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Hong Kong's High Court on Tuesday sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists to jail terms of up to 10 years in a landmark national security trial that has damaged the city's once feisty democracy movement and drawn international condemnation.

A total of 47 pro-democracy activists were arrested and charged in 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law and had faced sentences of up to life in prison.

Sentences imposed ranged from just over four years to 10 years.

Benny Tai, a former legal scholar who was labelled as an "organiser" of the 47 pro-democracy activists, was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

The charges related to the organising of an unofficial "primary election" in 2020 to select the best candidates for an upcoming legislative election. The activists were accused by prosecutors of plotting to paralyse the government by engaging in potentially disruptive acts had they been elected.

The US has criticised the trial as "politically motivated" and said the democrats should be released as they had been "peacefully participating in political activities" that were legal.

US President-elect Donald Trump's nominee as secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has been a staunch critic of the trial and in an earlier open letter criticised the convictions of the 47 democrats as evidence of the national security law's "comprehensive assault on Hong Kong's autonomy, rule of law, and fundamental freedoms".

The Chinese and Hong Kong governments say the national security laws were necessary to restore order after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019, and the democrats have been treated in accordance with local laws.

• Closely watched trial -

Hundreds of people had queued from the early hours outside the court, many holding umbrellas in light rain as they tried to secure a seat within the main courtroom and several spillover courts. Authorities deployed a tight police presence outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Court and for several blocks in the vicinity.

"I feel such an injustice needs witnessing," said Margaret, 59, dressed in a white raincoat and black facemask, who was in the queue since Sunday afternoon. "I've long followed their case. They (the democrats) need to know they still have public support."

After a 118 day trial, 14 of the democrats were found guilty in May, including Australian citizen Gordon Ng and activist Owen Chow, while two were acquitted. The other 31 pleaded guilty, including student activist Joshua Wong and Tai.

A disabled man convicted of incitement for comments he posted on Facebook about Prime Minister Hun Manet was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Tuesday.

Phon Yuth, who has never had use of his legs and uses a wheelchair, was arrested in March after he posted and shared several messages that criticized the existence of undocumented Vietnamese people living in Cambodia.

He also posted comments about a Cambodian businessman who was accused of cheating people out of their money and mentioned Senate President Hun Sen in other posts that were published just months after Hun Sen stepped down as prime minister.

The resignation in August 2023 paved the way for his son, Hun Manet, to be appointed to the position.

“I want a new leader,” Phon Yuth wrote in one message earlier this year.

The 40-year-old was held without trial in southern Takeo province until this week. His wife, Mom Vith, told Radio Free Asia in September that the provincial court repeatedly extended his detention while delaying scheduled court hearings.

“Don’t leave him and abandon him in jail quietly and indefinitely like that,” she said.

After Tuesday’s sentencing, Phon Yuth was returned to Takeo Provincial Prison.

The harsh sentence could further dampen the exercise of freedom of speech in Cambodia, said Kim Piseth, a senior investigator for human rights group Adhoc.

“In this case, the authorities should have set up an investigation into the concerns, rather than blaming the people’s expression,” he said. “It doesn’t have any positive impact for people to express themselves.”

Phun Yuth was previously jailed for five months in 2019 on charges of incitement and publicly insulting officials after he criticized the government’s inaction and demanded Hun Sen’s resignation.

RFA was unable to reach court spokesman Nget Davuth for comment.

Luu Van Vinh‘s wife, Le Thi Thap, told Project88 that during her visit on Nov. 11, Vinh told her that two officials from the Ministry of Public Security had come to see him a few days earlier and warned him that if she kept “causing trouble” on Facebook, Thap might end up in prison herself. This really surprised her because, as she reported to Project88, she only posts about the personal burdens and hardships she has to bear, but never anything about the party or the government.

A young activist from Doda, whose detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA) was quashed in 2016 by J&K high court, has again been booked under the controversial law, with his family and a member of J&K legislative assembly alleging that he was targeted by the authorities for his activism.

The action comes days after five trade union leaders from the adjoining Kishtwar district of Chenab Valley were slapped with the PSA and taken into preventive custody, allegedly for raising concerns over the increasing health risks and environmental degradation caused by the construction of power projects in the region.

The controversial legislation, which has been dubbed as a “lawless law” by Amnesty International, has been widely used to silence political dissidents and government critics in Jammu and Kashmir by the Union government after the reading down of Article 370 in 2019, according to free speech activists.

Though the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir now has an elected government, the police report to the Union ministry of home affairs via the lieutenant governor since the UT government’s limited mandate does not extend to law and order.

‘Sympathiser of militants’

In its latest action on November 9, Rehamatullah, 25, who lives in Dessa Bhatta of Doda, was booked under the PSA on charges of being an alleged “overground worker and sympathiser of militants” who posed a “threat to the security of the state”. The dossier (PSA 02 of 2024) also accused Rehamatullah of being “in continuous touch with ISI/PAK based settled militants”.

However, the five-page dossier, which has been prepared by the Senior Superintendent of Police (Doda) and approved by deputy commissioner Doda Harvinder Singh, does not refer to any formal anti-terror charges under which Rehamatullah has been booked in the past.

The dossier stated that the young activist has been booked in five FIRs (two of them for his speeches, one each for wrongful restraint, abduction and criminal trespass) and he has got bail from the courts in all the cases. It also referred to a Daily Dairy entry (No. 5 of August 2, 2024) against Rehamatullah at Doda police station.

The DD entry accused the young activist of purportedly using VPN for accessing the internet “so that his anti-national activities and his links across the border with PAK/POK based militant cannot be detected”.

“As evident from the above, it can be…concluded that the subject has maintained his links with the PAK/ POK based militants, which may have been used by foreign terrorists in killing defense forces personnel in multiple attacks in the district in the last 6 months. It is clear that the subject…has become a great threat to the security of the State,” the dossier noted.

Rehamatullah is the father of two minor children and the youngest among three siblings.

‘A big scam’

However, Doda MLA and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, Mehraj Malik sought to link the detention of Rehamatullah under the PSA with a video interview on November 6 in which the activist had accused the Doda deputy commissioner of failing to enforce the rules governing the disposal of solid waste in the town.

Against the backdrop of plumes of smoke rising from mounds of garbage, which he claimed had been set on fire by Doda town’s municipal authorities, Rehamatullah can be heard saying that the unscientific disposal of garbage was causing health issues for the residents. A Solid Waste Management Project was approved by the National Building Construction Corporation Limited in 2008 for Doda to collect garbage from 17 wards of the town and convert it into manure.

“The plant was supposed to minimise the negative impacts of solid waste on environment, quality of life and health. Why is the magistrate not taking suo moto cognisance? Why is the pollution control board and municipality silent? It is a big scam. Crore of rupees are being swindled. The government should look into it,” the activist had asked.

In another video on September 16, Rehamatullah can be heard appealing the people to use their democratic right to vote to give a “befitting reply” to the “forces of tyranny” and “those targeting the identity” of Jammu and Kashmir, “I appeal people to throng the polling booths and give a befitting reply to the tyrants by raising the slogan of ‘Inquilab zindabad’,” he said.

The Wire has reached out to the deputy commissioner, Doda, Harvinder Singh for comment. This story will be updated as and when the response is received.

‘Only raising his voice on public issues’

Fayaz Ahmad, Rehmatullah’s elder brother, said that there was a knock on their door at around 5 am on Sunday morning, “When my brother opened the door, the cops told him that he was wanted by one of their officers. Our elderly parents tried to protest but the cops warned them not to raise an outcry and go back inside,” he said.

Ahmad said that a team of nearly three dozen police personnel, including female officials, had cordoned their home before his brother was whisked away to Doda police station. “Just a day earlier, he had raised some uncomfortable questions about the poor quality of construction material used for building a sewer line near our home,” he said, adding that he was away in Jammu at the time of the raid at their home on Sunday.

Ahmad said that his brother’s activism had become a cause of anxiety for their parents also due to which he had handed the charge of his readymade garments store in Doda to his younger brother in order to keep him busy. “He was not doing anything wrong. He was only raising his voice on public issues. If asking the government officials and contractors to follow the rules is a crime, then he is guilty,” he said.

