Uwazi

A Source within the Unity and Solidarity Women’s Movement in Kunduz Province has revealed the distressing news of a recent suicide within their ranks.

Speaking on the evening of Friday, January 5th, the source informed Hasht-e Subh Daily that the deceased member, identified as Bibi Gul Mohammadi, was laid to rest last Sunday.

Bibi Gul, a participant in a street protest, was detained by the Taliban in Kunduz in late September 2021. During her harrowing two-day captivity, she endured torture, as disclosed by the source.

Upon her release, Bibi Gul faced escalating pressure and restrictions from her family, which included being prohibited from communicating with her friends, according to the source.

The 21-year-old aspiring university student found herself on the brink of taking her entrance exams when the Taliban assumed control of Afghanistan, thwarting her educational aspirations.

Simultaneously, there are reports highlighting the dire economic situation of Bibi Gul, which, coupled with family issues and Taliban restrictions, contributed to her tragic decision to end her life.

A member of the Unity and Solidarity Women’s Movement in Kunduz lamented that Bibi Gul’s case is not isolated, emphasizing that the Taliban has systematically imprisoned and tortured numerous girls, leaving them to grapple with severe psychological issues.

Despite efforts, Hasht-e Subh Daily was unsuccessful in establishing contact with the family of the deceased protester.

It is crucial to note that the confluence of poverty, domestic violence, and the myriad restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women and girls has left them vulnerable to psychological harm, leading to instances of suicide. As of now, the Taliban has refrained from commenting on this tragic incident.

Thai authorities arrested 10 Cambodian refugees while attending the Paris Peace Agreement course in Bangkok on December 29, with seven of them being held at Suan Plu Immigration Detention Center while awaiting intervention by the UNHCR. Three others were released the next day.

On December 29, Srun Srorn and Pheng Sophea, known for their Paris Peace Agreement activism, conducted a training in Bangkok where some 40 participants attended. They include Cambodian workers in Thailand, activists of the now-defunct CNRP, Candlelight Party supporters, youths, and Khmer Krom refugees.

Around 11 a.m that day, local Thai police appeared at the training to check legal documents, like passports, as well as the information that was being shared. However, they arrested 10 people who held the ID cards provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Khem Mony Kosal, a Candlelight Party official who fled to Thailand and is a member of the Thai Refugee Coordinating Committee, told CamboJA that those arrested were taken to the immigration detention center but are safe as they wait for a resolution by the UNHCR in Thailand. The detainees possess temporary residency permits as refugees.

Morgane Roussel-Hemery, a representative of UNHCR, did not respond to questions via email in time for the publication as he is away until January 8.

The seven refugees detained by Thai authorities consist of So Meta, a Khmer Students Intelligent League Association member, and two of her relatives, and Sam Sokha, who once threw a shoe at billboard featuring a picture of former Prime Minister Hun Sen, as well as social activists Thon Chantha, Ly Chhuon and Kim Thylery.

Speaking to CamboJA, So Meta confirmed that 10 people were arrested on December 29, but three were released on December 30, after police checked their documents.

“I was arrested by the Thai authorities and they kept us for three nights and three days,” Meta said. “The authorities allowed us to talk on the phone for an hour a day from 7pm to 8pm.”

Meanwhile, Kosal believed that the reason behind their arrest was allegedly to find key Cambodian opposition political activists, as the Thai authorities sought for persons with the names Ly Meng, Khem Mony Kosal, Lim Sokha, Venerable Heng Kim Lay and Phorn Patna.

He alleged that these people are “considered by the Cambodian government” to be the “masterminds of the opposition”, allegedly collaborating with Thailand’s Move Forward Party and using Thai territory to rally against the Cambodian government. Kosal opined that the arrest was allegedly an opportunity for the Cambodian government to “persecute and arrest anti-government activists in Thailand”.

“The Move Forward Party has collaborated with the [Cambodian] opposition party in Thailand, with us as its organizers for the training course on December 2. At the time, we organized [the event] for our members only, comprising Candlelight Party [members] and children of [political] activists,” Kosal said. There were also speakers from the US, South Korea and Japan, but the Move Forward Party was not involved.

He also alleged that the arrest of the seven people was related to a “request by the Cambodian government”, although the Thai authorities have yet to send them back to Cambodia.

“When we arrived at the detention center to visit the detainees, the Thai police made it clear that the Cambodian government was the one who filed the complaint and asked for them to be sent back,” he said.

Recently, nine political parties, which are part of a coalition with the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), asked the Thai Prime Minister to monitor the activities of the Move Forward Party, claiming that the latter has supported and trained Cambodian opposition activists who are refugees in Thailand.

Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona declined to comment.

Srun Srorn, a Paris Peace Agreement activist, charged that the training organized by his team was not illegal as it was meant to share information with workers in Thailand.

“The Thai authorities arrested the people not because we came to study the Paris Peace Agreement but because they accused them of creating an overseas movement to overthrow the Cambodian government and for possessing illegal passports,” he said.

His team was not detained and continued to train Cambodian workers in Thailand regarding the Paris Peace Agreement after the arrest, he mentioned, adding that the Thai police released the three people as they did not break any laws.

However, during his stay in Thailand for the training session in Samut Prakan province on December 31, he and his colleague Pheng Sophea were beaten by a group of men, suffering head injuries.

He related that the unknown people also pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot him, but shouts by the participants, the Cambodian workers, resulted in the men leaving the scene immediately.

“I don’t have any enemies, therefore I believe they [the attackers] intended to [only] intimidate me rather than physically attack me,” he said. “Based on the injuries, if they wanted to kill me, they could have but they didn’t as it happened in public.”

Leung Sophon, a central official based in Thailand, told CamboJA that he has not received any clear information about why the Thai police went to check the documents of the participants and detain them. According to him, they have to be careful when conducting or participating in these training sessions.

“Whatever we do, we are careful, because whether we are Thais or Cambodians, gatherings or meetings about politics are very sensitive [issues],” he said. “In some places, we meet without the permission of the owner or the venue is not right, so it is not appropriate for us to do that.”

Ex-premier Hun Sen has previously said he is “not afraid to arrest anyone, even in Thai territory”.

He also reminded that the Cambodian and Thai governments have signed a memorandum of understanding to repatriate prisoners, noting that Thai authorities had sent several political refugees back to Cambodia in the past.

Since the dissolution of the CNRP party in 2017, many of their activists have fled to Thailand due to political restrictions and persecutions by the Cambodian authorities.

The Cambodian embassy in Bangkok and Thailand embassy in Phnom Penh did not respond to questions via email while Ministry of Interior spokesperson Khieu Sopheak and Keo Vannthan, spokesperson of the General Department of Immigration, could not be reached for comment.

Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry on December 27 added to its wanted list Dinara Smailova, the self-exiled leader of the NeMolchiKZ group, which monitors domestic violence cases in the Central Asian country. Kazakh authorities said earlier that they launched an investigation of Smailova (aka Dina Tangsari) on fraud charges. Smailova registered her group in Georgia, where she ived for some time, but after Georgia refused to allow her back in the country after an international trip earlier this year, she moved to an EU member state.

A Kazakh court on December 28 issued an arrest warrant for Dinara Smailova, the self-exiled leader of NeMolchiKZ group, which monitors domestic violence in Kazakhstan. Kazakh authorities said on December 28 that Smailova (aka Dina Tangsari) was accused of fraud, violating laws on privacy, and spreading false information. Smailova registered her group in Georgia, where she lived for some time, but after Georgia refused to allow her back in the country after an international trip earlier this year, she moved to an EU member state.

A court of appeals in the western Kazakh city of Oral on December 26 rejected an appeal filed by activist Marua Eskendirova against a 25-day jail term she was handed almost two weeks before on a charge of calling on the Internet for an anti-government rally. Eskendirova has rejected the charge, arguing that she had not used the social network account where the calls in question had allegedly appeared, saying her mobile phone was stolen two years ago. Eskendirova was handed a parole-like sentence in February for having links to Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan, a banned opposition group.

Tsering Tso, 39, was arbitrarily detained on 25 December last year under the charges of ''picking quarrels and provoking troubles” following three video clips she posted on social media, calling the police interrogation at Gongri Public Security Checkpoint of Drachen (Ch: Baqing) County in Nagchu City a violation of her privacy, and her attempt to make a phone call to the government hotline service.

In one of the videos posted on 19 December 2023, she said: “Take a look at this [Drachen County] police checkpoint. I came from Yushu to go to Lhasa. They [police] asked what I was going to do there. I told what I was going to do was my right to privacy. What right do you [police] have to know? They consistently infringe on our privacy as if we have no right to privacy. He [the police] also said that the other people have no problem [with the questions]. It is their business that they don’t understand the law. I understand the law. I want to make clear that going to Lhasa is my work.”

Her detention comes only a month after she completed a 15-day administrative detention, from 26 October to 10 November 2023, in Yushu City. According to an official letter from the Yushu Public Security Bureau, shared on her WeChat account, the police claimed she posted over 17 comments from 8 to 25 October 2023 on Douyin - Chinese TikTok- criticizing the government and its staff, although content analysis by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) confirms them to be legitimate grievances and issues that the Yushu PSB has failed to address.

A former participant in the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, Tsering is known to have been detained five times: in 2017 and November 2020 reported by the International Campaign for Tibet and TCHRD, on 1 November 2022, detained for ten days by the Chengguan Branch of the Lhasa Public Security Bureau, and the aforementioned detentions. She hails from Trika (Ch: Guide) County, Tsolho Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, in Amdo, eastern Tibet.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism and Women Press Freedom strongly condemns the harassment and intimidation of a Pakistani female journalist Fatima Razzaq by unknown men for reporting the ongoing Baloch women's protest in the country’s capital city, Islamabad, for her platform Lok Sujag. No journalist should be harassed or threatened for doing their work, particularly in a democratic country where the law and Constitution are to be adhered to, as it not only stifles press freedom but also hinders a reporter’s professional duties. We urge the Pakistani government to ensure the safety and security of journalists in the country who report on marginalized people and communities.

Fatima Razzaq, a reporter for the digital platform Lok Sujag, was subjected to harassment and intimidation while she was returning home after covering the ongoing Baloch women's protest in Islamabad. Razzaq was waiting to board a bus at a local bus stand on the evening of December 24, 2023, in Rawalpindi, when she was approached and detained by five unknown individuals, two of whom were reportedly armed. She was encircled and detained for approximately 40 minutes, during which she was asked to surrender her camera and cell phone, which she bravely refused. Razzaq was also subjected to a series of absurd questions and threats warning her against continuing to report on the Baloch women's protest.

Speaking with CFWIJ, Razzaq said when covering the Baloch protests in Islamabad she felt safe and having the camera on her, which she used to film the protest, gave her a sense of confidence, as she knew she won’t be pushed aside while reporting on the ground. But that same camera later on exposed her.

Razzaq emphasized that when the people who intimidate one are unknown, there is no guarantee of what would happen. Subliminal threats, she added, where one is intimidated, harassed, not being told what they’re being targeted for, not quoting any law that one has violated or registering a first information report mentioning any charges are “hard to handle”. Razzaq said something should be devised to tackle the aforementioned tactics and ensure journalists’ protection.

“Speaking truth to power is our job. It is our livelihood and passion, and we will never give it up regardless of whatever you do” — Fatima Razzaq “Speaking truth to power is our job. It is our livelihood and passion, and we will never give it up regardless of whatever you do,” Razzaq tells CFWIJ. “There are many layers of vulnerability that are added here. Being a journalist in Pakistan, but one who covers marginalized groups and issues that the state does not like, and then being a woman covering it and being a young woman journalist.”

Razzaq further maintained that being associated with a digital platform is another layer of vulnerability, as they are not even recognized by press clubs. There is no safeguard for women journalists when they are being subjected to character assassination or harassment of a threatening nature, she said.

“There are a lot of lawyers that could hinder my work as a journalist. That’s something that I would absolutely hate,” she added.

This episode reflects a distressing trend of impeding and threatening journalists as they set out to pursue the truth. The women reporters had been extensively covering the plight of the Baloch women, particularly in the recent days since the community initiated a long march against the enforced disappearances of their people in November.

