินซึ่งเป็นสาธารณะไปเป็นของตนอันนี้ก็ขัดหลักการเต็มๆ…”

“…ใครก็ตามที่ไม่ทรงพระเจริญ ใครก็ตามที่ไม่ใส่เสื้อเหลืองมีโอกาสโดนทุกคนถ้าพูดความจริง และถ้าไม่ยกเลิก 112 ไม่มีทางปฏิรูปสถาบันกษัตริย์ได้ เพราะเราจะไม่สามารถบอกว่าอันนี้มันมีอะไรบกพร่อง ถ้าติไม่ได้ ชมอย่างเดียว มันพาเราลงเหวรถคันนี้ นั่นคือเหตุผล จะแจ้งจับก็เชิญ เราก็พร้อมสู้คดี ขอบคุณดังๆ ไปยังศาลยุติธรรมด้วยที่ตํารวจไปขอออกหมายจับแล้วศาลไม่ออกให้ บอกว่าไอ้คนพวกนี้มันเป็นคนมีวินัย ออกหมายเรียกเราก็ไปเจอ ใช่ไม่ใช่ แล้วเจอกันที่ศาลครับพี่น้องตํารวจ เราจะเอารูปทุกรูปเกี่ยวกับสถาบันกษัตริย์ ข้อมูลทุกอย่างไปนําเสนอที่ศาล แล้วเจอกัน ท่านอย่าอ้าปากหวอเมื่อเจอรูปเหล่านั้น”

ความเห็นโดยสรุปของพนักงานสอบสวนระบุว่า จากคําปราศรัยของอานนท์มีเนื้อหาเป็นการวิพากษ์วิจารณ์พระราชอํานาจของพระมหากษัตริย์ ทําให้ผู้ที่ได้ฟังเข้าใจว่า ผู้พูดกําลังพูดถึงรัชกาลที่ 10 รัชกาลปัจจุบัน โดยเนื้อหาทั้งหมดเป็นการกล่าวพาดพิง ให้ร้ายต่อองค์พระมหากษัตริย์ ว่าเป็นการยักยอกเอาทรัพย์สินซึ่งเป็นสาธารณะไปเป็นของตนเอง มุ่งให้ผู้ฟังเกิดความเข้าใจผิดพลาดคลาดเคลื่อน สร้างความเสื่อมศรัทธาให้เกิดขึ้นในหมู่ชน จึงเป็นการร่วมกันหมิ่นพระบรมเดชานุภาพ ดูหมิ่น หมิ่นประมาท รัชกาลที่ 10 ทําให้สถาบันพระมหากษัตริย์ได้รับความเสียหาย

ส่วนบันทึกแจ้งข้อกล่าวหาของ “เพนกวิน” พริษฐ์ ระบุเช่นเดียวกันว่า คําปราศรัยของพริษฐ์ มีเนื้อหาเป็นการวิพากษ์วิจารณ์พระราชอํานาจของพระมหากษัตริย์ ทําให้ผู้ที่ได้ฟังเข้าใจว่า ผู้พูดกําลังพูดถึงรัชกาลที่ 10 รัชกาลปัจจุบัน เนื่องจากมีการใช้คําว่า “พระวชิรเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัว” โดยมุ่งชี้ประเด็นการโอนกําลังพลราบ 11 รักษาพระองค์ และราบ 1 รักษาพระองค์ ไปสังกัดภายใต้บังคับบัญชาของพระองค์ เป็นการวิพากษ์วิจารณ์ก้าวล่วงพระราชอํานาจของพระมหากษัตริย์โดยตรง

ทั้งมีการกล่าวหาว่าทรงเป็นฆาตกร หรือผู้อยู่เบื้องหลังกรณีการอุ้มหายของบุคคลต่างๆ โดยมีการพูดเพื่อให้ผู้ฟังคล้อยตามโดยขาดพยานหลักฐาน มีการเปรียบเทียบให้เป็นกองกําลังของฮิตเลอร์ โดยเนื้อหาทั้งหมดเป็นการกล่าวพาดพิง ให้ร้ายต่อองค์พระมหากษัตริย์ ทั้งเป็นการกล่าวหาที่มุ่งให้ผู้ฟังเกิดความเข้าใจผิดพลาดคลาดเคลื่อน สร้างความเสื่อมศรัทธาให้เกิดขึ้นในหมู่ชน จึงเป็นการร่วมกันหมิ่นพระบรมเดชานุภาพ ดูหมิ่น หมิ่นประมาท รัชกาลที่ 10 ทําให้สถาบันพระมหากษัตริย์ได้รับความเสียหาย