According to Ahmed, Rehamatullah was first booked under the PSA in 2016. He had recently started Urban Insights, a web portal which was registered as a micro enterprise (UDYAM-JK-05-0011305) with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises under the Union government in the information services sector. Through it, Rehamatullah had aimed to amplify the voices of people on civic issues in Doda.

Quashing his PSA in 2017, the J&K high court had observed that Rehamatullah was deprived of his “fundamental right” to make “effective representation” against his preventive detention.

Charges against five trade union leaders

The detention of Rehamatullah came days after five trade union leaders in the adjoining Kishtwar district were booked under the PSA amid growing concerns over the environmental degradation caused by the power projects in the district.

The detention of the five leaders was condemned by the Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti, among others.

According to reports and several social media posts from journalists and activists in Chenab Valley, which comprises Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts, the five detainees had been flagging the issues of environmental degradation, poor compensation and health hazards triggered by pollution due to the ongoing construction of these power projects.

However, the administration has accused the five men of “anti-national activities” and “disturbing public order”. Doda-based journalist and editor of The Chenab Times, Anzer Ayoub said that the fact that the detainees were trade union leaders “is a gross abuse of power.”

Authorities across China are cracking down on thousands of college students who took part in mass night-cycling events that commentators said could be seen as a new form of protest against the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

The police department in Henan’s Zhengzhou city issued a warning to students on Nov. 9, following a mass “night ride to Kaifeng” by thousands of young people a day earlier, as a social media video about riding to the city in search of dumplings spawned dozens of copycat outings, eventually expanding to a mass cycle ride that some observers said left the authorities rattled, concerned that it could turn into a political protest like the “white paper” movement two years ago, or Halloween in Shanghai.

Video footage of the rides uploaded to social media of the Nov. 8 event showed phalanxes of cyclists riding abreast across several lanes of a highway, flying the Chinese national flag and singing the Chinese national anthem, many of whom were riding bikes from urban sharing schemes.

Police didn’t take action at the time, but they announced a ban on cycles from downtown Zhengzhou on Nov. 9 and Nov. 10, reserving main roads for motorized traffic only, according to Jimu News.

Cycle-hire companies Hello, Qingjue and Meituan responded by banning the riding of their bikes between city jurisdictions, saying anyone who defied the ban would have their hired bike locked remotely.

A retired teacher from Zhengzhou who gave only the surname Jia for fear of reprisals said she saw the road from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng “packed” with cyclists on Nov. 8.

“I would say there were more than 200,000 people,” Jia said. “Zhengzhou to Kaifeng Boulevard was so crowded that ... there were no shared bikes left and a lot of people had to walk instead.”

“[The authorities] are very nervous,” she said.

The cycling bans came after the Nov. 8 ride was joined by more than 600 students who traveled down by train from Beijing to take part, and also by military veterans, a group regarded as highly politically sensitive by the government, who carried flags and shouted slogans calling for “freedom,” according to social media reports.

“Eight years in the Rocket Force, night ride to Kaifeng -- charge!” a person shouts in one video clip. “Five years in the Air Force, retired but still got it, night ride to Kaifeng, let’s go!” shouts someone else.

One Douyin user from Shandong posted a video saying the authorities in Henan were now cracking down on “night rides” by students in universities across the province, as well as in the northern provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi.

“One video I saw showed students from Shandong and Tianjin also took action, with some waving national flags,” the user said.

According to other social media posts, some students who tried to form a mass ride to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square were stopped and turned away at a police checkpoint, so they rode the 138 kilometers (86 miles) to the northern port city of Tianjin.

In the eastern city of Nanjing, tens of thousands of college students rode to Chaohu Lake 140 kilometers (87 miles) away or Ma’anshan, 59 kilometers (37 miles) away, while students in Sichuan’s provincial capital Chengdu role to Dujiangyan 70 kilometers (43 miles) away and students from Xi’an rode 28 kilometers (17 miles) by night to Xianyang.

According to Jia, authorities in Zhengzhou also locked down college campuses across the city and wouldn’t let students leave.

“All students were told to return to campus, and then not allowed out again for a certain period of time,” she said. “The universities sent out a lot of internal notices to counselors and other staff, which you can seen online.”

Jimu News reported that students at the Henan Institute of Science and Technology in Zhengzhou were required to get a special pass to leave campus, citing campus officials.

Zhengzhou-based teacher Li Na said she was amazed at the students’ actions.

“Let’s not impute a political stance to this, but at the very least it shows that young people in mainland China are very eager to take part in public life,” Li said. “Secondly, they are very organized.”

“I don’t know how they are communicating with each other given how tight the controls are, and yet it’s gotten so big that students all over the country have responded,” she said.

Li cited local media reports as saying that universities in Shanxi and other places had gone as far as to label the bike rides a “political movement,” and warn students not to take part on pain of having a black mark on their record.

University staff were also working “ideologically” with students to persuade them not to take part, she said.

“This isn’t the first time we have seen the capacity of young people to organize,” Li said. “The first time was the white paper movement, and the second was Halloween.”

Li Meiyao, a psychologist from Shanxi, said the initial bike ride in June was described as a way to alleviate mental health problems by the young woman who posted about it first.

“I rode a bike to Kaifeng to eat dumplings, because I haven’t found any other way to release the depression caused by the three-years of pandemic restrictions,” she paraphrased the original post as saying.

University students endured months of lockdown on campus during the three years of zero-COVID restrictions, which ended in December 2022, and were sent home en masse when they gathered to protest, with the authorities blaming instigation by “hostile foreign forces” for the protests.

A Henan-based commentator who gave only the surname Gong for fear of reprisals said the rides likely started out as a way for young people to let off steam.

“At the outset, this was about having fun, with a few young students going to Kaifeng, but why did they get such an instant response?” Gong said. “Because college students have been isolated and shut off from society for such a long time, and rarely had the opportunity to take part in any public events.”

“It was an important opportunity for them to let off steam, express themselves, and affirm their values in a public setting,” he said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is highly concerned after Indian investigative journalist Rana Ayyub’s personal number was leaked online and, separately, local intelligence personnel followed and repeatedly questioned her throughout a four-day reporting trip in the northeastern state of Manipur in early October, according to three people familiar with the situation who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of official retaliation.

“The relentless targeting of Rana Ayyub, one of India’s most prominent journalists, is shameful,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “Indian authorities must swiftly investigate the doxxing of Ayyub and hold the perpetrators accountable. Using surveillance and intimidation to deter journalists from reporting effectively has no place in a country that prides itself on being the mother of democracy.”

Security personnel stopped and questioned Ayyub, a global opinion writer at the Washington Post, at checkpoints during her trip, according to those sources and CPJ’s review of video and audio recordings.

Officers asked Ayyub about who she was meeting and what she was reporting on. They said they followed her for her “safety,” and the measure was ordered by “higher office.”

Ayyub said on Friday, November 8, that a right-wing account on social media X shared her personal phone number and asked followers to harass the journalist. She told CPJ she received at least 200 phone and video calls and explicit WhatsApp messages throughout the night, including repeated one-time password requests from various online commerce platforms.

Ayyub filed a complaint with the cybercrime police in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, on Friday.

CPJ’s separate emails requesting comment about the surveillance and harassment complaint from the Manipur police and the Mumbai cybercrime police did not immediately receive a response.

Ayyub’s reporting has previously led to online trolling and official intimidation. She previously faced criminal investigations, received rape and death threats, and is currently fighting a money laundering case in court.

Five union leaders have been detained under the Public Safety Act in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district for allegedly attempting to “obstruct” the construction of hydropower projects in Chenab Valley, the Kashmir Times reported on Monday.

Those detained were identified as Mohammad Abdullah Gujjar, Noor Din, Ghulam Nabi Choppan, Mohammad Jaffer Sheikh and Mohammad Ramzan.

They had flagged issues related to environmental degradation, damage to property, health hazards caused due to the ongoing construction of these projects and inadequate compensation for those affected, reported The Wire citing unidentified sources.

An official spokesperson for the district administration said that the detained persons were “not desisting from their illegal acts” despite prior warnings. Kishtwar District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar Shavan had taken a strong stance against “anti-national activities”, the spokesperson added.