Last week on December 20, Somiayah Hafeez, a Baloch journalist, was detained by the police late at night while covering the same protest. She was, however, released the next evening after the country’s Supreme Court intervened in the matter of detained women protestors by the federal capital’s police.

The Baloch protests, spearheaded by women against the missing persons of Balochistan, represent a fundamental attempt for the protection of human rights. Like Razzaq, the reporting by Hafeez also highlighted the issues that one of Pakistan’s most marginalized communities are facing. The march against enforced disappearances began from Balochistan’s Turbat city and reached the capital, seeking freedom of the many missing and disappeared Baloch people, who are allegedly “abducted by the state,” which mainly indicates the country’s military.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism and Women Press Freedom stands in solidarity with Fatima Razzaq and all journalists who face threats and intimidation in the line of duty. Fatima Razzaq's ordeal — being encircled and detained by unknown individuals while covering the Baloch women's protest in Islamabad — is not an isolated event but part of a disturbing trend targeting journalists who dare to report on sensitive issues, especially those involving marginalized communities. Her refusal to surrender her reporting equipment in the face of such intimidation is a testament to her bravery and commitment to journalistic integrity. We urge the Pakistani government to take immediate and effective measures to ensure the safety and protection of journalists. It is imperative that a thorough investigation into this incident be conducted and those responsible be held accountable. The failure to do so not only undermines the principles of a free and independent press but also emboldens those who seek to suppress the truth through fear and coercion.

Police have arrested 22 human rights activists from a sit-in protest organised by the Human Rights and Peace Society (HURPES) at Maitighar in Kathmandu on Friday. The protest was organised demanding formation of a reliable judicial inquiry commission in connection with the Ncell share sale case.

Founding Chairperson Krishna Pahadi, Chairperson Ramkrishna Baral, Adviser Uttam Pudasaini, Secretaries Ram Prasad Joshi and Chandramani Banjara, Treasurer Kiran Dhakal, Central Members Namrata Kharel and Diwakar Pudasaini, Kathmandu Branch President Bhagwan Pudasaini have been arrested.

Additionally, HURPES Lalitpur branch President Man Bahadur Thapa, along with rights activists Sanu Lama, Uma Gautam, Bal Bahadur Gaha Magar, Jagannath Pudasaini, Ishwar Pudasaini, Bikas Thapa, Tulsiram Bhandari, Maniram Dahal, Laxman Pudasaini, Wudd Anmol, Mohini Prasad Acharya, and Adarsh Chhetri are also among those arrested.

The arrested have been kept in the Singha Durbar Police Circle. The HURPES has called the incident of Ncell tax evasion a big financial scam and a crime against the state.

A Hong Kong court on Thursday sentenced the younger sister of a pro-democracy labour union leader to six months imprisonment for removing evidence from the latter’s home amid an ongoing security crackdown in the China-ruled city.

Marilyn Tang, 63, had earlier pleaded guilty to perverting the court of justice after she removed devices including a laptop and mobile phone belonging to her sister, Elizabeth Tang, soon after she was arrested in March.

Magistrate Patrick Tsang said while the offence wasn’t very serious and that the defendant hadn’t “turned on or obstructed the devices” he still handed down a custodial sentence.

Elizabeth, 65, had been arrested on March 9 for collusion with foreign forces under a China-imposed national security law, soon after she returned to the city to visit her jailed pro-democracy activist husband Lee Cheuk-yan, 66.

The husband, a former lawmaker and leading democrat, faces an incitement to subversion charge under the national security law and is awaiting trial.

The two sisters had been linked to the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) – the city’s largest opposition trade union coalition that disbanded in 2021 after several members received messages threatening their safety. Elizabeth had served as its chief executive.

Tang’s lawyer Robert Pang had earlier told the court during a mitigation hearing that Marilyn’s behaviour was “not premeditated” while highlighting her lifelong service to the community.

Pang added that Elizabeth’s laptop and phone only contained personal information, family pictures and letters to her husband which had no direct impact on the police investigation.

More than 280 people have been arrested so far in Hong Kong under the national security law that punishes acts including subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces, and terrorism with up to life in prison.

Leading China critic and media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 76, is currently battling a foreign collusion charge in a closely watched trial that has become a diplomatic flashpoint.

The national security law has been criticised by some Western governments as a tool to curb free speech and dissent while the Hong Kong and Chinese governments say it has restored stability after mass, pro-democracy protests in 2019.

A Hong Kong court on Thursday rejected a fresh bail application for pro-democracy activist and lawyer Chow Hang-tung, whose subversion trial under a China-imposed national security law is expected to open in late 2024.

In making the latest in a series of so far unsuccessful bail applications, Chow’s lawyer, Cheung Yiu-leung, noted Chow had already served more than 2 years in detention after being arrested on suspicion of “incitement for subversion” over her ties to a group that organised an annual June 4 vigil.

High Court judge Andrew Chan, however, said he couldn’t grant bail because Chow might carry out acts that endanger national security.

A tentative trial date was provided for Chow’s case in the second half of 2024 at the West Kowloon court, Chan said. A case-management hearing was also tentatively expected to be held on Feb. 15, 2024, he added.

Chow, 38, a human-rights lawyer, was the vice-chairperson of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, a now disbanded pro-democracy group. Despite being jailed, she has continued to defy Beijing’s campaign to subjugate the city.

Chow is charged with “incitement to subversion”, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment, alongside two former Alliance leaders Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan under the national security law (NSL).

Chow has been detained since September 2021 at a maximum security women’s prison.

Hong Kong laws usually restrict reporting of full bail application proceedings to only key details, but Justice Chan lifted these restrictions over objections from the prosecution.

“I don’t see that anything you said, or I said, cannot be published. The press are free to publish whatever,” Chan said.

Chow was recently put in solitary confinement for 18 days for possessing “too many letters” from her supporters, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Hong Kong prison authorities said they wouldn’t comment on individual cases.

Chow has already finished two sentences for unauthorised assembly in relation to the banned Tiananmen vigils in 2020 and 2021.

Police in Islamabad used force to disperse a protest by Baluchis in the early hours of December 21 after the protesters marched hundreds of kilometers to draw attention to excessive arrests of Baluch men and their mistreatment by police.

The woman who led the march, Mahrang Baloch, said on X, formerly Twitter, that she was taken into custody along with other protesters, while several protesters were reportedly injured by police as the protest was dispersed and people were rounded up and placed into transport vehicles.

The march "is under attack by the Islamabad police," Baloch said on X. "I have been arrested along with several women and men by Islamabad police, but remember fascist state, we will defeat you."

Participants in the march posted videos on X showing people, mainly women, marching and decrying alleged brutal police beatings of their sons.

Before her own arrest, Baloch said many youths had been arrested and many had been injured by tear gas and violence.

"Right now, we are being treated worse than animals. Will the world raise its voice for us against this barbarism?" she said on X.

The protesters reached Islamabad nearly a month after setting off from the Turbat district in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan Province to demand a judicial inquiry into the killing of Balach Maula Bakhsh, who relatives say died in police custody in November.

The killing is just one of the crimes that protesters want authorities to investigate. They also accuse Pakistani security agencies of a string of abductions and extrajudicial killings of Baluch men. The authorities reject the allegations.

The march passed through the provincial capital, Quetta, before heading toward Islamabad.

The Preah Sihanouk Appeal Court this morning upheld the defamation convictions of two Koh Kong land activists, Phav Nheung and Seng Lin, under Article 305 of the Criminal Code. The court also dropped incitement charges under Articles 494 and 495 against them, partially upholding the decision of the Koh Kong Provincial Court from August.

Nheung and Lin were the target of a complaint launched by Chhay Vy, a former community representative whom the women had accused in 2019 of seizing land. The activists were each fined 4 million riel (approximately US$1,000) and ordered to pay 40 million riel (approximately $10,000) in compensation to Vy.

Both Nheung and Lin were jailed in pre-trial detention between 30 June and 6 October this year over the incitement charges, with Nheung detained alongside her infant son.

The prosecutor argued in favour of dropping the incitement charges during the appeal trial, making a further appeal to the Supreme Court from the prosecution unlikely.

Police conducted a crackdown and detained “at least 20 participants, including women”, who joined the long march against the alleged “extra-judicial killings” by the Counter Terro­rism Depart­ment (CTD) in Turbat, Balochistan, as it entered the city on Sunday.

According to details, the long march of the Baloch Yakjehti Council (BYC), led by Mohammad Asif Laghari and originating from Balochistan, was intercepted by police on Shah Sikander Road in Dera Ghazi Khan city.

The police said that the participants of the march resisted, upon which they detained several men and women and transferred them to the police lines. The women were later released.

ASP City Rehmatullah Durrani told the protesters that Section 144 is in force in the district, prohibiting any procession or rally, a directive the participants refused to obey.

Among the protesters, Shaukat Ali, Asif Leghari, Miraj Leghari, Abdullah Saleh, and ten others have been detained, and legal proceedings have been initiated under Section 144, the police said.

Action will be taken against the violators under Section 144 of the Criminal Code, and this ban will remain in force till Dec 19, said the police.

Earlier, the participants of the long march held a rally in Barkhan, which was attended by a large number of locals to express solidarity with the family of Balaach Mola Bakhsh.

The spokesman for BYC stated that marchers, who had stayed overnight in Kohlu town, departed for Dera Ghazi Khan via Barkhan, the border district of Balochistan with the Punjab province.

The spokesman said that the long march was stopped by a heavy contingent of police in Dera Ghazi Khan. When protestors insisted on entering Dera Ghazi town, where a partial strike was observed, and shops were closed, the police resorted to Baton charge.

He noted that at least 20 participants of the long march, including two women, were taken into custody and shifted to an unknown location.

The BYC leaders condemned the baton charge on the participants of the long march, affirming that they will not abandon their struggle and are determined to reach Islamabad to register their protest against the “extrajudicial killing” of Mr Bakhsh.

A court in Kazakhstan's western city of Oral on December 14 sentenced local activist Marua Eskendirova to 25 days in jail after finding her guilty of calling for an anti-government rally. The charge stemmed from posts on Eskendirova's social network account calling for protests against the policies of the Central Asian country's government. Eskendirova has rejected the charge, arguing that she had not used the social network account since her mobile phone was stolen two years ago. Eskendirova was handed a parole-like sentence in February for having links with the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan -- a banned opposition group.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has recommended the filing of separate criminal charges of grave oral defamation against abducted environmental activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano.

The two could face a maximum of six months imprisonment if found guilty.

In a 15-page resolution penned by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Arnold Magpantay dated Dec. 12, 2023, it is said that the two activists’ sworn statements are different from their pronouncements during a press conference they held with government authorities after they emerged from their alleged abduction.

The DOJ also said that Castro and Tamano resorted to a press conference to allegedly embarrass the 70 Infantry Battalion (IB) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“Conspicuously, respondents ventilated the alleged abduction in the press conference, betraying their purpose to expose complainant and the AFP as well to greater latitude of public mockery, demonstrating their ill motive to prejudice them,” the resolution read.

“The slanderous words were obviously uttered with evident intent to strike deep into the character, honor and reputation of complainant and the AFP,” it added.

Meanwhile, the perjury complaint, filed by Lt. Col. Ronnel dela Cruz, commander of the 70th IB, was dismissed.

Castro and Tamano were reportedly abducted on Sept. 2, 2023 in Bataan.

They surfaced on Sept. 19, 2023, after the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict presented them in a press conference supposedly to present them as “returnees” from the communist insurgency.

However, Castro and Tamano retracted their statements and affidavits during the said press conference and claimed that they were abducted by the military and forced to sign an affidavit of surrender.

The actions by the environmental activists during the said press conference resulted in the military’s filing of perjury charges.

The environmental activists filed a writ of amparo on Sept. 29, 2023 before the Supreme Court, asking the court for a protection order against the respondent Dela Cruz.

Defend Manila Bay Network, meanwhile, slammed this decision of the DOJ saying that the indictment of the Justice department is a “major stumbling block” on the activists' advocacies for Manila Bay.