พ.ต.ท.สราวุธ บุตรดี จึงได้แจ้งข้อกล่าวเพนกวินและอานนท์ รวม 5 ข้อหา คือ

ร่วมกันหมิ่นประมาท ดูหมิ่น หรือแสดงความอาฆาตมาดร้ายพระมาหกษัตริย์ ตามประมวลกฎหมายอาญา มาตรา 112
ร่วมกันเป็นผู้จัดการชุมนุมสาธารณะโดยไม่แจ้งการชุมนุมฯ ฝ่าฝืน พ.ร.บ.การชุมนุมสาธารณะฯ มาตรา 10 ร่วมกันชุมนุมสาธารณะโดยกีดขวางทางเข้าออกหรือรบกวนการปฏิบัติงานของหน่วยงานของรัฐ ฝ่าฝืน พ.ร.บ.การชุมนุมสาธารณะฯ มาตรา 8 ร่วมกันใช้เครื่องขยายเสียงโดยไม่ได้รับอนุญาต ฝ่าฝืน พ.ร.บ.ควบคุมการโฆษณาโดยใช้เครื่องขยายเสียงฯ มาตรา 4 ร่วมกันกระทําการหรือดําเนินการใด ๆ ซึ่งอาจก่อให้เกิดสภาวะที่ไม่ถูกสุขลักษณะ ซึ่งอาจเป็นเหตุให้โรคติดต่อแพร่ออกไป ฝ่าฝืน พ.ร.บ.โรคติดต่อฯ มาตรา 34 (6) อานนท์และพริษฐ์ให้การปฎิเสธตลอดข้อกล่าวหา และจะให้การเป็นหนังสือภายใน 30 วัน

เพนกวินยังได้บันทึกหมายเหตุด้วยปากกาไว้ท้ายบันทึกแจ้งข้อกล่าวหาว่า “ข้าพเจ้าขอยืนยันว่าปัจจุบันข้าพเจ้าถูกควบคุมอยู่ที่เรือนจำพิเศษกรุงเทพมหานคร ไม่ได้มีเจตนาจะหลบหนีหรือจะไปยุ่งเหยิงกับพยานหลักฐาน หรือจะไปก่อเหตุภยันตรายประการอื่น หากพนักงานสอบสวนจะสอบสวนเพิ่มเติมหรือกำหนดนัดอื่น ข้าพเจ้าก็พร้อมที่จะเดินทางไปพบพนักงานสอบสวน และหากพนักงานสอบสวนมีหมายจับก็ขอให้แสดงต่อข้าพเจ้าในวันนี้”

ทั้งนี้ การจัดกิจกรรมหน้า สน.บางเขน เพื่อให้กำลังใจนักกิจกรรม ที่เดินทางเข้ารับทราบข้อกล่าวหาตามมาตรา 112 ในวันที่ 21 ธันวาคม 2563 นี้ พ.ต.ท.อนันต์ วรสาตร์ รองผู้กำกับสืบสวน สน.บางเขน ได้แจ้งความให้ดำเนินคดีนักกิจกรรมรวม 7 ราย ได้แก่ อานนท์ นำภา, “เพนกวิน” พริษฐ์ ชิวารักษ์, “ไมค์” ภาณุพงศ์ จาดนอก, “ฟ้า” พรหมศร วีระธรรมจารี, ชินวัตร จันทร์กระจ่าง, วรรณวลี ธรรมสัตยา และพิมพ์สิริ เพชรน้ำรอบ โดย 5 ราย เป็นผู้ที่เข้ารับทราบข้อกล่าวหาในวันดังกล่าวและถูกดำเนินคดีอีกคดี ได้แก่ อานนท์, พริษฐ์, พรหมศร, ชินวัตร และพิมพ์สิริ