“There were apprehensions of disturbing public order and putting threat to the security of the state by them,” the Kashmir Times quoted the unidentified spokesperson as saying. “As soon as the warrants were received, the police took them into custody and executed the warrants.”

The Public Safety Act is a preventive detention law that allows persons to be taken into custody to prevent them from acting against “the security of the state or the maintenance of the public order” in the Union territory.

Twenty-two other persons were also placed under surveillance for allegedly attempting to obstruct projects of national importance in the region, according to the Kashmir Times.

The district magistrate directed agencies to monitor persons who “try to disturb the public order by false propaganda and keeping an anti-national attitude of slowing pace of mega projects,” the spokesperson added.

Responding to the detention of the union leaders, Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti said that many across Jammu and Kashmir had been booked under draconian laws like the Public Safety Act and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act on “trivial charges” in the past five years.

In a post on social media, the former chief minister said: “This latest case of slapping PSA [Public Safety Act] on 5 people for raising their voice against the exploitation of our water resources by NHPC [National Hydroelectric Power Corporation] to fill in their own coffers is shocking because people have high expectations from the newly elected government.”

She added: “Hope they look into it immediately and see that these draconian laws are not used arbitrarily against our own citizens for raising genuine concerns.”

The Chenab Valley comprises the Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts.

Experts have warned about several potential dangers, including environmental damage and natural disasters, associated with about six hydropower projects that are in various stages of development on the Chenab river.

Activist detained under PSA in Doda Another 25-year-old environmental activist, identified as Rehmatullah Ahmed, was also detained and booked under the Public Safety Act for allegedly challenging the district administration in Doda over civic issues, the Kashmir Times reported on Monday.

On November 9, Ahmed was booked under the Act for allegedly being an “overground worker and sympathiser of militants” who posed a “threat to the security of the state”, The Wire reported, quoting from the documents concerning his arrest.

The documents accused Rehamatullah of being “in continuous touch with ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence]/PAK [Pakistan] based settled militants”.

Activist and conscientious objector Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal has been charged with draft evasion after he refused to participate in the military conscription process.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that Netiwit reported to the police at Bang Pu Police Station in Samut Prakan last Friday (8 November). He was charged with draft evasion under Section 45 of the 1954 Military Service Act.

Netiwit denied the charge and will submit his testimony in writing later. TLHR said that he is required to report to the public prosecutor on 3 December, and that it is possible he will be indicted then.

On 5 April, Netiwit went to a military conscription centre in Samut Prakan, where he was supposed to take part in the draft. In an act of civil disobedience, he read a statement in front of the centre saying that he will not be reporting for the draft in protest at compulsory military conscription in Thailand, which he said is a violation of human rights and personal moral beliefs. It is outdated, ineffective, and undermines democracy. Not only does it not promote equality, it also enforces a system of oppression, he said.

The 27-year-old is an education reform activist and has also worked with communities surrounding Chulalongkorn University facing eviction and rising rent prices. He has been vocal about his objection to compulsory military conscription, and on his 18th birthday, he published a declaration saying that he is a conscientious objector and will not participate in military conscription, which he said is obsolete, and asking why supporters of peace and nonviolent action cannot reject conscription.

All Thai men over 21 years of age who have not completed reserve officer training are required by law to participate in the draft, and join the military either voluntarily or by participating in a lottery, unless they do not meet the physical and mental health standards. No exception is made for conscientious objectors.

During his 5 April protest, Netiwit said that although he could have found ways to avoid being drafted, it is necessary to directly confront the issue for the improvement of civil rights and freedom. By presenting himself and protesting publicly, he said he is showing that he has never intended to evade the draft or flee. He is aware of the legal consequences of his action and is willing to face them.

On November 7, the Almaty regional court left the verdict against journalist Duman Muhammedkarim unchanged. His lawyer Galym Nurpeyisov informed Azattik about this. In August of this year, the court of the first instance sentenced Duman Muhammedkarim to seven years in prison . In addition, he was banned from engaging in social and political work for three years.

"The seven-year prison sentence remained unchanged. The additional sentence was increased. The prosecutor requested in the court to ban Duman from visiting public places, meetings, participating, giving interviews to the media and other restrictions for three years. The judge complied with this request," lawyer Galym Nurpeyisov said on November 8. To freedom.

We asked the lawyer, "The court of the first instance banned Duman Muhammedkarim from engaging in social and political work for three years. And how does it differ from the ban imposed by the appeals court?" he asked.

Based on the court documents, the lawyer said that the restrictions imposed on Duman in the court of first instance: the types of services were not clearly specified, but this time they were clearly written. Among the places or platforms a journalist cannot participate in are "conferences, debates, television programs, including media, social networks and other telecommunications networks, strikes, peaceful gatherings, political parties, religious organizations, social movements, trade unions."

"This will actually be house arrest," said the lawyer.

According to the lawyer, at the appeal stage, Duman did not allow Muhammedkarim to fully familiarize himself with the case materials. Both the journalist and the lawyer consider the sentence illegal and plan to file a cassation appeal.

"The court did not consider our requests at all. The right was violated. We believe that the court fulfilled a political order," said the lawyer.

The Court of Appeal was closed. Supporters and media could not enter it. In the video published by the YouTube channel of The Qazaq Times, it is seen that activists gathered in front of the court building. They said "Freedom to Duman!" shouted. A special squad guarded the vicinity of the building.

According to the lawyer, the defense side left the journalist in Kapshagai, and then wrote a request to Astana asking to be transferred from there to Zarechny. No answer yet. Before that, the journalist was in Taldykorgan detention center.

There is no information about the court on the website of the Almaty regional court.

46-year-old journalist Duman Muhammedkarim worked in state channels for about 20 years. Worked as a press secretary of the akim of the West Kazakhstan region. From 2021 on YouTube "Ne Deidi?" opened a channel and began to publish various materials about social and political events in the country.

Duman Muhammedkarim became widely recognized in the political environment after the January 2022 incident. He is one of the few journalists who reported from the center of the chaos in Almaty during the massacre in which at least 238 people were killed.

Duman Muhammedkarim was arrested last June on charges of "financing extremism" and "interfering with the work of a banned organization." The reason for the criminal case was the journalist's interview with Mukhtar Ablyazov, an opposition politician who has been living abroad for many years, the leader of the "Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan" movement. In 2018, the court of Kazakhstan recognized the "KDT" movement as an "extremist organization" and banned its activities on the territory of the country. The European Parliament called the organization a "peaceful opposition movement".

Kazakh human rights defenders recognized Duman Muhammedkarim as a "political prisoner". Official Astana says "there are no political prisoners" in the country.

Petronila Guzman and Lenville Salvador, board members of Kaduami (Katinnulong Daguiti Umili ti Amianan), and Myrna Zapanta, a lay worker and member of the secretariat of the Ilocos Regional Ecumenical Council (IREC), received subpoenas from the Department of Justice (DOJ) last month directing them to answer trumped-up charges of allegedly violating the terrorist financing law. They are set to submit their counter-affidavits on November 7, 2024 at the DOJ.

“Targeting grassroots development workers, especially now that the country has been ravaged by drought from El Niño, then by successive destructive typhoons, betrays the anti-people character of this regime,” said Karapatan deputy secretary general Maria Sol Taule. “The Marcos Jr. regime is doing a great disservice to the impoverished and marginalized communities that have been benefiting from the projects implemented by these persecuted development workers.”

“We are in solidarity with Guzman, Salvador, Zapanta and all other development workers who are now under fire for espousing genuine people’s empowerment through community-based disaster preparedness and response as opposed to the Marcos Jr. regime’s trickle-down approach,” concluded Taule.

Koet Saray, president of the Khmer Student Intelligent League Association (KSILA), was convicted of incitement this morning by the Phnom Penh Capital Court and sentenced to four years in prison for comments he made earlier this year about a violent eviction in Preah Vihear province.