“It is unfortunate that after Tamano and Castro survived the abduction and intense pressure of the military, they are now subjected to trumped up charges,” they said in a statement on Monday.

Rights group Karapatan decries the arbitrary blacklisting and deportation of Edna Becher, a Filipino-Swiss who went to the Philippines to spend the holidays with her family and friends, only to suffer from political persecution from Philippine immigration authorities.

Reports reached Karapatan that Becher arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 early evening yesterday, December 7. She was detained by immigration authorities for two hours, as they alleged that she is on a blacklist due to involvement in anti-government activities.

As of this writing, immigration authorities have deported Becher, and is on a flight back to Switzerland.

The blacklisting and deportation of Becher is arbitrary, baseless, and a vile act of political persecution. Becher, an activist from Anakbayan-Europe and also of Swiss nationality, has done nothing wrong and illegal against anyone, whether in her country of residence and much more in the country of her family roots. These acts also violate Becher’s freedom of association and freedom of movement.

Becher participated in mass actions in Switzerland in relation to the Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines and during the visit of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for the World Economic Forum.

Many other foreign nationals, especially those who have been extending international solidarity for human and people’s rights issues in the Philippines, have suffered similar persecution. Under the Duterte administration, Australian missionary Sr. Patricia Fox and Australian lawyer Gil Boehringer were subjects of deportation proceedings. Currently, under the Marcos Jr. administration, many others are at risk of being in the Bureau of Immigration’s blacklist.

It is appalling that this happened days before International Human Rights Day, when the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights will be commemorated. In the Philippines, we will marching to call for an end to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, illegal arrests and detention, fake surrenders, bombings, threats including red-tagging, and other human rights and international humanitarian law violations. We will demand accountability for the crimes committed against the Filipino people, including violations on freedom of association.

Karapatan calls on Philippine authorities to stop the policy and practice of drawing up blacklists and deportation of foreign nationals who support human rights advocacies in the Philippines. Becher and many others should be removed from these blacklists and allowed to freely exercise their basic rights to visit their families or friends, to freely associate with organizations who conduct human rights advocacies, and to support calls for justice and accountability for human rights violations in the Philippines as forms of international solidarity.

Former political prisoner Pham Thanh Nghien, who emigrated to the United States with her husband earlier this year, reported that HCMC Police have surrounded their former neighborhood, Loc Hung Vegetable Garden in Binh Thanh District, which for years has been a contentious flashpoint against land-grabbing by the authorities. Since Dec. 6, work trucks have been bringing dirt, sand and other construction material to the site. Ambulances, fire trucks and frequency-jamming vehicles have been stationed in two schools near the area. All roads going in and out are monitored and controlled by police. Several people who live right outside Loc Hung have also been ordered not to leave their homes.

Police have used water cannons to disperse a protest near the Parliament Roundabout a short while ago, Ada Derana reporter said.

The relevant protest march was organised by the women’s wing of the National People’s Power (NPP) this morning (04) against the rising cost of living, unbearable tax burden on the people and other issues in the country.

Riot police had resorted to using water cannons as the protesters attempted to march towards the Parliament along the Parliament Road, the reporter said.

A demonstration by Papuan students in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), turned violent. Dozens of students were beaten by a mob from one of the mass organizations, then they were arrested by the police.

The demonstration of Papuan students took place on Jalan Piet A Tallo, Friday (1/12/2023). They rallied there in commemoration of the West Papua independence declaration day.

While protesting, the students were approached by a group of mass organizations Garda Flobamora and Garuda. They were told to stop protesting. Chaos ensued until they were taken to the police station.

"We are temporarily at the police station. We were dispersed and beaten by the Garuda mass organization," said the coordinator of the mass action, Yeri Wali.

Yeri explained that the incident began when two people suspected of being intelligence officers arrived using a white car to conduct monitoring at around 09.07 Wita.

Then at 09.15 Wita, around 50 people from the Garuda mass organization came to the protesters angry, argued and ended up beating them blindly, causing the clothes of a number of protesters to be torn off.

In addition, a protestor named Ririn was beaten until she fainted. Another protestor, Jek, also received a blow on his lip that broke. They were then transported to the Kupang City Police Station.

"Currently, we all have injuries and many bumps on the head, face and lips," said Yerri.

Kupang City Police Public Relations Section Head Aipda Florensi Ibrahim Lapuisaly confirmed the arrest. However, he suggested that they go directly to the Kupang City Police Headquarters.

"There is indeed information (of arrests) but I don't know how many were secured. Because I and Mr. Kapolresta still have Friday Curhat activities in Oepura Village," he said.

detikBali monitored at the Kupang City Police Station that the protesters had not been released. Meanwhile, the masses from the Garuda Kupang mass organization had already dispersed at 10:40 Wita. There has been no official statement from the Garuda organization about the riot.

Journalist Naran Unurtsetseg, the editor-in-chief of the Mongolian news website Zarig.mn, was arrested on December 4 on charges of contempt of court and spreading false information. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Mongolian affiliate, the Confederation of Mongolian Journalists (CMJ), call for the immediate release of the journalist and criticise efforts to silence and block the online publication.

Unurtsetseg’s arrest on December 4 was witnessed by Mongolian media workers in the editorial office of Zarig.mn in Ulaanbaatar, the capitol city of Mongolia. The editor was allegedly charged with contempt of court and “spreading false information” under Article 13.14 of the Criminal Code of Mongolia after posting an on her personal Facebook account about the inhumanity of a prolonging court hearing involving an elderly individual in Mongolia.

A court hearing in the Songinokhairkhan District court from December 1 to 4, approved the prosecutor’s proposal to detain Unurtsetseg for one month. Earlier, on November 29, the Criminal Court of First Instance of Chingeltei District also approveda proposal to take preventive measures to restrict Unurtsetseg from leaving Mongolia. Additionally, a legal and administrative body in Mongolia imposed a block on the access to the zarig.mn website within Mongolian territories, and added the website of zarig.mn to the list of illegal domain names, according to a joint statement released by The Media Council and Globe International Centre.

In response to the curtailing of the editor and its online portal, Unurtsetseg and journalists from Zarig.mn held a sit-in protest at Sukhbaatar Square on December 1. The CMJ said after it submitted demands to the Regulatory Commission of Communications, the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications, the National Police Agency, and the Prosecutor General’s Office of Mongolia, the zarig.mn website was subsequently unblocked on December 4.

Unurtsetseg has been variously pursued for her journalism work in recent years and faced 12 defamation charges in 2019, followed by four in 2020 – all initiated by politicians mentioned in her reporting. Despite successfully beating most of the cases, Unurtsetseg still faces a fine of around US$800, roughly the equivalent to two months' salary for the average journalist in Mongolia.

On December 8, Unurtsetseg's lawyers attended a hearing and appealed to the court for the journalist’s release due to unjustified detention. They also raised concerns that some legal provisions may have been violated during the investigation, and that the case's investigation was deliberately accelerated.

Media activists advise that law enforcement agencies and authorities in Mongolia were using Article 13.14 of the Criminal Code to restrict journalists’ capacity to perform their professional duties by investigating and charging them with crimes under the code. Article 13.14, which addresses the spreading of false information and stipulates penalties such as fines or public service, came into effect on January 10, 2020. Since then, numerous journalists have faced accusations of crimes.

CMJ reports that approximately 10 journalists are currently under investigation, including Unurtsetseg; Uranchimeg, of asu.mn), and A. Bayarmaa, of tas.mn; as well as the journalist and founder of Zarig.mn, J. Battul. The latter is part of the “Uncensored Team” program which is currently investigating and reporting onthe Foreign Investment Law in Mongolia and its possible revision. Battul has faced complaints from the Member of Parliament, Minister Ch. Khurelbaatar.

On 27 November 2023, Pakistan police, accompanied by plainclothes police officers, raided the home of woman human rights defender Hooran Baloch in Quetta, Balochistan. Police forcibly entered the premises where they threatened and filmed Hooran Baloch and her family without consent. At the end of the two hour raid, police arrested Hooran Baloch’s brother-in-law, Ali Nawaz, who was released after being detained for two hours at the Sattellite Town police station in Quetta.

Hooran Baloch is a woman human rights defender and the Research Coordinator of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP) based in Balochistan. VBMP, which was established in 2009, is a key organization that supports victims and relatives of enforced disappearances in Balochistan. It documents violations and is a strong advocate for release, redress and accountability. VBMP staff, including Hooran Baloch, have faced reprisals for their work, and are themselves at serious risk of legal and extra-legal violence.

Despite these risks, Hooran Baloch has continued to work in an extremely hostile and militarized context to support victims and their families. The woman human rights defender has supported and encouraged families to file complaints and legal cases for victims of enforced disappearance. Her work is vital in a context where many victims and families are afraid to file complaints and are likely to be unaware of their rights or know or do not know how to seek redress. Hooran Baloch’s support is critical in advocating for the release of prisoners and she has personally intervened to assist families in this process. The state reprisals against Hooran Baloch seek to prevent her from continuing her work, branding her as a terrorist. This amounts to a clear attempt to shut down any advocacy and information flow from Balochistan regarding ongoing violations.

On 27 November 2023, at around 2 pm, a contingent of police officers from the Satellite town Police station, Quetta, together with intelligence officers in plain clothes, forcibly entered the residence of Hooran Baloch in Quetta, Balochistan, where she lives with her family. Police searched the woman human rights defender’s house for around 2 hours at the end of which they arrested Ali Nawaz, the brother-in-law of Hooran Baloch. No reason was provided for the raid or for Ali Nawaz’s detention at the Sattelite police station. During the raid, security forces threatened, harrassed and filmed the woman human rights defender and her family without their consent. Ali Nawaz was released after being detained for two hours the same day.

Hooran Baloch has been threatened in the past in relation to her work. This has included online attacks – hate speech and defamation – as well as intimidation and harassment by police and other security forces. As a result of the raid, Hooran Baloch is deeply concerned for her safety and fears the possibility of further reprisals.

The family of Nabila Rahimi, a human rights activist, athlete, and health educator affiliated with a program of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), reports that she has been detained by the Taliban in Takhar and is currently held in their custody.

Nabila Rahimi’s family members informed Hasht-e Subh Daily on Saturday, November 25, that she was arrested by the Taliban in Taliqan City, Takhar, for not ceasing her activities in providing psychological counseling to the public following the Taliban’s prohibition on women working. She is detained near Taliqan city’s Sarak-e Char area.

She was apprehended earlier this year by the Taliban and has been held in the Taliban’s women’s prison in Takhar since then.

According to Nabila’s family members, she was mistreated during her arrest by the Taliban.

They emphasize that repeated efforts and assurances made by them, local elders, and authorities to secure her release from the Taliban’s grasp have been fruitless.

The family claims that the Taliban have indicated releasing Nabila Rahimi to her family soon but have warned that, upon her release, she will be under house arrest for two months and will be monitored.

However, the Taliban have not provided a specific timeline for her release to her family as of yet.

One of the family members states, “All I wanted was the release of Nabila.”

Our source adds that she was only assisting the people and providing psychological counseling to former government employees, including female counselors.

The source did not grant permission to disclose the name of the institution where Nabila Rahimi worked, based on certain considerations.

The Taliban have not commented on the matter so far.

This incident occurred at a time when the Taliban had previously instructed their security entities to curb the activities of some health institutions in various northeastern provinces.

This local contractor has been detained and imprisoned by the Taliban at a time when the group has imposed significant restrictions on Afghan women, with the prohibition of women working being one of them.

Although the Taliban had previously claimed that female employees in the health sector would not be subject to these restrictions, it is evident that the group is not adhering to its commitments and promises.

Cabinet officials rejected a new petition brought by former NagaWorld employees Thursday, stating that the petition did not meet administrative requirements. Protesters were hopeful that Prime Minister Hun Manet and his new government might solve the dispute that has dragged on for nearly two years.

Kim Sokha, 35, worked at NagaWorld as a card dealer for over 10 years before being laid off by the company in 2021. As many previous petitions filed before the July elections were unsuccessful, he said this new petition was an attempt to see if Prime Minister Hun Manet would help them find a solution.