โดยเฉพาะอานนท์, พริษฐ์ และชินวัตร ถูกดำเนินคดีตามมาตรา 112 ซ้ำอีกคดี จากการจากการหยิบยกเนื้อหาคำปราศรัยในประเด็น “ปฏิรูปสถาบันกษัตริย์” ที่หน้ากรมทหารราบที่ 11 เมื่อวันที่ 29 พฤศจิกายน 2563 ซึ่งเป็นเหตุให้ถูกดำเนินคดี 112 และต้องเข้ารับทราบข้อกล่าวหาในวันนั้น

สวนภาณุพงศ์, พรหมศร, วรรณวลี และพิมพ์สิริ ถูกดำเนินคดีใน 4 ข้อหา ตาม พ.ร.บ.การชุมนุมสาธารณะฯ และอื่นๆ

ก่อนหน้านี้ ชินวัตร, วรรณวลี และพิมพ์สิริ ได้เดินทางเข้ารับทราบข้อกล่าวหาตามหมายเรียกแล้ว ขณะที่ผู้ถูกออกหมายเรียกอีก 4 ราย ถูกคุมขังอยู่ในเรือนจำ ได้แก่ ภาณุพงศ์, พรหมศร, อานนท์ และพริษฐ์ พนักงานสอบสอนได้ทยอยเข้าแจ้งข้อกล่าวหาจนครบแล้ว

Ms. Chonthicha Jaengreaw and Ms. Chokechai Rompreuk were summoned to acknowledge the charges against them following their involvement in peaceful rally and gathering on 6 March 2021 in front of the Bangkok Criminal Court that called for the release of lèse-majesté detainees. They were alleged for violating Emergency Decree and Road Traffic Act

วันนี้ (27 เม.ย. 64) ที่ สน.พหลโยธิน 2 นักกิจกรรม ได้แก่ “ลูกเกด” ชลธิชา แจ้งเร็ว และ “อาเล็ก” โชคชัย ร่มพฤกษ์ ได้เข้ารับทราบ 2 ข้อกล่าวหา ฐานฝ่าฝืนข้อกำหนดตาม พ.ร.ก.ฉุกเฉินฯ และเดินขบวนกีดขวางการจราจร ตาม พ.ร.บ.จราจรทางบกฯ จากกรณีร่วมกิจกรรม #ม็อบ6มีนา ที่หน้าศาลอาญารัชดา

ที่มาของคดีนี้เกิดจากการชุมนุม กิจกรรม #ขยะในพระปรมาภิไธย หรือ #ม็อบ6มีนา ในวันที่ 6 มี.ค. 64 จัดขึ้นโดยกลุ่ม REDEM ซึ่งนัดรวมตัวกันบริเวณห้าแยกลาดพร้าว เพื่อเดินขบวนไปยังศาลอาญา รัชดาฯ จุดประสงค์เพื่อทำกิจกรรมเชิงสัญลักษณ์ นําขยะไปทิ้งหน้าศาลอาญา พร้อมเรียกร้องให้ปล่อยตัว 4 แกนนำราษฎรซึ่งถูกคุมขังระหว่างพิจารณาคดีมาตรา 112 จากการชุมนุม 19 กันยาทวงอำนาจคืนราษฎร ก่อนยุติการชุมนุมในเวลา 21.00 น.

ก่อนหน้านี้นักกิจกรรมทั้งสองราย ได้รับหมายเรียกในคดีที่มี พ.ต.ท.ธเนศ ศรีจำปา เป็นผู้กล่าวหา โดยทราบว่าพนักงานสอบสวนมีการออกหมายเรียกผู้ชุมนุมสามราย นอกจากชลธิชาและโชคชัยแล้ว ยังมีการออกหมายเรียก “พรชัย” ผู้ถูกดำเนินคดีมาตรา 112 ซึ่งเพิ่งได้รับการปล่อยตัวจากเรือนจำกลางเชียงใหม่ เมื่อวันที่ 23 เม.ย. ที่ผ่านมา และพบว่าตนเองติดเชื้อโควิดจากเรือนจำ ทำให้ไม่สามารถเดินทางมาตามนัดได้