Saray, who was forcibly defrocked by Cambodian authorities in 2021, was arrested outside the association’s office in April 2024 after he spoke to the media about a land conflict in Preah Vihear province during which authorities burned down people’s homes. He was charged with incitement to commit a felony under Article 494 and Article 495 of the Criminal Code. He was also charged for “committing a misdemeanour after sentencing for a misdemeanour” under Article 88 of the code, which allows for a doubling of a defendant’s prison sentence if they have been convicted of the same misdemeanour within five years. This article was applied to Saray’s four-year prison sentence, who will also pay an around US$500 fine.

The youth leader was commenting on a land dispute involving an Economic Land Concession (ELC) granted to Seladamex in Preah Vihear. Shortly before his arrest, Saray met with villagers who were involved in the dispute and urged officials to resolve the issue.

Saray was previously arrested in 2020 alongside eight other activists, all of whom were charged for incitement for peacefully protesting the arrest of former union leader Rong Chhun. In that case, Saray received a 14-month prison sentence, a $500 fine and was placed under a two-year probation period with restrictive conditions lasting until November 2023.

A 57-year-old jailed pro-democracy activist faces serious health issues in detention in the Bangkok Remand Prison, raising concerns over the adequacy of medical care for detainees.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that Chen Chiwobancha, a 57-year-old detainee who was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for royal defamation, was found to have serious health issues since last Friday (1 November). He informed his lawyer that he felt weak and experienced numbness throughout his entire left side.

On Wednesday (6 November), he showed symptoms, such as a drooping eyelid and mouth on the left side and numbness in his feet. These ongoing symptoms caused trouble in his daily life, making it difficult for him to chew or speak clearly.

Chen had previously requested a health check-up at the Corrections Hospital, but at that time, the Bangkok Remand Prison had not issued a transfer order.

After learning of Chen’s health problem, the lawyer on 6 November urged the prison to expedite his transfer to the hospital. Chen was transferred to the Corrections Hospital the following day. However, after a check-up, he was sent back to the prison, with a follow-up appointment scheduled for 13 November.

According to TLHR, the lawyer also plans to submit a bail request along with a petition to question the Corrections Department’s doctor and Chen’s personal doctor. Chen remains detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison until the court decides on his bail request.

The detainee said he was aware that medical treatment in prison was slow and not as good as that available outside, noting that all detainees face the same situation - when they fall ill, all they can do is wait. He asserted that detainees deserve the right to timely medical care.

Today (8 November), TLHR later reported that Chen was hospitalised and under close observation after it was found that he had suffered an ischemic stroke in the left side of his brain.

Chen, along with two other activists, were found guilty on four charges: royal defamation, contempt of court, defamation by publication, and unauthorised use of a sound amplifier. The charges stemmed from a protest on 28 July 2022 in front of the Bangkok South Criminal Court where participants demanded bail rights for two detained pro-democracy activists, Nutthanit Duangmusit and Netiporn Sanesangkhom, who later died during detention.

Chen has been detained since 18 September and was denied bail since the court deemed the case severe and was concerned that he might flee.

In the past two weeks, three radio stations in Khost province have been banned from broadcasting by local authorities. Their return to to the airwaves is conditional on their compliance with repressive rules: no music or calls from female listeners. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Taliban Minister of Information and Culture to end the oppression of the right to information in Afghanistan.

The office of the privately-owned radio station Lawang has been sealed since 6 November. Located in Khost province in southeastern Afghanistan, the station was targeted by the tyrannical policies of the provincial authorities for the Promotion of Virtue and the Repression of Vice, which accused the station of violating its new rules. On 26 October, media outlets in Khost province were banned from broadcasting music. The provincial authorities had already banned women's voices from being aired on the radio in February. A news station launched in January 2024, Lawang also played a role in public education, broadcasting learning programmes aimed at young girls, who have been banned from secondary and higher education since March 2022.

A few days before Lawang was shut down, Zhman Radio experienced a similar disruption for violating the ban on broadcasting music. Founded in 2017, the local media outlet mainly broadcasts political, social, cultural, and educational programmes. The station was eventually allowed to resume activity on 11 November — provided it complied with the new restrictions. This also happened to Gharghasht Radio, which was closed on 31 October before resuming operations three days later, on the condition that it stopped broadcasting music.

"Since their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban have been conducting a brutal crackdown on the Afghan media, stifling all independent voices and plunging the country into a silence fostered by fear. Their crackdown on Khost radio stations is a worrying sign that the ideologies inflicted on the media are hardening. We call on the Taliban authorities in Khost to reopen Radio Lawang immediately, to stop forcing radio stations to close, and to respect the right to information. Radios must continue to broadcast freely.

Célia Mercier Head of RSF's South Asia Desk The repression of media outlets on "morality" grounds is particularly intense in Khost. Three radio journalists, Ismail Sadat of Radio Naz, Wahidullah Masoum of Radio Iqra and Ehsanullah Tasa of Radio Walas Ghazh, were arrested and detained for several days last April, accused of broadcasting music and airing telephone calls from women.

On 5 November, Chief Judge of the Capital City Court of Criminal Appeals announced that the entire appeal trial of Unurtsetseg Naran, editor-in-chief of the news website Zarig.mn, scheduled for 7 November, will be held behind closed doors.

The journalist was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months in prison in July after a closed-door trial held at the Criminal Court of First Instance of Sukhbaatar District in the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar. Unurtsetseg was found guilty of five charges: “tax evasion”, “disclosure of personal information”, “illegal acquisition of state secrets”, “money laundering”, and “spreading false information”. While the court stated that its decision to hold the trial behind closed doors was based on the grounds of national security and protecting the sensitive information of a minor, its complete gag on disclosing any information about the proceedings is a worrying sign.

The initial proceedings were widely criticised by civil society groups in Mongolia, who pointed out that, despite the serious nature of the charges brought against this journalist, the court had conducted the trial behind closed doors. A joint statement by Mongolian press freedom NGOs declared that the decision goes against the principle of an open, transparent court, and could potentially result in “unpredictability of the media industry’s process, intimidation, and foster self-censorship among journalists.”

“By sentencing a reporter to nearly five years in prison mainly on national security charges after a closed-door trial — and providing no information on the evidence produced — the Criminal Court of First Instance of Sukhbaatar District created a dangerous and concerning precedent that could deter Mongolian journalists from investigating topics of public interest. We urge the Capital City Court of Criminal Appeals, which will revisit the case, to ensure transparency and open as much of the trial as possible to the public." said Cedric Alviani, RSF’s Asia-Pacific Bureau Director.

Unurtsetseg Naran is well-known for her investigations exposing the corruption and money laundering of high-ranking Mongolian officials, work that previously led to at least 16 defamation charges against her, according to RSF’s information. In this ongoing case, she was first investigated for “spreading false information” following her social media posts criticising the Mongolian judicial system, then later charged with more serious offences. She was arrested in December 2023, detained for over two months, and then placed under house arrest before being sent to jail.

Press freedom has recently deteriorated in Mongolia, despite the government's claims that it is committed to democratic values. In May 2024, journalist Bayarmaa Ayurzana was arrested, detained and subsequently charged in connection with investigations into alleged misconduct by the country’s former deputy prime minister, who is now a member of parliament.

Mongolia, ranked 109th out of 180 territories in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index, has plummeted down 36 places since 2020. The press freedom situation is considered “difficult” due to frequent abusive legal proceedings against journalists, the concentration of media ownership, and growing political pressure and corruption among political elites that impact the media.

Chinese authorities in Tibet have denied to retry an envirnomental activist who is serving a seven-year sentence for campaigning against government corruption, his lawyer said on social media.

Anya Sengdra, 53, a resident of Kyangchu township in Gade (in Chinese, Gande) county in the Golog (Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture has already served six years of his sentence for “disturbing social order” after he complained online about corrupt officials, illegal mining and the hunting of protected wildlife.

He was convicted and sentenced in 2019, and has attempted to appeal the decision twice before, his lawyer Lin Qilei said in a post on X on Tuesday.

“This marks the third appeal for a retrial submitted to the Sixth Circuit Court of the Supreme People’s Court in Xi’an,” Lin said on X.

“As usual, I filled out the necessary forms and waited in line. After some time, a judge came out and informed me that they had decided not to review Sengdra’s case,” Lin said. “He advised me not to return to the court regarding this matter in the future.”