“I want him [Hun Manet] to know about the suffering of the workers. He is like a parent who knows the suffering of his children,” he said. “I want him to know that Nagaworld’s workers were unfairly dismissed which violates the law of Cambodia.”

Around 30 members of the Labour Rights Supported Union (LRSU) of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld gathered at Wat Botum Park Thursday morning, as district workers prepared decorations for the upcoming Water Festival. After entering the nearby Cabinet building, an official refused to accept the petition, claiming that it did not meet certain specifications, such as listing the names of the certain officials and the union members involved in the dispute.

“If what I said is not followed, I cannot do anything,” the Cabinet official told the group.

Around 1300 workers began their strike in December 2021 following mass layoffs without full severance pay at the Phnom Penh casino. The company claimed the Covid-19 economic downturn necessitated the layoffs. But rights groups like the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (Central) and Human Rights Watch have said the layoffs were an attempt to quash NagaWorld’s independent union.

The strikers have faced detention, threats and violence. One striker said she had a miscarriage last year because of rough handling by authorities who rounded strikers onto a bus. A NagaCorp chief CEO’s son was accused of throwing a traffic cone at protestors and chucking a union member’s phone to the ground.

The president of NagaWorld’s union Chhim Sithar was found guilty in May and sentenced to two years in prison for inciting social unrest, while other convicted members have been handed suspended sentences. In October, the Court of Appeal upheld the trial court’s verdict for Sithor.

Strikers say that the Labor Ministry has unfairly sided with the company and supported its interests, while the government has suppressed union members’ right to strike.

LRSU Vice President Chhim Sokhorn said he was disappointed when the petition was rejected based on an administrative issue instead of getting a substantive response to their request.

“I request that he [Hun Manet] help us regarding our criminal lawsuit and our leader who is also now in prison,” he said. “Even though we follow all the procedures, we all suffer and the government has not taken action on this issue.”

Labor Ministry spokesperson Katta Orn said the company was forced to lay off the 1300 workers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, adding that a majority of the workers have already accepted compensation offered by the company.

“We observe that only 22 to 30 people are on strike. If the workers really want to end the dispute, they should contact the ministry to continue finding a solution,” he said.

Government spokesperson Pen Bona declined to comment.

The workers have suffered “all forms of intimidation, all forms of violence,” said Central’s program manager Khun Tharo. He added that the government has used Covid-19 restrictions to prevent protests and the judicial system to combat the workers’ cause.

If the new government creates judicial reform, this could help the workers seek justice, he said, but only if these reforms help ”real victims” and not “perpetrators of violence.”

“We see the new government has visited garment factories, while the NagaWorld workers continue their strike and are seeking the solution after being laid off,” he said.

Sokha, the union member at the protest, said the former NagaWorld employees’ strike is within their legal rights.

“We strike in accordance with the Constitution and follow all legal procedures. If what we have been doing is illegal, we would not be here now” said Sokha.

Activist Katanyu Muenkhamruang has been sentenced to 2 years in prison on a sedition charge for Facebook posts calling for people to go to protests in August 2021. She was later released on bail to file for appeal.

Katanyu, a member of the activist group Thalufah, was charged with sedition and violation of the Computer Crimes Act over two posts on the group’s Facebook page calling for people to join the 11 and 13 August 2021 protests.

Nangnoi Assawakittikorn, a former member of the royalist group Thailand Help Center for Cyberbullying Victims, filed a complaint against Kantanyu, alleging that she was running the Facebook page.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that Katanyu and her lawyer reported to the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) on 12 January 2022, after learning that an arrest warrant had been issued for her in November 2021.

TLHR noted that a police officer called Katanyu twice, claiming that the TCSD had an arrest warrant for her. On 27 September 2022, she went to the TCSD to check whether there was a warrant but officers were unable to tell her whether it was a warrant or a summons. She asked for them to record that she reported to the police and did not intend to run, but the officers refused.

Katanyu’s defence was that she was not running the Facebook page and therefore was not responsible for the posts. According to TLHR, photos of Katanyu at the protest which were submitted by the prosecution as evidence were unclear. They also note that the two posts did not incite people to commit violence or violate the law, a point noted by prosecution witnesses in their testimony as well. Although violent clashed took place during the day, these occurred after the protest and at a different location.

A Metropolitan police officer testified that a person matching Katanyu’s description was live-streaming during the 13 August 2021 protest. During cross-examination, the officer acknowledged that a Facebook page can be run by several people and said that he was unaware of who runs the Thalufah Facebook page.

Another officer testified that he sent a link to a news article to the Thalufah Facebook page to check who was administering it and found two users. Using the IP addresses, the police then checked with an internet service provider for the identity of the users. Katanyu was reportedly not among the users identified. The officer admitted that he did not know who actually ran the Facebook page, denying that his action counts as phishing.

Testifying for the defence, iLaw’s Waranyuta Yan-in said that, to check a user’s identity with an IP address, a request must be made with an internet service provider to obtain the user’s address. The police must then obtain a search warrant for the electronic device to obtain more information. She argued that in this instance, police actions did indeed amounted to phishing since they did not ask for cooperation from the users.

TLHR reported on Wednesday (22 November) that the Criminal Court found Katanyu guilty of sedition and violation of the Computer Crimes Act and sentenced her to 2 years in prison. It ruled that, since there is evidence showing that she was at the protest and was live-streaming, she must have known of the posts, and so was guilty even though the prosecution could not prove that she made the posts.

Katanyu was later granted bail using an additional security of 75,000-baht.

Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the brutal crackdown and arrest of human rights defenders associated with the Damkondawahi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti by police authorities in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. On 20 November 2023, the police initiated a crackdown on a nine-month long peaceful protest against corporate mining in the Etapalli Subdivision of the Gadchiroli District. They beat protestors, seized their mobile phones and belongings, destroyed huts and shelters, and detained a number of protestors including human rights defenders and community leaders. As part of this crackdown, 21 peaceful protesters have been arrested on fabricated charges and remanded to judicial custody. Front Line Defenders express its solidarity with the protest movement and the human rights defenders and community leaders facing persecution as a result of their legitimate and peaceful human rights work.

The Damkondawahi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti is a protest movement led by Madia-Gond Adivasis — a people recognised by the Indian government as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). The protest movement advocates against corporate mining in the Etapalli Subdivision of the Gadchiroli District. In 2007, Lloyds Metals and Energy Private Limited (LMEL) was given clearance to begin iron ore mining in an area of over 348.09 hectares of land in the village of Surjagarh in Gadchiroli. This decision was taken without any public consultation with the local community, namely the gram sabhas (village councils), as is mandated by the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 and the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act 1996. On 10 March 2023, LMEL was granted environmental clearance to expand its excavation from 3 to 10 million metric tonnes per annum. The area being excavated by LMEL for iron ore mining encroaches on lands granted to Adivasis as part of their community forest rights under the Forest Rights Act 2006.

On 11 March 2023, Adivasi communities from over seventy villages, most of whom belong to the Madia-Gond community, came together under the collective Damkondawahi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti to oppose the iron ore mining by LEML, which has posed an existential threat to their lands, livelihood, culture and environment. Despite their ongoing protest, in June 2023, six new mines, spanning 4,684 hectares, were leased to five companies —Omsairam Steels and Alloys Private Limited, JSW Steels Limited, Sunflag Iron and Steel Company Limited, Universal Industrial Equipment and Technical Services Private Limited, and Natural Resources Energy Private Limited. If allowed to operate, these mines could potentially displace at least 40,900 people.

On 20 November 2023, a large police contingent arrived at the protest site in Todgatta and unleashed a violent crackdown on the peaceful protestors. The police singled out the leaders of the protest movement and forcefully searched their belongings. Eight human rights defenders and leaders of the protest, namely Mangesh Naroti, Pradeep Hedo, Sai Kawdo, Gillu Kawdo, Laxman Jetti, Mahadu Kawdo, Nikesh Naroti, and Ganesh Korea, were forcibly taken away by the police in a helicopter and their phones seized. The police also vandalized small huts and shelters at the protest site. Videos emerging from the incident reveal the police lathi-charging protestors and reprimanding those who attempted to document police action. Several protestors sustained serious injuries due to police violence.

21 protesters, including human rights defenders and community leaders, are currently imprisoned, accused of various offences including rioting, criminal conspiracy, assaulting a public servant during discharge of their duty, wrongful restraint, and unlawful assembly. It is crucial to note that the First Information Report (FIR) 0074/23 against the human rights defenders was registered on 21 November 2023 which means that the human rights defenders were illegally detained without formal charges for almost an entire day, and their whereabouts were unknown to their family members. Those arrested are currently being held in Chandrapur Jail and have been remanded to judicial custody where they are to be held until 5 December 2023.

The crackdown took place a few weeks after the human rights defender and lawyer Lalsu Nogoti provided a video statement at the 54th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission and spoke about the struggles and demands of Madia-Gond Adivasis and other traditional forest dwelling communities. As a member of the Madia-Gond Adivasi community himself, Lalsu Nogoti has been vocal about the attacks faced by indigenous populations through the colluding forces of corporatization, militarization and state repression. On the day of the attacks, Nogoti and other human rights defenders participated in a public discussion on the issues faced by communities organised by the Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization (FACAM) in New Delhi.

The police claimed that protesters had disrupted the inauguration of a new police station in Wangeturi village and had violently attacked police officials. They also alleged that the protests are a means to advance Maoist agendas and requested that the arrested human rights defenders be placed in police custody for interrogation. Targeting peaceful indigenous movements on the basis of fabricated Maoist conspiracies is part of a wider trend by Indian authorities which seeks to criminalize these communities and undermine their calls for human rights—a pattern that has also been observed by the Indian Ministry of Tribal Affairs in their high-level committee report.

Front Line Defenders has previously raised concerns over the criminalization and legal persecution of indigenous movements in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand. Protest movements such as the Damkondawahi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti embody the struggles of India’s Adivasi communities who have been consistently marginalized, persecuted and denied access to their constitutionally guaranteed rights. The Madia-Gond Adivasis are inextricably tied to their lands and forests, which not only serve as their source of livelihood but also encompass their traditional, cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices. Corporate mining in the region has severely impacted the community’s access to their lands and forests. Moreover, the pollution this has given rise to has led to several debilitating health issues within of the community. We urge the authorities in India to cease the targeting of human rights defenders associated with the Damkondawahi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti and to uphold India’s commitments to recognise the rights of indigenous populations as per international law.

The Papua Legal Aid Institute (LBH) has urged the Papua Police Chief to immediately order the Merauke Police Chief to release 20 participants of the Ampera South Papua (PS) peace rally. LBH Papua Director Emanuel Gobay said the arrests made by the Merauke Police occurred on Saturday (18/11) morning, when they were preparing for the Ampera PS peace rally.

Emanuel confirmed that his party had also sent a letter of notification of the peaceful action plan with the topic 'The Law is Dead for Awyu Indigenous Peoples in Boven Digoel' to the Merauke Police.

"The Merauke Police, who had received a peaceful action notification letter, instead came to the gathering point and dispersed the Ampera PS protesters and arrested 20 AMPERA PS protesters," he said in a written statement.

Emanuel said that of the total 20 peaceful protesters who were arrested and taken to the Merauke Police Station, one of them was a woman.

He also criticized the arrest steps which were considered arbitrary.

The reason is, the protesters have given a notification letter to the Merauke Police. Therefore, he called the arrest a form of violation of the right to freedom of speech stipulated in the Law.

On the other hand, Emanuel said that the Merauke Police Chief and his staff had also violated the existing authority as stipulated in Article 6 letter q of Government Regulation Number 2 of 2003 concerning Discipline of the Indonesian National Police.

"Evidence that the Police Chief and his staff have silenced democratic space and clearly violated National Police Chief Regulation Number 8 of 2009 concerning the Implementation of Human Rights Standards and Principles in the Duties of the Indonesian National Police," he explained.

Therefore, he urged the Papua Police Chief Inspector General Mathius D Fakhiri and the Governor of South Papua to immediately order the Merauke Police Chief to release all the protesters who had been arrested.