พ.ต.ท. ศักดินาถ หนูฉ้ง สารวัตร (สอบสวน) สน.พหลโยธิน เป็นผู้แจ้งข้อกล่าวหาและพฤติการณ์ในคดี มีเนื้อหาโดยสรุปว่าเมื่อวันที่ 6 มี.ค. 64 ผู้ชุมนุมของกลุ่ม REDEM ได้รวมตัวกันบริเวณแยกลาดพร้าว มีการจัดกิจกรรมแสดงดนตรี กระทั่งเวลาประมาณ 16.00 น. กลุ่มมวลชนดังกล่าวได้ลงพื้นผิวจราจร ทําให้ประชาชนเกิดความไม่สะดวกที่จะใช้ทางสาธารณะ โดยตั้งแถวเดินขบวนจากห้าแยกลาดพร้าวมุ่งหน้าสี่แยกรัชโยธิน เดินไปตามถนนรัชดาภิเษก ไปยังศาลอาญา และผู้ชุมนุมของกลุ่ม REDEM ประมาณ 1,700 คน ได้มีการชุมนุมอยู่หน้าศาลอาญา และทํากิจกรรมนําขยะไปทิ้ง และเผาขยะเป็นเชิงสัญลักษณ์

การร่วมกันชุมนุม หรือทํากิจกรรมดังกล่าวข้างต้น เป็นการทํากิจกรรมที่มีการรวมคนที่มีความแออัด ในลักษณะที่เสี่ยงต่อการแพร่ระบาดและอาจเป็นสาเหตุที่ก่อให้เกิดโรคโควิด-19 ซึ่งมีผู้เข้าร่วมจํานวนมาก และมีโอกาสติดต่อสัมผัสกันโดยง่ายในพื้นที่กรุงเทพมหานคร อันเป็นการเสี่ยงต่อการแพร่ระบาดของเชื้อไวรัส ซึ่งการร่วมกันชุมนุมที่ไม่เป็นไปตามมาตรการป้องกันโรคที่ทางราชการกําหนด เป็นความผิดตามประกาศหัวหน้าผู้รับผิดชอบในการแก้ไขสถานการณ์ฉุกเฉินใน ส่วนที่เกี่ยวกับความมั่นคง (ฉบับที่ 5) เรื่องห้ามการชุมนุม การทํากิจกรรม การมั่วสุม ตามข้อกําหนดออกตามความในมาตรา 6 แห่ง พ.ร.ก.ฉุกเฉินฯ พ.ศ. 2548 ซึ่งผู้ต้องหาได้เข้าร่วมการชุมนุมในการจัดกิจกรรมดังกล่าวข้างต้น

พนักงานสอบสวน สภ.พหลโยธิน จึงได้แจ้งข้อกล่าวหาแก่ผู้ต้องหาหาทั้งสอง ทั้งหมด 2 ข้อหา ได้แก่

ฝ่าฝืนข้อกำหนดตาม พ.ร.ก.ฉุกเฉินฯ ร่วมกันจัดให้มีกิจกรรมซึ่งมีผู้เข้าร่วมเป็นจำนวนมากในลักษณะมั่วสุมกัน หรือมีโอกาสติดต่อสัมผัสกันง่าย ชุมนุมทำกิจกรรมหรือมั่วสุมกัน ณ ที่ใดๆ ในสถานที่แออัด หรือกระทำการดังกล่าวอันเป็นการยุยงให้เกิดความไม่สงบเรียบร้อย หรือในลักษณะที่เสี่ยงต่อการแพร่เชื้อโรค โทษจำคุกไม่เกิน 2 ปี หรือปรับไม่เกิน 40,000 บาท หรือทั้งจำทั้งปรับ ฝ่าฝืน พ.ร.บ.จราจรทางบกฯ มาตรา 108 ร่วมกันเดินเป็นขบวนแห่ หรือเดินเป็นขบวนใดๆ ในลักษณะที่เป็นการกีดขวางการจราจร ต้องระวางโทษปรับไม่เกิน 500 บาท เบื้องต้นทั้งสองรายให้การปฎิเสธตลอดทุกข้อกล่าวหา โดยชลธิชาไม่ได้ลงลายมือชื่อในบันทึกแจ้งข้อกล่าวหา และทั้งคู่จะให้การเพิ่มเติมเป็นหนังสือภายใน 20 วัน

พนักงานสอบสวนได้นัดส่งตัวผู้ต้องหาให้กับพนักงานอัยการต่อไปในวันที่ 21 พ.ค. 64 เวลา 10.30 น.