In 2020, a group of UN human rights experts appealed to the Chinese government, urging them to dismiss the charges against him.

Earlier this month, the Chinese authorities detained Tsogon Tsering, a Tibetan environmental activist from Sichuan province after he made a rare public appeal on social media for action against a company he accused of illegally extracting sand and gravel from a river.

Tsering has remained in custody since then and his whereabouts are still unknown.

Journalists reporting a protest were injured in a police attack in Kaski on November 5. Kaski lies in Gandaki Province in Nepal.

According to information provided by FF province representative Rajan Upadhyay, correspondent at Kantipur Television Indra Poudel, Public 4K Television’s cameraperson Rajkumar Majhi and editor at drishyamkhabar.com Binod Lamichhane were attacked while reporting protest of the Rastriya Swatantra Party cadres at Shahidchowk, Pokhara. Police baton charged the journalists while controlling the mob. Journalist Poudel received injury on his hand and his mobile fell into drain. Cameraperson Majhi and editor Lamichane also sustained minor injuries as police kicked with boot.

Representative Upadhyaya also quoted Superintendent of Police at District Police Office Shyam Babu Oliya as saying the attack was not targeted towards journalists.

Moreover, journalists had not worn press jackets and carried visible identity cards which made it difficult to differentiate them while controlling the mob, according to police.

The party cadres have been protesting against the arrest of their leader Rabi Lamichhane.

However, a fellow journalist Apil Tripathi commented that cameraperson Majhi was attacked even though he was carrying an identity card and a camera with the clear logo of media house.

The Quang Nam and Thanh Hoa Provincial Police have arrested two social media users and charged them with “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state and the legitimate rights of other individuals” under Article 331 of the Penal Code. Both of these internet users were accused of sharing information or hosting live streams on Facebook that contained defamatory details about Communist Party leaders, government officials, and local cadres, which allegedly violated Section 2 of Article 331.

The Nhu Xuan District Police Department in Thanh Hoa Province on Nov. 4 prosecuted Bui Van Tuan, 41, under Article 331 after their investigation found that the internet user had used his Facebook account, “Tuan Dung,” to live stream and purportedly “make false statements to slander and damage the reputation, honor, and dignity of officials in Nhu Xuan District.” According to state media, Tuan also incited the public to protest the construction of several projects in the locality, but it did not state if there was any conflict between residents and the constructors.

Meanwhile, the Department of Cyber​security and High-Tech Crime Prevention of Quang Nam Provincial Police on Nov. 5 coordinated with Dai Loc District Police to prosecute and impose a house arrest order on Le Manh, 73, who lives in Dai Loc, to investigate his alleged “abusing democratic freedom” activities. The police announced that between 2018 and October 2024, this senior resident had used a Facebook account named "T.N.D." to publish more than 300 articles with false information to defame state leaders and distort the history of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. State media reported that the police gathered evidence and is continuing to investigate both cases.

Article 331 of the Penal Code is a vague and broadly defined provision that the government frequently uses to stifle freedom of expression. Individuals prosecuted and imprisoned under this controversial law are diverse, including social activists, land rights petitioners, social media users, and journalists.

A Hong Kong legal body has issued warning letters to lawyers linked to a defunct fund set up to help protesters arrested during the 2019 protests.

In a Chinese statement on Monday, Law Society of Hong Kong President Roden Tong said the group had completed an investigation into 16 lawyers in relation to the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund.

The lawyers investigated included those who had received money from the fund, which provided financial and legal assistance to individuals detained in connection with the protests and unrest in 2019.

According to Tong, those lawyers had engaged in acts that could compromise their integrity and the reputation of the profession, potentially breaching the Solicitors’ Practice Rules.

The society sent out warning letters of varying severity to the lawyers. According to local media outlet Ming Pao, no cases had yet been transferred to the disciplinary committee empowered to revoke their licenses.

“As the regulatory body for Hong Kong lawyers, the Law Society of Hong Kong attaches great importance to the conduct of members. We have established and effective mechanisms for handling complaints,” Tong added.

In January, then-president of the Law Society Chan Chak-ming, said it had concluded investigations into 10 out of the 16 lawyers. He said at the time that those 10 cases included “unsubstantiated” and “substantiated” cases.

Set up during the 2019 unrest, the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund provided legal assistance and funds for psychological counselling, medical treatment and emergency relief to protesters.

The fund ceased operations at the end of October 2022, making it among the dozens of civil society groups to disband in the wake of the Beijing-imposed national security law. Ahead of its disbanding, five prominent activists who served as trustees of the fund were arrested, including Cardinal Joseph Zen, barrister Margaret Ng and singer Denise Ho.

They were apprehended by national security police on suspicion of conspiring to collude with foreign powers, but were later charged with failing to register the fund under the Societies Ordinance.

The activists pleaded not guilty but were convicted in November 2022 and fined up to HK$4,000 each. They have sought to challenge their conviction, with the High Court set to hear the appeal next January.

Separately, the Hong Kong Bar Association said in January that it had completed its investigations of 38 barristers linked to the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund. None were found to have engaged in professional misconduct.

Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”

Prominent Tibetan language rights advocate Tashi Wangchuk was detained for 15 days on charges of ‘disrupting social order’ and allegedly spreading false information on social media and is now under strict surveillance, RFA Tibetan has learned.

Wangchuk’s detention comes as China intensifies its policies to suppress — or even eradicate — Tibetan and other ethnic languages and cultures and replace them with Mandarin and Han Chinese customs.

According to a release notice issued by the Yulshul (in Chinese, Yushu) City Detention Center obtained by RFA, Wangchuk, 39, was arrested by the Internet Police Unit in China’s Qinghai province on Oct. 20. After an investigation, he was detained for 15 days in the Yulshul Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture until his release on Nov. 4.

The document, dated Nov. 4, said Wangchuk -- a former political prisoner -- was accused of posting “false information” on social media platforms since June, for “repeatedly insulting and ridiculing government departments” and “negatively impacting the online environment and public order in society” by allegedly distorting and rejecting government policies.

Despite his release, Wangchuk remains under strict surveillance and is being subjected to ongoing interrogation, said a source familiar with his situation, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

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A shopkeeper from the Yulshul township of Jyekundo, also called Gyegu, said Wangchuk was released from prison in January 2021 after he completed a five-year term for discussing language restrictions with Western media, but rights groups had continued to express concerns about his health and safety amid ongoing controls on his freedom.

‘Forced assimilation’

Maya Wang, associate China director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Wangchuk’s case reflects the Chinese government’s broader efforts toward assimilation.

“Tibetans who have pushed back for Tibetan language rights – notably Tashi Wangchuk – and for their rights to express themselves, practice religion and culture in the way they prefer, have been imprisoned and harassed for doing so,” Wang told RFA.

“This is all part of the Chinese government‘s efforts to forcibly assimilate what they consider to be ’ethnic minorities' and subsume them into what [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] considers to be a rising Han Chinese nation,” she said.

Wang noted that the Chinese government has systematically replaced the Tibetan language with Mandarin as the medium of instruction in primary, middle and secondary schools, except for classes studying Tibetan as a language - treating it akin to a foreign language.

While China claims to uphold the rights of all minorities to access a “bilingual education,” Tibetan-language schools have been forced to shut down and kindergarten-aged children regularly only receive instruction in Mandarin Chinese.

Observers say such policies are aimed at eliminating the next generation of Tibetan speakers and part of a broader effort by the government to destroy Tibetans’ cultural identity. Similar policies are deployed against Mongolians in Inner Mongolia and Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Earlier prison term

Since 2015, Wangchuk has been advocating against China‘s policies undermining the Tibetan language, calling for language protection as guaranteed in laws governing the country’s autonomous regions.

Wangchuk rose to prominence that same year through an interview with The New York Times about his efforts to sue local authorities in eastern Tibet after Tibetan language classes were canceled.

After the release of The New York Times documentary featuring his interview, Wangchuk was arrested in 2016 and tortured by Chinese authorities.

Since his release in from prison in 2021 Wangchuk has traveled throughout Tibet raising awareness of Chinese authorities’ suppression of the Tibetan language in schools, as well as petitioning government officials to defend and preserve Tibetan language and culture.