"Immediately release the 20 people of the AMPERA PS Action Period because the dissolution and arrest are contrary to the Principles of Perkap Number 8 of 2009 concerning the Implementation of Human Rights Standards and Principles in Police Duties," he said.

CNNIndonesia.com has attempted to contact Papua Police Chief Inspector General Mathius D Fakhiri and Head of Papua Police Public Relations Commissioner Ignatius Benny Prabowo. However, until this news was published, both of them had not yet responded.

Reliable sources have reported the detention of Pari Azada, a member of the “Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Freedom,” by the Taliban in Kabul.

Sources, in a conversation with Hasht-e Subh Daily, have confirmed that the Taliban apprehended this female protester around 9:00 AM on Wednesday, November 15th, near the “Sar-e Kariz” area of Kabul and subsequently transferred her to an undisclosed location.

According to these sources, Pari Azada was taken into custody by the Taliban while she was having their protesting slogans printed at a local print shop.

As of now, the Taliban have not issued any comments on this incident.

This marks the fourth instance of a female protester being detained by the Taliban in Kabul in recent times.

Munizha Sediqi, Julia Parsi with her son, and Neda Parwani with her four-year-old child have been in Taliban custody for approximately two months, and their fate remains unknown.

Since their resurgence in Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on freedoms and women’s rights. In various instances, they have detained, tortured, and imprisoned women activists.

Activists Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, Panupong Jadnok, and Attapol Buapat have been sentenced to 9 months in prison on charges relating to a protest on 10 February 2021. They were later released on bail.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that the South Bangkok Criminal Court yesterday (15 November) found Panusaya, Panupong, and Attapol guilty of participating in an assembly of more than ten people to commit violence or cause a breach of peace, blocking a public way, and using a sound amplifier without permission.

They were sentenced to 1 year in prison and fines of 700 baht each. The court later reduced their sentence to 9 months in prison and fines of 525 baht each because they gave useful testimony.

The three activists faced a total of 7 charges relating to the protest. However, the court dismissed charges of destruction of property, assaulting an officer, and violations of the Public Cleanliness Act and regulations under the Emergency Decree.

They were later granted bail on a security of 25,000 baht each in order to appeal the verdict.

On 10 February 2021, protesters gathered at Pathumwan Skywalk and the courtyard in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre to call attention to economic hardships resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and to demand the release of political prisoners. They also demanded the resignation of then Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, constitutional amendments, and monarchy reform – the original three demands of the student movement which started in 2020.

After 9 people were arrested during the protest, protesters marched to the nearby Pathumwan Police Station to demand their release. A clash occurred between the protesters and crowd control police deployed around the police station, during which tear gas was reportedly used.

On November 13, 2023, during a hearing at the East Jakarta District Court, the Public Prosecutor requested Fatia Maulidiyanti, former Coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS), FIDH Vice-President, and OMCT General Assembly member, be sentenced to three years and six months in prison and a fine of 500,000 Rupiah (30 Euros), and Haris Azhar, Executive Director of Lokataru, be sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of one million Rupiah (60 Euros).

The Observatory recalls that a defamation case against Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar was initiated in August 2021, after Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs, and retired army general, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, sent them a subpoena in relation to a talk show video posted on Haris Azhar’s YouTube channel, in which the two human rights defenders alleged the Minister was involved in controversial gold mining activities in Papua Province.

As Ms Maulidiyanti and Mr Azhar refused to apologise, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan filed a police report on September 22, 2021, against the two human rights defenders alleging that both violated criminal defamation provisions, namely “attacking someone’s honour or reputation with accusations” and “defamation” (Articles 310 and 311 of the Criminal Code, respectively) and Article 45(3) of the amended Electronic Information and Transaction (EIT) Law. Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan asked for 300 billion rupiah (approximately 18 million Euros) in compensation. The trial of Ms Maulidiyanti and Mr Azhar began on April 3, 2023, before the East Jakarta District Court and 28 hearings have taken place since then. On November 27, 2023, the two human rights defenders are scheduled to submit their defence at the East Jakarta District Court.

The Observatory denounces the ongoing judicial harassment against Fatia Maulidiyanti and Harris Azhar, which seems to be only aimed at punishing them for their legitimate human rights activities and for exercising their right to freedom of opinion and expression, enshrined in international human right law, and particularly in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is a state party.

The Observatory urges the Indonesian authorities to dismiss the case against Fatia Maulidiyanti and Haris Azhar, and to put an end to any acts of harassment – including at the judicial level – against them and all other human rights defenders in the country, and to ensure that they are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without any hindrance or fear of reprisal.

The Almaty City Court on November 10 rejected the appeals of five activists against prison terms they were handed in July after a lower court found them guilty of "organizing mass unrest at Almaty airport" during unprecedented anti-government protests in January 2022 that turned deadly. Noted civil rights activist Aigerim Tileuzhanova was sentenced to four years in prison, while the other activists, all men, received eight years in prison each. Some were also charged with storming a building, vehicle hijacking, and robbery. All have denied wrongdoing, saying they did not commit any crimes while taking part in the demonstration.

A Kazakh court has delivered a suspended sentence to Nazym Tabyldieva for her online posts slamming President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev and three regional prosecutors. Tabyldieva's supporters waiting outside the court in Almaty on November 10 were relieved because the prosecutor had demanded imprisonment on charges of "disseminating false information" and "defaming officials." The judge has ruled that the 36-year-old anti-government activist will be on probation for a year and a half and will be banned from political and social activities, including publications on social media, for five years. The verdict can be appealed. One of the charges concerned a video Tabyldieva made, accusing President Toqaev of "pursuing Russian policies."

Two journalists in Banda Aceh received unpleasant treatment from the bodyguard team of Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Chairman Firli Bahuri.

The two journalists were intimidated while filming Firli Bahuri eating durian at Warkop Sekber Jurnalis, Banda Aceh, Thursday (9/11) night. The two journalists are Raja Umar from Kompas TV and Lala Nurmala from Puja TV.

Raja Umar said he initially wanted to interview Firli. But Firli refused because he was eating durian.

"At that time I wanted to interview the KPK chairman regarding the agenda of the visit to Aceh and ask for his response to Firli's accusation of buying time from the Metro Police summons. Then Firli replied 'no comment, I'm eating durian'," Umar told reporters, Friday (10/11).

Umar then asked for permission for Firli to comment after eating durian while waiting some distance from the table where Firli was eating. However, the police escorting Firli came to Umar to delete all photos and videos.

At first Umar did not respond to the police request, because he had called himself a journalist while showing a press ID card. Then Umar was again visited by plainclothes police to check all his cellphone galleries.

"Because I was forced to open the gallery on my cellphone, I immediately turned on the recording I recorded, then I asked while opening the gallery which photos I had to delete. and the policeman knew I was recording audio he also asked to delete the recording then I resisted," he said.

The audio recording has also been sent by Umar to his editor and to other journalist groups in Aceh, so that it can be used as evidence if something happens to him.

Meanwhile, Puja TV journalist Lala Nurmala received the same treatment as Umar. She had recorded when Umar asked permission from Firli for an interview.

Lala's action was also noticed by Firli Bahuri's bodyguard team and asked Lala whether she took a video or not. At that time Lala replied that she was not recording.

Then the bodyguard asked Lala to open the phone gallery to delete all photos and videos related to Firli. Then Lala deleted some photos and videos under pressure.

"Then he asked me to delete them. I finally deleted them. Yes, I was already under pressure. He asked to open our cell phone, even though the cell phone is our privacy. Meanwhile, from the beginning I said I was not recording, but he insisted," she said.

KPK News Section Head Ali Fikri said that his party had received the information and would check first.

"Oh yes, I read the news, of course we will immediately check it because we don't know who did it," Ali said at the KPK's Red and White Building, Jakarta, Friday.

Ali said that intimidation cannot be justified, especially to people who are doing their jobs.

"What is certain is that it is not allowed if there is really intimidation of journalist friends because we strongly believe in press freedom for friends to get information and convey it to the public," said Ali.

"We don't know whether it was from the KPK or not. If you can make sure it is from KPK officers, then we will check again, of course," he said.

It is known, Firli Bahuri's arrival to Aceh in order to take part in the KPK bus road show and Road To Hakordia. On the sidelines of the KPK official activities, Firli was also observed learning to cook fried rice, playing badminton, celebrating his 60th birthday and eating durian accompanied by media owners who are members of JMSI.

A group of journalists visiting to Mayilathamadu Batticaloa to interview farmers who were protesting for more than 50 days has been stopped Mayilathamadu checkpoint by police today without any legal basis.

In a letter to the Inspector General of Police in a singed letter the group has urged to pay immediate attention to the incident, response to it and hold those responsible accountable.

The letter:

As a media team, we came to visit Mayilathamadu to interview farmers an report on land issues today 9th November 2023. Police personnel at Mayilathamadu checkpoint stopped us around 1010am and refused to let us pass through. But we saw others were allowed to go.

We called the Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG), Eastern Province twice, but didn’t receive a proper response.

We were informed by police officers Herath (60073) and HMM Widyaratne (36739) at Mayilthmadhu checkpoint at about 1230pm that they would not allow us to proceed to Mayilathamadu to talk to farmers, as per SDIG East’s orders. The Director of Investigations of Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Mr. Lal also informed us same. Neither informed us the legal basis an authority to stop us. We messaged SDIG East asking legal basis for stopping us but didn’t receive a response.

We believe this is a violation of our constitutional rights to freedom of speech, expression, and publication (article 14-1-a), freedom to engage in a lawful occupation (article 14-1-g), and freedom of movement (article 14-1-h), equal protection of the law (article 12-1) non-discrimination (article 12-2).

This is also an offence against Article 332 of the penal code (wrongful restraint)

We kindly request your immediate attention and response to this and hold those responsible accountable. And ensure such violations are prevented in the future.

Thank you.

1. Mr. Rukshan Fernando (Ruki Fernando). Columnist for newspapers such as The Morning, Daily Mirror, Sunday Observer, Anidda.

2. Ms. Kamanthi Wickramasinghe Deputy Features Editor, Daily Mirror

3. Ms. H.M. Rekha Nilukshi. Freelance Journalist

4. Mr. Ganeshan Jegan, News editor at Monara.com

5. Ms. Melani Manel Perera, Asia News Correspondent & Mojo News Lanka Reporter

Kazakh rights activist Sanavar Zakirova told RFE/RL on November 8 that an Astana court sentenced her to 15 days in jail for "online calls for unsanctioned rallies." The charge stems from a Facebook post last month calling for a protest rally. Zakirova insists that she was tagged in the post but did not write it. Another activist, Makhabbat Qusaiynova, told the court that she authored the post, but the judge ignored her statement. Zakirova, an outspoken critic of the government, has been sentenced to several jail terms in recent years.

Forty-six protesters, including students and alumni from the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), students from Osmania University (OU) and University of Hyderabad (UoH) were detained by the police on Monday, even before they could sit on an indefinite hunger strike to protest the alleged inaction of the university management in the recent sexual harassment case reported on campus.While EFLU students were picked up from inside the campus, OU and UoH students who came to express their solidarity, were detained right at the entrance of EFLU. Some professors have also joined students in their protest, which was announced on Sunday following the VC’s letter addressing students over the “efforts” being taken by his office and the administration after the October 18 sexual assault incident.OU police confirmed that all the students picked up from EFLU have been released and that an FIR was filed against 31 UoH students under section 188 (violation of electoral codes) for taking out a rally.“There was no sign of violence, but police entered the campus and detained several students even before we could sit in protest,” said student adding that even as several students were detained, five started their indefinite strike with six others on a relay hunger strike.Students alleged that since October 18, the VC has not addressed students. They said that on Monday at around 2 pm, the proctor and registrar came out and said that the administration was not going to approve any of their demands and asked the students to call off their protest.“When we refused to budge, the police resorted to forcefully detain students. They even snatched away our mobile phones,” a student claimed adding that about 300 students took part in the protest and that they will continue until all their demands are met. Students raised slogans against the varsity administration and demanded the resignation of the VC and the proctorial board.

The activists, dressed in clothes made of plastic bags and carrying signs emblazoned with environmentalist slogans, marched to the rallying point where they would submit their petition to Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment.