ทั้งนี้น่าสังเกตว่าผู้ถูกออกหมายเรียกทั้งสามคนไม่ได้เป็นผู้จัดกิจกรรมการชุมนุมดังกล่าวแต่อย่างใด ขณะเดียวกันรูปแบบการชุมนุมของกลุ่ม REDEM ก่อนหน้านี้ก็ไม่ได้มีแกนนำที่ชัดเจน ทำให้ไม่ทราบแน่ชัดว่าเจ้าหน้าที่อาศัยหลักเกณฑ์ใดในการกล่าวหาหรือดำเนินคดีบุคคล ในกิจกรรมซึ่งมีผู้เข้าร่วมจำนวนมาก

Myanmar’s military junta should immediately stop threatening the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a leading human rights monitoring group, Human Rights Watch said today. The group has documented security force abuses since the February 1, 2021 coup, including killings of protesters, arbitrary arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, and unjust court convictions.

On April 26, the Home Affairs Ministry of the ruling State Administration Council (SAC) accused the AAPP of operating illegally because it was not registered as an organization. The junta’s announcement threatened “severe action” against the group for causing “State service personnel and public panic” that will “incite the occurrence of more riots” and “harm State stability, rule of law and restoration of law and order.” “While the world’s media and diplomats regularly cite the AAPP’s daily updates on the military crackdown, Myanmar’s generals are desperately trying to silence the group to keep the truth from getting out,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The threats are part of the junta’s shroud of silence and censorship, targeting frontline groups like AAPP, arresting journalists, and shutting down the internet.”

The junta’s efforts to target the AAPP are illustrated in the 115-page briefing paper, obtained by Human Rights Watch, that the junta leader, Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, presented to leaders at the ASEAN summit in Jakarta on April 24. Min Aung Hlaing claimed, without providing evidence, that the AAPP uses “data” that “appeared in fake and hoax news.” He added that the junta was “very upset” that “world media and international organizations restated” that information.

Responding to the allegations, AAPP Secretary-General Bo Kyi, a recipient of the Human Rights Watch Alison des Forges Defender Award in 2009, told The Irrawaddy magazine that: “I think it is just a political move as international governments, media and UN are referencing our data … The key issue is the violence they have committed, their killing and arrests. Instead of solving those problems, they are targeting a group like ours which is revealing the true events.” The AAPP told Human Rights Watch that the military’s threats have forced them to close their office in Yangon and compelled their staff to go into hiding and work from undisclosed locations. The junta has also arbitrarily arrested journalists to prevent reporting on the opposition Civil Disobedience Movement’s broad-based resistance to the coup and the security force abuses. UNESCO reported that the junta has arrested at least 71 journalists since the coup. The AAPP says that 48 journalists are currently known to be in detention, most in undisclosed locations without access to their families or legal counsel. Many other journalists have fled to border regions controlled by ethnic groups, or to neighboring countries.

The junta has brought charges against numerous journalists and activists under revised penal code provisions adopted on February 14. The State Administration Council inserted a new provision, section 505A, that could be used to punish comments regarding the illegitimacy of the coup or the military government, among others. The new section would criminalize comments that “cause fear,” spread “false news, [or] agitates directly or indirectly a criminal offense against a Government employee.” Violation of the section is punishable with up to three years in prison. The law arbitrarily interferes with the exercise of rights protected under international law, including freedom of expression.

The junta has also increased pressure on independent media outlets by revoking their operating licenses. On March 8, the State Administration Council announced that it had cancelled the licenses of Mizzima, Myanmar Now, 7Day News, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), and Khit Thit Media. While these media groups have continued to report on events, they do so at great risk since journalists working for these outlets face immediate arrest if they are discovered doing their jobs as reporters.

“Groups like the AAPP and the independent media are playing a critical role holding Myanmar’s junta accountable, and they need to be able to continue their work,” Robertson said. “Governments concerned about the deteriorating human rights situation in Myanmar should be offering public support for these organizations and their brave staff members.”