Activists and his lawyer say that Wangchuk has been under continued surveillance since his release.

In July 2023, human rights lawyer Lin Qilei said in a post to the social media platform X that he had met Wangchuk in Yushu, but their meeting and time together was cut short due to restrictions on their communication and local police pressure.

“Tashi Wangchuk’s case makes the harassment and scrutiny that former political prisoners face even more evident,” said Tenzin Khunkhen, researcher at the Central Tibetan Administration’s Human Rights desk.

Khunkhen also raised concerns about Wangchuk’s well-being, stating that his arrest and detention reflects the Chinese government’s ongoing crackdown on political prisoners in Tibet.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department had reportedly detained and interrogated around 20 individuals, including several former political dissidents and relatives of political dissidents after they gathered to attend a party hosted by a Vietnamese-Australian friend. According to some individuals who attended the meeting and requested anonymity, the incident occurred around 10 p.m. on Nov. 1, when they returned home after having a party at a restaurant in District 12.

The traffic police pulled them over on their way home, saying they needed to check the drug and alcohol concentration in their blood, and then divided them into smaller groups and took them to different police stations for questioning. An anonymous source told RFA that after the police forced them to go to the police station, they did not conduct the testing. Instead, the police interrogators reportedly questioned the attendees about the purpose of the meeting and their social connections.

According to RFA, among those taken to the police station were two former prisoners of conscience, Do The Hoa and Ho Dinh Cuong, who finished their sentences in 2023. Nguyen Thi Chau, wife of political prisoner Nguyen Ngoc Anh, was also detained and questioned. Many of these detainees were freed between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. the following day, and some were forced to write a commitment “not to share information critical of the party and the state” on their social media accounts. Two other individuals, including a Vietnamese-Australian citizen, were held for at least 24 hours before being released.

Chinese rights lawyer Wang Yu has been hospitalized after her health deteriorated following a nine-day hunger strike, which she began in protest during her detention following an Oct. 23 altercation with police outside a court building in the northern province of Hebei.

Wang was released from Weicheng County Detention Center on Nov. 1 after a brief administrative detention for “disrupting public order” following the fracas, and was taken straight to hospital by her husband and fellow rights attorney Bao Longjun, Bao told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview.

When she got out, Wang was “completely hunched over and unable to walk” on her release from the detention center, and he carried her on his back, shocked at how little she weighed.

“It felt like carrying a sack of cotton wool; she was so light,” he said, adding Wang likely weighed around 70 catties, or 40 kilograms.

Scans at the Wei County People’s Hospital revealed a “shadow” on Wang’s liver, so Bao had her transferred to the highly regarded Handan Central Hospital where she was placed on a drip and gradually started to eat solid food again, he said.

Targeting rights lawyers

Bao and Wang, who were among the first to be targeted in the July 2015 arrests, detention and harassment of more than 300 rights lawyers, public interest law firm staff and rights activists across China, are now staying in a hotel while they plan further medical treatment, he told RFA Mandarin on Nov. 1.

Police detained Wang along with fellow rights attorney Jiang Tianyong after they showed up to defend their client Liu Meixiang against corruption charges at the Wei County People’s Court.

A scuffle ensued after police snatched away the camera of a family member who tried to take photos of them, according to a lawyer at the scene who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.

Bao submitted a legal opinion through legal channels out of concern for his wife’s health on day 7 of her hunger strike, but nobody would accept the document, he said.

“I asked them to send Wang Yu to the hospital, and I went to the detention center and rang on the doorbell, saying that I wanted to meet with Wang Yu to get her to eat and drink,” Bao said.

“They lied to me, saying there was no need for that, and that she had eaten something the night before, but she hadn’t eaten anything at all, actually,” he said.

Wang‘s hunger strike was in protest at the authorities’ refusal to allow her to meet with her lawyer or family members, as well as their refusal to provide adequate medical treatment and to let her take a shower, among other things.

Bao said he plans to take Wang to seek further medical opinions in Beijing and Tianjin.

He also plans to appeal her administrative sentence as a form of public protest at her treatment.

“There’s no rule of law in this country, so all we can do now is to use it to speak out on our own behalf,” Bao said.

‘Heartbreaking’

U.S.-based rights lawyer Yu Pinjian said he had seen a photo of Bao Longjun carrying Wang Yu to hospital, which he described as “heartbreaking.”

“Human rights lawyers should be allowed to fight their cases using evidence and the law to defend their clients in court, but now they’re forced to go on hunger strike to defend their own human rights,” Yu told RFA Mandarin. “This shows that the legal system that human rights lawyers depend on for their survival has collapsed.”

Wang’s hunger strike came as authorities in the southwestern region of Guangxi released rights attorney Qin Yongpei at the end of a five-year prison sentence for “incitement to subvert state power,” people familiar with the case told RFA Mandarin.

Qin returned to his home in Nanning city following his release on Oct. 31, but his wife declined to comment when contacted by RFA Mandarin, saying it was “inconvenient,” a phrase often used to indicate pressure from the authorities.

Qin Yongpei was detained in November 2021 by the Nanning municipal police department during a raid on his Baijuying legal consultancy company.

His wife has previously said that Qin had spoken out many times about misconduct and injustices perpetrated by police and local judicial officials, and had likely angered many within the local law enforcement community.

U.S.-based rights lawyer Wu Shaoping said Qin hadn’t broken any laws with his consultancy activities, despite having been stripped of his lawyer’s license.

“He was accused of inciting subversion of state power only because he posted a lot of his personal opinions on the internet,” Wu said. “Everything he did was in compliance with the law and human justice in any normal country.”

“So he was wrongly convicted,” Wu said, calling on the authorities to restore his legal career and allow him to make a living.

“The most worrying thing is his physical condition,” he said, adding that the authorities typically continue to “stalk and harass” people on their surveillance blacklist even after their release from prison.

Vietnamese activist and blogger Duong Van Thai was tried in a closed trial on Oct. 30, 2024, where he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, followed by three years of probation.

Thai, who fled to Thailand in early 2019 after publishing content critical of the Vietnamese government, was abducted by Vietnamese intelligence agents in Bangkok earlier in April. Despite holding UN-recognized refugee status, he was forcibly returned to Vietnam, sparking international criticism regarding Hanoi’s cross-border targeting of dissidents.

This severe sentence reflects Vietnam’s stance on political dissent, a pattern also seen in other high-profile cases in which Vietnamese activists have been detained or tried following similar forced repatriations.

Human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have condemned the trial, noting that the closed nature of the proceedings contradicted international standards for transparency and due process. Concerns remain high about Vietnam’s treatment of political prisoners, as Thai joins a growing list of activists facing lengthy sentences for peacefully expressing dissent.

Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates (AHRLA), said this about Thai's trial: “Duong Van Thai is a victim of Hanoi's policy mindset that 'might makes right' and they can do whatever they want to Vietnamese people, wherever they are in the world and no matter what their status or citizenship... There are no words to adequately describe the Vietnamese government's despicable and illegal act to abduct Duong Van Thai, and now Hanoi is further compounding that violation by sentencing him to a long prison sentence."

A Burmese-Indian activist who went missing after slamming a Myanmar film as racist toward Hindus is in the custody of authorities, who are investigating him for “instigation,” the junta announced Wednesday.

Hindus have faced decades of discrimination in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, where they endure restrictions on religious practice and travel, according to the U.S. State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report.

Shine Htet Aung, 33, disappeared on Oct. 26, days after posting a review of the Myanmar rom-com “Jar Kit Sar Pu Thee” (Have You Ever Ridden a Jeep) on Facebook, in which he described the film as racist toward Hindu culture. The review went viral on social media, garnering thousands of likes and shares.

His family and friends had expressed concern for his safety in interviews with the Mizzima media outlet after he was reportedly abducted by individuals in plainclothes while volunteering at a school for the blind in Yangon region’s Mayangone township.

On Wednesday evening, the junta announced that Shine Htet Aung, the owner of the Facebook account “Her Sal Yon (Ko King),” was detained at the police station in his home township of Hlaing in Yangon region.

The announcement said police are investigating Shine Htet Aung, also known as Vuy Htet Kumar, for “inciting propaganda through social media to undermine national stability.” It provided no details of the reason for his arrest.