It was supposed to be a peaceful march to urge the government to raise taxes on plastic bags and charge customers more for using them, in a bid to protect Cambodia’s environment.

But plainclothes officers blocked the way of the 20 marchers, pushed them, snatched their phones, and attempted to confiscate their banners.

“They didn’t listen to us. We are holding banners to request the government to listen to our two requests,” Ream SreyMech Rathana, one of the marchers, told Radio Free Asia.

“Where is democracy? [We are] people [just] walking on the streets who speak their mind but they outlaw us and the authorities are resorting to violence and unethical behavior,” said Ream SreyMech Rathana.

The authorities choose violence as their response, regardless of what the activists are asking for, said Hum Sok Keang, another activist.

“We have observed that authorities don’t allow us to work freely even though our work is beneficial to the country but they think we are polluting the society,” Hum Sok Keang said.

After the encounter, a representative from the Ministry of Environment accepted their petition.

To combat plastic pollution, the Ministry of Environment in 2016 issued a sub decree ordering provincial, city and district authorities to properly handle trash. But critics say authorities have failed to resolve the trash issues, forcing the people to pick up plastic litter from public places.

RFA attempted to reach the ministry’s spokesperson Phai Bun Chhoeun and the Phnom Penh police spokesperson Sam Vicheaca, but neither could be reached for comment.

Plastic pollution pollutes the environment and will discourage tourists from visiting Cambodia, said Chhin Chorvin, another activist.

“Plastic affects humans and animals and pollutes water,” he said. “When we use too much plastic, we burn it and it pollutes the atmosphere.”

Student activist Benja Apan has been sentenced to prison with a two-year suspension for a royal defamation charge resulting from a speech she gave during a protest on 10 August 2021.

On 30 October 2023, the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court ruled that the student activist violated the royal defamation law and Emergency Decree at a 10 August 2021 protest organised by the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration (UFTD).

Benja was sentenced to three years in prison for the defamation charge and one year with a 12,000 baht fine for the Emergency Decree violation. The court reduced the sentence to two years and eight months, with a two-year suspension, and an 8,000 Baht fine, because she has never been imprisoned and was only 21 years old at the time of the incident.

The court asserted that her speech directly targeted King Vajiralongkorn and amounted to defamation of the King. It refused to accept her testimony that her intention was not to criticise the king but rather the administration of former PM Prayut Chan-o-cha.

During the protest, Benja read out the 2nd UFTD Declaration which stated that the 2014 coup led by Gen Prayut resulted in a regime which only benefited only the elite. The statement also criticised the government’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and called for it to properly handle the pandemic, revitalise the economy, repeal the 2017 Constitution, push forward with reforms of state institutions including the monarchy, and return dignity to the people.

A complaint was filed by members of the People’s Centre for the Protection of Monarchy on 12 August 2021. Benja was arrested on 7 October 2021 after she went to meet the inquiry officer at Lumpini Police Station to hear a charge of violating the Emergency Decree for participating in the 3 September protest at the Ratchaprasong intersection. She did not receive a summons before being arrested.

The activist was taken to the court on 8 October 2021 and denied bail three times before being granted bail on 14 January 2022. She was indicted for the charges on 3 December 2021.

Local sources in Mazar-i-Sharif city have reported the tragic suicide of a young woman named Homa, who took her own life after being released from a Taliban prison. The incident occurred on Saturday, November 4th.

Homa, a passionate protester against Taliban restrictions, was apprehended by the Taliban intelligence agency during a checkpoint inspection in the city’s seventh district of Mazar-i-Sharif on Sunday, October 30th. She remained in their custody for three days.

Although it has been alleged that Homa was a member of the women’s protest network opposing the Taliban’s restrictions on women, the women’s protest network in Balkh has not confirmed or denied her membership to Hasht-e Subh Daily.

Sources have revealed that Homa was 26 years old and had graduated in the field of education from Balkh University.

Reports indicate that Homa endured torture at the hands of the Taliban intelligence agency, with visible evidence of this brutality on her body. After her release from Taliban captivity, she tragically hanged herself from the ceiling of her room, putting an end to her life.

Homa’s body was laid to rest on the same day as her death, Saturday, November 4th.

As of now, the Taliban group in Balkh has not commented on this tragic event.

Throughout their more than two years of control in Afghanistan, the Taliban have consistently suppressed, arrested, and tortured female protesters. There have been documented instances of sexual assaults on women in their prisons as well.

Tibetan human rights defender Tsering Tso had been subjected to arbitrary detention for the second time in three years for her social media posts calling out Chinese authorities for engaging in human rights abuses against Tibetans in Kyegudo (Ch: Yushu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, in the Tibetan province of Kham.

Tso was sentenced to 15 days of “administrative detention” by the Yushu Public Security Bureau (PSB) in the Yushu city detention centre from 26 October to 10 November 2023.

According to the official letter by the Yushu Public Security Bureau posted by Tsering Tso on her WeChat on 11 November 2023, The Yushu PSB or police claimed that between 8 and 25 October 2023, Tso committed the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” by posting a series of videos and personal statements on her Douyin account to “falsely accuse the government and spread misinformation on her private social media”.

The allegation of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles,” often directed at human rights defenders, minority ethnicities, critics, dissenters, and individuals deemed disloyal, is a legal tool to compel alignment with the official narrative, functioning as a means to deter questioning and dissent. Whether operating at the central or local level, the party-state assumes an authoritative role in delineating the boundaries of what constitutes picking a quarrel and provoking trouble. Essentially, any deviation from the official mass line falls within this defined category.

After examining Tso’s social media posts on Douyin, TCHRD can confirm that the Yushu PSB failed to address the legitimate grievances and issues Ms Tso raised and misused its discretionary powers.

In a video statement posted on 16 October 2023, Tso criticised the “feudalistic mindset” of official power holders and how it hinders the “hardworking and educated people from ordinary households to accomplish great deeds and realise their dreams”. She also called out the local leaders for misusing their power to further personal interests and subjecting ordinary people to corrupt bureaucratic practices.

In another video posted on 19 October 2023, she shared the challenges she faced in opening her own business in Kyegudo city, exposing the unfair practices of the local government leaders. Her efforts to operate business enterprises from 2016 onwards in the city have met with undue pressure and harassment from the local government authorities.

One of her widely viewed posts was a video she captured at the Lhasa railway station in July 2023, in which she called out the railway authorities for engaging in blatant racial discrimination against Tibetan passengers who were asked to show additional documents while Chinese tourists proceeded unhindered without any scrutiny or examination. She can be heard speaking Chinese in the video, “Lhasa authorities are violating the nation’s laws; they are engaging in racial discrimination. Chinese individuals with Identification Cards merely need to show their faces to pass. In contrast, Tibetans face restrictions despite possessing all requisite legal documents. Only Chinese individuals without Identification Cards are instructed to register. Meanwhile, we Tibetans, with all legal documentation in order, are denied passage. Look! The Chinese are permitted to pass without impediment. They encounter no issues. What does this convey? Does it not demonstrate a lack of racial equality? Is this not unmistakable racial discrimination?”

Yet another video shows her directly asking a police officer about the directive mandating Tibetans [from Tibetan areas outside Tibet Autonomous Region] to obtain permits to travel to Lhasa. She argues that such a rule constitutes evident discrimination against Tibetans.

An important issue she raises in one of her videos is the existing discrepancy between the operation of travel agencies in China and those in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). She asserts that while travel agencies in China could function autonomously, those in TAR are monopolised by one or two entities, primarily the Lhasa Communications Industry Group Company. This monopoly is facilitated, in part, through collaboration with the Border Management Office.

The Border Management Office, instead of focusing on its designated responsibilities, misuses its power to assist the monopolisation of the Lhasa Transportation Industry Group Company, which is evident in its practices, where only vehicles of the Lhasa Transportation Industry Group are permitted.

“This unjust practice restricts the freedom of other agencies, leaving approximately 300 drivers from non-monopolised agencies unemployed, as their cars are denied permits. Furthermore, the agency with the monopoly maintains a limited fleet, resulting in exorbitant car fares ranging from 2500 to 3000 yuan.”

Tsering Tso is originally from Trika (Ch: Guide) County in Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture but works and lives in Yushu City. She operates the Tibet World Tours and Travel, specialising in organising tours in various regions, including Lhasa City, Ngari, and other parts of Tibet, as well as destinations in other parts of the world.

This is the second time we have received information about her detention. Previously, in November 2020, Tsering Tso was apprehended in Siling (Ch: Xining), the capital of Qinghai Province, on charges related to disrupting “social stability”. She was subsequently transported to Trika (Ch: Guide) County in Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) and detained for ten days, along with a fine of 1000 Chinese yuan. Throughout her detention, she was provided only steamed bread and water, leaving her in a state of starvation. Additionally, she faced constant threats, with her 80-year-old father also being subjected to intimidation during this period.

In China, Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers frequently conduct administrative detention practices characterised by a vague legal framework that grants extensive discretionary powers. Administrative detention practices often include the extensive use of torture and ill-treatment, and expecting any supervision of such misconduct is impractical, as high-ranking officials in the upper echelons tend to incentivise the suppression of dissent and criticism. However, the malpractices of administrative detention directly contradict the promises outlined in Article 37 of the Chinese Constitution, which explicitly safeguards the liberty of citizens, stating, “The personal freedom of citizens of the People’s Republic of China shall not be violated.

No citizen shall be arrested unless with the approval or by the decision of a people’s procuratorate or by the decision of a people’s court, and arrests must be made by a public security organ.

Unlawful detention, or the unlawful deprivation or restriction of a citizen’s personal freedom by other means, is prohibited; the unlawful search of a citizen’s person is prohibited.”

In 2017, Tsering Tso advocated for the issuance of travel permits for Yushu residents legally. Subsequently, the Public Security Bureau dispatched people to physically assault her. Following the incident, an attempt was made to downplay the perpetrators as ordinary individuals under the influence of alcohol engaging in unruly behaviour. In response to this, Tsering Tso shared authentic documents online to counter the denial of justice. Given her prior experiences of enduring similarly severe and oppressive circumstances, and facing a recurrence of such incidents, she emphasised the imperative of a fair and just resolution. Consequently, her post addressing these concerns was made unavailable for public viewing.

Li Yuhan, the Chinese human rights lawyer who won the 2020 Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison. Detained six years ago, she was charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”

Li, who was tried in 2021, was sentenced on Oct. 25 in the First Courtroom of Heping District Court in the Liaoning Province city of Shenyang. She will receive credit for her time in detention and has filed to appeal the sentence.

She represented Chinese rights lawyer Wang Yu during the "709 Crackdown" in 2015, when China launched a sweeping crackdown on more than 300 lawyers and human rights defenders.

The ailing Li Yuhan, 74, has been detained at the Shenyang No. 1 Detention Center since her arrest on Oct. 9, 2017. Authorities added a third charge against her, fraud in 2018, and canceled her trial repeatedly without explanation.

Human rights officials from Germany, France, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries had hoped to observe the trial but were unable to as authorities packed the room with selected spectators.

Li Yuhan's younger brother, Li Yongsheng, told VOA Mandarin, "In this so-called open trial, except for me, a family member, everyone else was kept away by the government. The Heping District Court treated this ordinary criminal case like that of a formidable enemy. They surrounded the court with iron fences and deployed many undercover police and auxiliary police."

Wang, Li’s onetime client, told VOA Mandarin that Shenyang Heping District Court violated international norms against illegal detention and went against China's Criminal Procedure Law, which mandates issuance of a verdict within five years.

Paul Mooney, an American human rights advocate and former Reuters journalist, said, "The sole 'crime' of lawyer Li Yuhan is her courage in handling highly sensitive cases related to religious freedom, including Falun Gong and house churches, and her defense of the distinguished human rights lawyer Wang Yu.

“Detaining a human rights lawyer like Li Yuhan arbitrarily for over six years without a verdict not only violates Chinese law but also underscores the Chinese Communist Party's lack of confidence and a concerning trend of increasing political repression."