In his Oct. 24 Facebook post, Shine Htet Aung had expressed concerns about the title and promotional attire in a poster for Jar Kit Sar Pu Thee, which is due to be released next month.

He said the poster portrayed Hindu culture in a stereotypical and offensive manner and noted that Jar Kit Sar Pu Thee is a mock Hindi word used to greet Hindus in an offensive manner.

After the post went viral, pro-junta channels on the social media platform Telegram called for his arrest for “instigating racial and religious” hatred.

His Facebook account has since been deactivated.

Prior to the announcement of his arrest, a source close to Shine Htet Aung’s family called his likely detention as “unfair.”

“Almost everyone in this country dislikes the dictators, except for the lobbyists and their supporters,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

According to Myanmar’s 2014 census, Hindus make up only 0.5 percent of the country’s population, whereas 88 percent of the people identify as Buddhist and 4.3 percent as Muslim.

The Supreme Court has denied bail for an activist charged with royal defamation for wearing a shirt with the message “I have lost faith in the monarchy,” and sentenced him to six years in prison.

Tiwagorn Withiton, a 48-year-old pro-democracy activist, was charged with royal defamation, sedition, and violation of the Computer Crimes Act for posting messages in February 2020. The posts called on the monarchy to stop using the royal defamation law and demanded the release of political detainees, and he also posted a picture of himself wearing a white t-shirt with the message “I have lost faith in the monarchy.”

According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), after posting the picture, Tiwagorn revealed that he was visited by a dozen plainclothes officers from the Internal Security Operation Command. He said they asked him not to wear the shirt, repeatedly asserting that it would cause chaos within the country.

On the following month, he was arrested and forcibly admitted to Khon Kaen Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital, He was discharged on 22 July 2020 after a public campaign calling for his release. He was arrested again on 4 March 2021 and taken to Tha Phra Police Station in Khon Kaen and charged for the Facebook posts he made.

In September 2022, the Khon Kaen Provincial Court dismissed charges against Tiwagorn because the evidence did not prove that the defendant intended to defame or express hostility to the monarchy.

However, the Appeal Court overturned the acquittal, ruling that he intended to defame the King by posting a picture of himself wearing the shirt and inviting people to buy the shirt, and because people were leaving comments on his posts which were defamatory against the King.

The Appeal Court found Tiwagorn guilty of royal defamation and violation of the Computer Crimes Act and sentenced him to nine years in prison (three years for each offence). The sentence was reduced to six years due to his useful testimony. However, it found him not guilty of sedition because there was no evidence that he was trying to incite people to violate the law.

On 24 September, TLHR reported that Tiwagorn’s lawyer had filed a bail request with the Supreme Court with 500,000 baht as security, arguing that the Region 3 Appeal Court had granted two activists in the previous case bail and Tiwagorn has elderly parents to take care of.

The Supreme Court upheld the Appeal Court’s verdict, saying there was no reason to change the initial ruling. Tiwagorn has been detained at the Khon Kaen Special Correctional Institution for 43 days since the Appeal Court sentenced him to prison.

Activist Sopon Surariddhidhamrong has been sentenced to 2 years in prison on a royal defamation charge for a protest speech criticizing the government’s Covid-19 vaccine programme and the royal family’s use of taxpayer’s money, bringing his total prison sentence to 8 years and 6 months.

Sopon was charged with royal defamation and using a sound amplifier without permission after he gave a speech during the 1 May 2022 Labour Day protest at Government House, during which he spoke about the lack of access to Covid-19 vaccines and how certain privileged groups are getting access to vaccines ahead of everyone else.

The public prosecutor indicted Sopon because he said that Princess Sirivannavari, King Vajiralongkorn’s youngest daughter, and her friends were getting the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine before everyone else, and that members of the royal family are getting the AstraZeneca vaccine while the people are denied access to it because the King is a shareholder in Siam Bioscience, the only company licensed to produce the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in Thailand.

The public prosecutor said that Sopon’s speech violated the royal defamation law because he insulted Princess Sirivannavari, who the prosecutor sees as the heir to the throne, caused a misunderstanding about members of the royal family’s access to Covid-19 vaccine, and defamed the monarchy by claiming that donations to hospitals were from taxpayers’ money.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that the Criminal Court yesterday (29 October) found Sopon guilty of royal defamation and sentenced him to 3 years in prison, later reduced to 2 years because he gave useful testimony. The charge under the Sound Amplifier Act was dismissed.

Sopon is currently facing a total prison sentence of 8 years and 6 months for three counts of royal defamation. He has been detained pending appeal since 24 August 2023.

TLHR reported that, before the judge read out the verdict, Sopon asked to make a declaration to the court. He took off his shirt, showing cuts in his chest in the shape of the number 112. He told the Court that it might seem unusual for him to cut himself or take his shirt off, but what is more abnormal is that people are being prosecuted for royal defamation and denied bail when neither the Bureau of the Royal Household nor the King is involved in filing charges. He hopes that the court’s ruling would be a lesson for himself and other observers in the courtroom.

A note from Sopon was later published on his Facebook page, stating that, although he hurt himself cutting the numbers into his chest, he wanted to do something to show those in power that something is wrong with the justice system when it comes to the royal defamation law.

On 29 October 2024, the Suzhou Intermediate Court in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, convicted human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and woman human rights defender Xu Yan for “inciting subversion of State power”. Yu Wensheng was sentenced to three years in prison while Xu Yan was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. They have both been arbitrarily detained since April 2023 when they were arrested by public security agents while en route to an event in Beijing organised by the European Union Delegation to China.

Between 28-30 August 2024, Yu Wensheng and Xu Yan were put on trial separately at the Suzhou Intermediate Court. Diplomats from concerned countries went to Suzhou to observe the trials but were not allowed to enter the courtroom on the pretext of there being no available seats. Other human rights defenders who went to the court or attempted to travel to the court were either barred from entering or intercepted on the way by public security agents.

KARAPATAN condemns the arbitrary arrest of two Southern Tagalog trade union organizers on October 27, 2024.

Arrested in Makati City were Gavino Panganiban, Director for Campaigns of the Kilusang Mayo Uno-affiliated Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK), and Maritess David, a labor organizer of the Organized Labor Association in Line Industries and Agriculture-Kilusang Mayo Uno (Olalia-KMU). David faces trumped-up charges of murder while Panganiban faces charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

David’s case stems from the Bloody Sunday raids on the former office of the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawa sa Engklabo in 2021 where the arresting team planted several firearms and explosives before serving their search warrant.

Since yesterday afternoon, KARAPATAN paralegals and David’s family have also been illegally blocked by elements of the Philippine National Police from entering the rented house in Makati, where the two were arrested, to safekeep the personal belongings of both David and Panganiban. No warrants have been issued to search the said house.

Dozens of people braved the rain and defied an official ban to turn out in Halloween costumes ranging from Buddha to Batman in Shanghai at the weekend, as the authorities cracked down on those who used the fall festival to take subtle aim at the ruling Chinese Communist Party, complain about the state of the world, or just have some fun.

Despite heavy police patrols in the downtown area, video footage showed a large crowd of mostly young people under umbrellas, some in costume, and some cheering them on and filming their performances on their phones. In separate clips, revelers were shown being taken away, some in full costume.

Video and photos uploaded to the Instagram account @drinkdownccp captioned “Halloween in Shanghai” showed people dressed in a huge variety of cosplay outfits including a Chinese emperor and his concubine, Jesus in an LED halo, the scissor-toting eponymous character from the 2007 Japanese horror movie “Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman,” No Face from the Hayao Miyazaki anime hit “Spirited Away” and Huawei smartphones.

Police, urban management officials and business owners in downtown Huangpu district last week warned of “strict controls” on cosplay activities, saying anyone breaking the rules would be subject to “coercion” if they didn’t lose their make-up or costume when told to remove it by the authorities.

People were banned from wearing costumes and elaborate make-up in public, while buildings in the district are also banned from displaying any form of Halloween decoration, including bats, pumpkins, ghosts, coffins and skeletons, while “horror or violence-related elements” will not be allowed, according to a directive from local authorities.