Li's son, Ma Wenting, who lives in Germany, told VOA Mandarin, "She has coronary heart disease and arrhythmia. She has undergone coronary artery bypass grafting and stent surgery. … My mother suffered multiple heart attacks in prison. Our family applied for medical parole three times but were all rejected."

Teng Biao, a prominent human rights lawyer in China who has lived in the U.S. since 2014, said in a phone interview on Oct. 25, "Li Yuhan is over 70 years old and seriously ill and has been detained for more than six years. The refusal of her medical parole is not only a violation of legal procedures but also a violation of humanity."

Li Yongsheng told VOA Mandarin that his sister had questioned the Shenyang Heping District Court's jurisdiction since the beginning of the trial, as she did not have a registered address in the district, and she wasn’t arrested there.

"This is an illegal trial. In addition, the testimony and evidence from the prosecutor's office cannot prove my sister is guilty at all," he said. "The defense lawyer He Wei's defense is very good. It is a pity that the power of judgment lies in the hands of the authorities, and the court still pronounced my sister guilty. We will have to continue to appeal and complain that the authorities violated the law."

Teng said, "The heart of the Li Yuhan case lies in the blatant disregard for the law and proper procedures by the authorities. Her arrest and charge of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble' are clearly retaliatory actions against her human rights activities. The primary and direct motive for this retaliation is her involvement in the case of Wang Yu, the first lawyer arrested in the Chinese Communist Party's 709 crackdown. Additionally, Li Yuhan has a long history of petitioning and human rights work. This clearly indicates that the authorities are targeting her."

Ma told VOA Mandarin, "Although the sentence of six years and six months is relatively severe, compared with the previous indefinite extended detention, our family can see more hope. ... I hope my seriously ill mother can be released from prison as soon as possible and receive medical treatment. I also hope the prison will guarantee my mother's basic human rights and the right to see a doctor."

Dozens of residents from a fishing area in north-central Vietnam this week have protested the building of a port project, despite police launching a criminal investigation of them for disturbing public order, demonstrators said.

On Wednesday, Thanh Hoa provincial authorities mobilized dozens of police officers to force protesting fisherfolk — mostly women — to leave the construction site where a dock is being built, one of the sources said. Though they stayed, police did not take any measures against them and left the area at noon.

About 300 residents of Hai Ha commune first took to the streets on the morning of Oct. 23 with banners and placards to show their opposition to the Long Son Container Port project, which they say will adversely affect their livelihoods and living environment.

“We don’t want the Long Son Container Port project because it is located in the coastal area we inherited from our ancestors, and it has been passed down from generation to generation,” said a villager on Wednesday who declined to be named out of fear of reprisal by authorities.

Fishing provides the only income to cover her family’s expenditures, including her children’s education expenses, she said.

“If the port is built, residents like us will be adversely affected by pollution, and there will be no places for our boats to anchor and no places for us to trade seafood,” she said.

Generating income

Long Son Ltd. Co. is investing more than US$30 million to build the 15-hectare (37-acre) project, which will have a 250-meter (820-foot) dock. It is expected to be operational in 2025.

The project will play a crucial role in the development of the first dedicated container port area at Nghi Son Port, according to state-run Vietnam News Agency. Once Dock No. 3 is built, it will serve as a dike against waves and winds and create a 10-hectare (33-foot) water area for local fishermen to safely anchor their boats.

The port is expected to generate revenue and jobs in Thanh Hoa province, including Hai Ha commune.

State media reported that Thanh Hoa provincial authorities conducted thorough studies and environmental assessments as well as consulted local people on the project. But the woman said representatives of the authorities only went around to people’s homes to try to persuade them not to oppose the project and its implementation.

The protest on Oct. 23 prompted Nghi Son town police to file charges against them for obstructing traffic and causing a kilometer-long (0.6 mile) vehicle backup.

Police at the scene took photos of the protesters, recorded videos and collected other information, some villagers involved in the demonstration said.

Police also issued an order requiring Hai Ha residents to adhere to the law and not to gather in groups to disrupt public order, incite others, or be enticed to obstruct the construction of Dock No. 3 of the Long Son Container Port project.

Threatened with arrest

Police threatened them with arrest for disrupting public order — which carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison — if they continued.

Hai Ha commune includes nearly 3,000 households with about 11,000 inhabitants, most of whom rely on fishing to make a living. The villagers say they fear that port officials will cut off their access to the waters where they fish and prohibit them from anchoring their boats.

Villagers ignored the police order and continued their protest on Tuesday and Wednesday, hoping to prevent the dock’s construction.

The woman quoted above said that the villagers are not afraid of going to jail because they don’t want to lose their home beach.

But if they have to relocate as a result of a loss of livelihoods, villagers will expect satisfactory compensation and a new living area with spaces to safely anchor their boats, she said.

“We staged a march and did not offend anyone or did not cause any harm,” she said. “None of us offended the police. We followed the traffic law, [and] we walked on the roadside and stayed in rows.”

The port will join four other industrial projects surrounding the 1,200-hectare (2,965-acre) commune. The others are a cement factory, a port for coal transportation in the north, a thermal power plant in the west, and a steel factory in the south.

Though the projects have created jobs for locals, they have also created serious environmental pollution, negatively affecting residents’ lives, a second woman said.

Two Tibetan women, known for helping the poor and needy in their village were detained on 23 October after sending voice messages in chat groups on the social media application WeChat, encouraging everyone to practise virtuous actions.

Tsomo and Nyidon, are devout Buddhists from a village in Karchen Township (སྐར་ཆེན་ཤང་།), Sershul County ( སེར་ཤུལ་རྫོང་།) in the Tibetan region of Kham. Before their arrests, the pair regularly volunteered to serve the poorest in their community.

Following their arrest, the pair were taken to a detention centre in the same county. Since then, there have been no further details about their condition.

According to a source spoken to by Tibet Watch, “Currently there is heavy restriction on activities related to religion” in Tibet.

The source added that in Karchen Township alone, many villagers have been summoned to their local police station and subjected to interrogations about their activities of promoting Buddhist virtues.

On 20 December 2021, the ruling Chinese Communist Party announced a new regulation aimed at controlling religion in society: Measures on the Administration of Internet Religious Information Services, of which Article 17 stipulates that individuals and organisations without authorised government licence are "not allowed to organise and carry out religious activities on the internet."

The Phnom Penh Appeal Court today upheld the convictions of eight current and former unionists from the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU).

Nine activists, including union President Chhim Sithar, were convicted of incitement under Articles 494 and 495 of the Criminal Code by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in May 2023. Eight of the activists appealed the verdict. They included Sithar, who received the maximum sentence of two years in prison; Chhim Sokhorn, Hay Sopheap, Kleang Soben, Sun Srey Pich and Touch Sereymeas, who were sentenced to 18 months in prison; and Sok Narith and Ry Sovandy, who received one-year suspended sentences.

The Appeal Court trial started this morning. The court announced its verdict upholding the lower court’s judgment in full this afternoon after deliberating for 30 minutes. Sok Kongkea, who was also convicted by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and received a suspended sentence, did not appeal the lower court’s verdict.

LRSU members have been on strike since December 2021, after the NagaWorld casino laid off the entire LRSU leadership and many of its members. The unionists were arrested in December 2021 and January 2022, and held in pre-trial detention until March 2022. Sithar was arrested again in November 2022 for allegedly violating judicial supervision conditions. She has since been detained in Prey Sar’s Correctional Centre 2. The other activists will remain under judicial supervision until all appeal avenues are exhausted.

High drama continued on English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) campus on Thursday night as students gathered in large numbers demanding action against the men involved in the alleged sexual assault of a student.

Vice-Chancellor E. Suresh Kumar, who was inside the building guarded by the security staff, was escorted out with police help in the midnight.

The university officials filed a complaint against 11 students in Osmania University police station for unlawfully gathering outside proctor T. Samson’s residence inside EFLU campus.

Meanwhile, the protest, which started around 4 p.m. on Thursday, went on till 1.30 a.m. on Friday.

Agitated students demanded the resignation of the Vice-Chancellor and proctor.

“We were appalled by the callous reaction from the healthcare staff and the management towards this issue. We need action to be taken against such authorities,” said the students.

The student was allegedly assaulted by two men, who are yet to be unidentified, around 10 p.m. of October 18. She was ambushed by the men by the old dispensary building near Gate Number 3 of the campus. After finding her lying unconscious, two students took her to the University Health Centre for medical assistance as she had bruises and injuries on her neck and head. Students said that the staffers treated this matter with insensitivity and also discouraged attempts from the students’ end to make the matter public.

“The woman was first questioned as to why she went to that part of the campus and was further suggested to keep the matter to herself,” added the students.

Police investigation

Meanwhile, OU inspector P. Anjaneyulu said that no arrests have been made following the complaint from the proctor.

“We will be identifying the students in the video footage of the gathering,” he said.

Speaking about the investigation into the alleged sexual assault, he said: “There are about 300 cameras inside the campus and we have gathered footage from 35 cameras surrounding the scene of offence to gather evidence against the two unidentified men. Efforts are on to identify and nab them.”

When Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano were abducted last month while volunteering with fishing communities opposed to reclamation activities in Manila Bay, human rights groups suspected the state was involved.

When the security forces claimed the pair had surrendered as communist rebels, their contemporaries believed they had been forced into doing so but were unable to prove it.

At a government-organised news conference, they got their answer.

Rather than going along with the official story, Castro, 23, and Tamano, 22, shocked everyone by announcing they had been abducted by military officers who had forced them to surrender.

“They were confident we would lie to the public,” Castro told Al Jazeera. “The important thing was for the public to know the truth.”

The two activists filed for a legal protection order after speaking publicly.

In the court filing, they accused military members of forcing them into an SUV, blindfolding them, and subjecting them to eight days of interrogation. Facing death threats from their captors, the two women were often brought to tears and feared for their lives.

“I was hoping we could get out alive,” Castro said. “But there was a possibility it wasn’t going to happen.”

The military has maintained that Castro and Tamano were not abducted, but kidnapped by the communist New People’s Army (NPA) before escaping and surrendering to the military. It filed perjury charges against the two activists on Wednesday.

“There is no abduction based on the duo’s sworn statement,” army spokesperson Col Xerxes Trinidad told Al Jazeera, citing documentation that “they surrendered and sought the assistance of the military for them [to] be reintegrated into mainstream society”.

Rare insight The accounts of Castro and Tamano, who spoke to Al Jazeera about their experience, provide a rare insight into the alleged abduction of activists in the Philippines.

At least 18 community organisers and activists have been abducted since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office in June 2022. Most of the time, the victims “don’t surface, or they parrot the narrative forced upon them by the state”, said Dino de Leon, the lawyer for Tamano and Castro.

Many activists are pressured into surrendering after being “red-tagged” or falsely branded as rebels affiliated with the NPA, which has been fighting against the government for more than 50 years. Most never dare to speak out against state security forces.

“I was really nervous,” Tamano recalled, thinking before the news conference. “I knew that it was something that is usually not done.”

Before they disappeared, the activists were volunteering with AKAP Ka Manila Bay in Bataan, about three hours’ drive from Manila. The group opposes land reclamation projects in Manila Bay that have stoked concern over their environmental impact and the involvement of Chinese investors.

Marcos said in August he would suspend the reclamation projects pending further environmental review, but ships have continued dredging the bay.

Bataan, which lies across the bay from the capital, is a “grey area” where reliable data on land reclamation has not been collected by environmental groups, said Aldrein Silanga, an advocacy officer with the Manila-based environmental NGO Kalikasan PNE.

After arriving in Bataan, Castro and Tamano said they discovered several projects that began during coronavirus lockdowns without the knowledge of nearby communities. They even witnessed one village being demolished after residents refused an offer of cash compensation and were forced to leave.

They quickly realised they were being watched when they were approached multiple times by a man who photographed them and accused them of being communist rebels. Castro’s mother, Rosalie, was visited at her home by men identifying themselves as military officers and asking about her daughter.

“Any advocates against the reclamation are being red-tagged,” Castro said.

Castro and Tamano were walking to a bus stop on September 2 when they were abducted by armed men wearing face masks, who forced them into an SUV when they tried to run away.