Yet many defied the ban, often to make a point to the authorities, according to social media footage and photos posted from the streets of Shanghai, which saw mass protests against the government as recently as November 2022.

In one photo, someone wears a mask emblazoned with the words “save the leeks!” in a reference to online slang that refers to ordinary Chinese people as resources to be used or harvested by those in power to suit their own purposes. Two people turn up dressed as Lenin and Stalin, waving to the crowd.

In another sign of public dissent linked to the flagging economy, a young woman dresses as “the Ghost of Poverty,” wearing a sign that reads “whatever you try, there’s still no money.”

Another reveler dresses in a traditional robe referencing the 1919 May 4th youth movement, carrying a copy of the New Youth magazine used by young people to express political dissent, another as the Statue of Liberty, while another holds a sign that reads “Police warning: homosexuals!” in a likely reference to recent crackdowns on the LGBTQ+ community.

In another clip on the same account, someone in a Trump mask wearing the red neckerchief of the Chinese Communist Party youth organization Young Pioneers dances to the Village People’s 1978 hit “Y.M.C.A.”

Reuters video footage from Shanghai at the weekend showed police on patrol, and a line of police mini buses parked along a street in the downtown area.

“Unless they’re from Happy Valley or Disney, costumes and make-up are not allowed,” a young woman says in a social media video clip circulating at the weekend, in a reference to China’s chain of homegrown amusement parks. “Especially when it comes to certain neighborhoods in the downtown area.”

“There’s no way they’re letting anyone do that.”

In a separate social media clip, another person cosplaying as former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is taken away from a store by security guards, as a commentator announces: “Breaking news: Trump gets chased by security guards!”

A Shanghai resident who gave only the surname Wang for fear of reprisals said he saw several people taken away by police.

“Some of the women were wearing Qing Dynasty costumes, while some men were dressed as emperors,” Wang said. “They were all taken to the police station.”

“The main reason is that they’re afraid that too many people will gather,” he said. “They get particularly worried about large gatherings, particularly spontaneous ones.”

A Taiwanese national who runs bars in Shanghai’s Jing’an district and Julu Road, where much of the cosplaying took place, said they had been contacted by police last week and warned not to encourage any Halloween-themed activities.

“The local police told us ... there were to be no Halloween activities, no displays, and nobody in weird costumes, on pain of them shutting the bars down,” the person said. “It was so sad.”

Some cosplayers gathered in Hangzhou, a one-hour high-speed railway trip away, after social media posts suggested it as an alternate venue to Shanghai, propelling “Halloween in Hangzhou” to the top of social media search results. Yet some cosplayers there were also asked to remove their costumes and taken away by police for questioning, according to social media footage.

Similar scenes were reported in Dongshankou, the artists' district of Guangzhou.

A resident of the southern province of Guangdong who gave only the surname Chen for fear of reprisals said many young people see costumes as a way to express dissatisfaction with the government.

“Dongshankou is a downtown area, and part of the old city,” Chen said. “The costumes they wear express dissatisfaction, and such dissatisfaction can easily evolve into a demonstration.”

“The government fears this more than anything,” he said. “So many images are sensitive under the current regime, which has so many sore points and sensitive topics.”

One sensitive topic appeared to be the fact that Sunday marked the anniversary of former premier Li Keqiang’s death, which prompted a wave of spontaneous national mourning that many saw as an indirect criticism of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s handling of the economy.

According to social media posts from local residents, police were patrolling the streets around Li’s former residence in downtown Hefei, capital of the eastern province of Anhui, where local people left thousands of floral tributes a year ago.

Authorities in Anhui and Henan provinces meanwhile canceled two major marathon events originally scheduled for Oct. 27, citing unexplained “reasons,” postponing them to early November instead.

Nine villagers and a monk were questioned by police and allowed to return home after signing a contract related to the dissemination of Paris Peace Agreements’ information in Kampot province. A civil society group noted that the space for freedom of expression and to assemble has tightened.

Approximately 10 villagers, including a monk, gathered at a public park to mark the 33rd Paris Peace Agreements on Wednesday, in Kampot city.

At 8 a.m, they were summoned for gathering without permission and allowed to return about 10 p.m that day.

Meas Den, 44, said he arrived home about 10 p.m after signing a contract agreeing to stop conducting activities without the Kampot city police’s permission with regards to the celebration.

He said he participated in the event to share his knowledge, and uphold the spirit of the agreement which talks about safeguarding territorial sovereignty and human rights issues.

“We just shared about the law [Paris Agreement Agreements] but we weren’t allowed, so we don’t know how to talk with them [the participants],” he said.

“Yes, I think it restricts the right to freedom of citizens. We just shared about the law, there is nothing wrong [about that],” Den said.

Another participant, Pech Sokny, said police questioned her regarding the celebration and creating a movement relating to the Facebook page of Srun Srorn, an activist of the Paris Peace Agreements.

“In my opinion, this is a serious violation of human rights. As we know our current society is [led by a] democratic leadership and adheres to constitutional law,” she said.

“People did nothing wrong, we just talked about the law and shared knowledge with each other but they [authorities] repressed our rights and freedom,” Sokny said.

She opined that educating the public does not necessarily require permission from the authorities.

Kampot city administration chief Svay Nith confirmed that the people were questioned because they carried out activities without the authorities’ permission.

“It’s wrong because they wanted to disseminate [information] without permission,” he said. “To assemble, disseminate something requires permission.”

Kampot city deputy police chief Kong Bunthoeun said police officials called them to ask for information regarding the celebration of the Paris Peace Agreements.

“We have just educated them that when they want to disseminate something in public places, they need to inform our local authority in order for us to ensure public order and security for them,” he said.

“We have not restricted their rights, but on behalf of local authorities, [who are] like their parents, they have to inform the authorities,” Bunthoeun said.

Paris Peace Agreements activist Srun Srorn, along with three others were charged with criminal incitement in July after a live broadcast on Srorn’s Facebook about the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area agreement.

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), in its 2023 annual publication, noted that restrictions and violations of fundamental rights in Cambodia have risen.

According to the report, 633 incidents related to fundamental freedoms were recorded in 2023. Out of this, 255 incidents had at least one restriction, and 377 involved abuse.

Ninety-eight incidents of systematic expression were recorded, with 64% of these violations involving freedom of expression on social media. Facebook had the most number of restrictions or abuses.

Yun Phally, provincial coordinator of rights group Adhoc, expressed concern that the right to freedom of speech has shrunk, noting that citizens had the right to exercise freedom of speech in public as stipulated in the constitution.

“We saw that the authorities seemed to restrict people who share knowledge, laws and the constitution with other people,” he said.

“Citizens have the right to express opinions and share information,” Phally said.

The company that produced the animation “2475 Dawn of Revolution” has filed a defamation lawsuit against Prachatai, its editor-in-chief, and three other people, claiming that a news article from March 2024 contained false information about the company’s relationship with the Army.

Launched on 9 March 2024 and later released online, the animation was produced by Nakra Studio. The copyright is owned by Nakraphiwat Company Limited. After its release, the animation was criticized by pro-democracy netizens for misinterpreting the events of 1932 and for painting those behind the revolution in a bad light.

There were also reports that several army units were screening the animation to conscripts and officers, including the 2nd Signal Regiment, which wrote on its Facebook page that the animation was screened to soldiers in the Regiment and their families to raise the “right awareness” about the revolution and build a “love of the nation, religion, and King.”

On 15 March 2024, Prachatai reported that, according to the analysis of the Anti-Corruption Organization of Thailand, the Army had previously commissioned 11 media production projects from the Nakraphiwat Company. The report noted that the animation was not named on the list and that its producers also said that they did not receive government funding to make the animation.

On 23 October, Prachatai received a court summons stating that the Nakhrapiwat Company has filed a lawsuit against the Foundation for Community Educational Media (FCEM), the foundation which runs Prachatai, its former editor-in-chief Senator Tewarit Maneechai, former FCEM President Dr Kasem Sirisampan, and three other people who shared the 15 March news article, for defamation by publication and bringing into a computer system and sharing false information.

The company said that the lawsuit was filed because the 15 March article falsely claimed that it received funding from the Army to produce the animation.