At first, the pair were unsure who had abducted them. But one man knew Castro’s name and mentioned that her mother was looking for her, leading her to suspect the military.

The abductors interrogated the two women in separate rooms, according to the court filing, threatening to use physical violence and to arrest them on charges of rebellion. One told Tamano: “We will cut out your tongue if you do not speak.”

“I thought they were going to shoot me that night,” Castro said. “I was blindfolded. Our hands were tied. I was waiting for a bullet to be shot at me.”

The pair were kept in a motel in separate rooms, with five to six men in each, and continuously interrogated, according to the court filing. On the third day, Castro was given a form with the stamp of the 70th Infantry Battalion.

One of the abductors showed Castro his graduation picture from the military academy, while another shared a video from an encounter with rebels. “It was really obvious” they were members of the military, Castro said.

‘They were exposed’ On September 12, the military announced that Castro and Tamano had surrendered, claiming they were abducted by communist rebels after working with AKAP Ka, which they claimed was linked to front organisations of the NPA.

According to the military, the pair had realised the error of their ways — a common narrative in surrenders allegedly forced by the military. “They wanted us to tell the people that what we are doing is wrong,” Castro said.

Trinidad, the military spokesperson, said the statements were made voluntarily and were not given under duress.

But when the government called a news conference on September 19, Castro and Tamano decided to deviate from that narrative, even if it meant they would be arrested or face other consequences.

“We reached an agreement that it didn’t matter what would happen to us,” Tamano said. “It was the only opportunity where we could tell the truth.”

Castro, sitting alongside a military officer and a member of the government’s anti-communist task force, went off script, saying they had been abducted by the military and “obliged to surrender because they threatened to kill us”.

Military officers told the two women they could face charges of perjury if they reneged on their surrender. The next day, the anti-communist task force said it felt “betrayed” and “hoodwinked”.

“We expected that they would become defensive because they were exposed,” Tamano said.

Castro and Tamano now face perjury charges filed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which can carry as many as 10 years in prison.

Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro accused the two women of being liars.

“The [military] filed criminal charges because we want to teach them a lesson that they can’t jerk us around,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

Trinidad, the army spokesperson, told Al Jazeera the military would cooperate with court proceedings and inquiries from the country’s Commission on Human Rights, but rejected calls for an independent investigation into the disappearances, saying the involvement of outside NGOs would be “a slap in the face on our judiciary system”.

Last month, rights groups accused the military of abducting three Indigenous activists investigating alleged human rights violations in the central Mindoro region. The Philippine Army said they were arrested legitimately.

De Leon, who also represents jailed Senator Leila de Lima, said the international community “must be involved” in pressuring the Philippine military to institute human rights reforms. The United States is a key defence partner of the Philippines and recently concluded two weeks of joint military drills with the country’s armed forces.

“There are no institutions [in the Philippines] strong enough to counterbalance state elements who author things like this,” de Leon said.

Castro and Tamano want to return to Bataan and continue their work, but they worry it is not safe. Still, their ordeal has only cemented their resolve.

“It made us realise that what we are doing is right,” Castro said.

The Ratchadapisek Criminal Court has found three activists guilty of insult of court and sentenced them to prison for speeches given during a protest in April 2021 to demand the release of political prisoners.

Bencha Apan, Nutchanon Pairoj, and Somyot Pruksakasemsuk were charged with insult of court, joining a gathering of more than 10 people and not dispersing when ordered by an official, using a sound amplifier without permission, and violation of the Emergency Decree, for joining a protest in front of the Criminal Court on 30 April 2021 to demand the release of political prisoners detained pending trial on royal defamation charges.

On 30 April 2021, a crowd gathered at the Criminal Court throughout the afternoon and evening when Sureerat Chiwarak, mother of activist Parit Chiwarak, filed a bail request of her son, at the time detained pending trial on a royal defamation charge and on hunger strike. To protest the repeated denial of bail for Parit, Sureerat shaved her head in the court parking lot. That evening, other activists also shaved their heads to support her and to demand bail for Parit.

The public prosecutor indicted them on the grounds that they insulted the judges involved by accusing them of unlawfully and unfairly denying bail for detained activists, causing hatred against the Court and the presiding judges.

Bencha, Nutchanon, and Somyot’s defence was that they were exercising their constitutional right to protest, and that the gathering did not cause any disorder or risk spreading Covid-19. Their speeches also did not mention specific judges but criticised the judicial process as a whole for denying bail to political prisoners.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said today (17 October) that the Criminal Court found them guilty of insult of court, as the court found their speeches to be insulting and degrading to the court’s use of discretion, and so not did not constitute criticism made in good faith.

Benja and Nutchanon were sentenced to 3 years in prison and a fine of 30,000 baht for insult of court. They were also sentenced to 6 months in prison and a fine of 15,000 baht for violation of the Emergency Decree, as well as a fine of 100 bath for using a sound amplifier without permission. Because they gave useful testimony, the Court reduced their total sentence to 1 year and 8 months in prison and a fine of 30,100 baht each. Their prison sentence is suspended for two years. They are also required to report to a probation officer 4 times during the first year and perform any community service required by the probation officer.

Somyot was sentenced to 2 years and 8 months in prison for insult of court. His sentence was later reduced to 1 year, 8 months, and 40 days in prison. He was later granted bail using a security of 100,000 baht.

Benja and Nutchanon were both charged with contempt of court for the same protest after a complaint was filed against them Chawannat Thongsom, Director of the Administrative Office of the Criminal Court, who said they acted rudely on court grounds and violated court regulations. Nuthchanon was sentenced to 2 months in prison, while Benja was given a 500-baht fine. The Appeal Court later reduced his sentence to 15 days.

Benja and Nutchanon were also charged with insult of court and contempt of court for a protest at the Criminal Court on 29 April 2021 demanding the release of detained activists. For the contempt of court charge, Benja was sentenced to 6 months in prison, the highest possible sentence, while Nutchanon was sentenced to 4 months in prison. The Appeal Court later reduce their sentences to 1 month.

Despite the intense police repression, the people of Kashipur have stood up against the Odisha Government coercively facilitating this project for Vedanta. We bring to you the developments of the last 24 hours from the night before the Public Hearing to the end of it. It was held today at Sunger High School premises in Kashipur Block of Rayagada district, Odisha.

Ø On the 15th night, armed police and paramilitary personnel began positioning themselves at the main roads leading to villages known to oppose the mining project. Roads were monitored by company-sponsored goons and a few local village youths. They seemed to have a list of names of media persons and political agents whom they should allow into the villages and used slang and rough language to intimidate and send back anyone outside the ‘list’. Even then, some youths seemingly with the company goons, helped activists and media persons enter the area.

Ø In the morning, women from Banteji village were beaten up by police on the way to the public hearing. They protested. Friends and supporters of the movement tweeted to the Chief Minister to stop the violence.

Ø People walked in with slogans, banners and placards. Strategically, they occupied the space in front of the podium and did not allow a single pro-company deposition to happen. More than 20 community members, including women, spoke loud and clear about their opposition to the proposed bauxite mining and cited reasons for this opposition.

Ø Addressing members of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB), district administration, police administration and Vedanta officials, people raised their voices against the ongoing police repression and the criminal role played by company-sponsored goons and agents. They narrated incidents of abuse, beating, forced entry into their houses, theft of cash, and harassment of women and girls both in their houses and in public at the local markets. They asserted that the repression was being carried out by company-sponsored goons at the forefront with the tacit support of the local police and paramilitary personnel. Leaders and community members demanded answers from the government about this state-corporate-police nexus but those organising the public hearing had no answers!

Ø As ordered by the High Court, two activists – Dibakar Sahu and Jitender Majhi -were escorted by police from the Raygada jail. They deposed at the public hearing against the proposed project.

Ø About the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report submitted by Vedanta, the chief concern expressed was that the report has deliberately hidden several facts about the ecological diversity and ecosystem of Sijimali. Villagers pointed out that Vedanta’s report does not mention the sacred abode of the supreme deity of the Kandha and Damba communities, Tiji Raja, and the annual rituals and festivals the local people perform at Sijimali hilltop in December every year. They also pointed out that the report has no mention of the 200-odd perennial streams that emerge from Sijimali or the dense forests on the hilltop that have diverse tree species like sal, tamarind, piya sal, aamla, harida, bahada and that the collection of siali leaves and honey is the major source of local peoples’ NTFP income. They pointed out that there is no mention of several sacred caves on Sijimali which are worshipped as abodes of animals whom the local people worship and hold rituals inside the caves to invoke the animal spirits every year. Some of the most important caves are Parapar and Baghpar. All those who deposed clearly mentioned that the EIA report does not mention about the local peoples’ cultural heritage and generations-old relationship with nature and the traditional community forest governance principles that they all practice to conserve the forests, lands, and mountains in Sijimali. The statements were loud and clear about the unconditional ban on mining at Sijimali and that Vedanta should go back.

Ø Keeping in line with the proactive media misinformation that has been happening since early August, some local media TV channels and reporters began to spread misinformation about the procedures and testimonies at the public hearing. They reported that the public hearing was cancelled due to law-and-order problems. Many even tried to create a narrative that several villagers demanded that Vedanta must open a local refinery if it wants to start bauxite mining in Sijimali.

Ø The ADM, Rayagada and ASP, Rayagada addressed the media that the public hearing was completed peacefully and with discipline; the ADM added that the process was successfully carried out and the report on the proceedings of the public hearing will be submitted to OSPCB soon. This has become the modus operandi. Stating that it ended peacefully despite the vibrant protest is but a claim that their ritual is over.

Ø However, today’s protest seems to have already set the tone for the next hearing. The Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project spreads over both Thuamul Rampur block in Kalahandi District and Kashipur block in Rayagada District. The public hearing for Thuamul Rampur block is scheduled at Kerpai High School premises on October 18th

Award-winning Indian author Arundhati Roy is facing prosecution after giving a speech 13 years ago, disputing the idea that Kashmir is an integral part of India.

The initial complaint was filed by a Kashmir activist following Roy's speech in 2010, in which she and three others spoke at a conference and criticized India's policy toward Kashmir.

Under Indian law, crimes of hate speech, sedition, and promoting enmity need approval from Indian officials to be prosecuted. That approval was given Wednesday, according to local media — more than a decade after the initial report was filed.

Delhi police now have permission to prosecute Roy and Central University of Kashmir professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain, under crimes of promoting enmity and making assertions prejudicial to national integration and causing public mischief, a move approved by federally-appointed lieutenant-governor, Vinai Kumar Saxena.

The other speakers named in the 2010 complaint, one a professor and the other a Kashmiri separatist leader, have since died.

Reasoning for why Saxena approved prosecution 13 years after the complaint was filed was not given in the report.

Roy, 61, a political activist as well as the 1997 Booker prize winner for fiction, has not provided a reaction to the recent developments.

The decision has faced disapproval from those opposing the current administration led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who came to power in 2014, and has since drawn criticism for its record on free speech.

Prosecuting the 2010 complaint has furthered some concerns over the current government's free speech stances, despite the complaint being registered before Modi's administration came to power.

"It is obvious that the LG [and his masters] have no place in their regime for tolerance or forbearance; or for that matter the essentials of democracy," P. Chidambaram, a senior leader of the main opposition Congress party who was India's home (interior) minister in 2010, posted on X. LG refers to Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena.

Activist Wanwalee Thammasattaya has been found guilty of royal defamation and sentenced to 2 years and 8 months in prison over a photo she posted of herself and two other people holding signs at a protest.

Wanwalee was charged with royal defamation along with Nueng (pseudonym) and Nam (pseudonym), two other protesters, after a complaint was filed against them by Sukij Dechkul, a member of the ultra-royalist group Thai Phakdee in Chiang Mai. Sukij claimed that a picture Wanwalee posted of herself, Nueng, and Nam at a protest on 21 November 2020 in Bangkok’s Siam shopping district showed them holding signs with messages that insulted the King.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) noted that none of the three defendants live in Chiang Mai, and that the 21 November 2020 protest took place in Bangkok, but because the complaint was filed against them in Chiang Mai, they have had to travel back and forth for police and court appointments for the past three years.

The 21 November 2020 protest was organized by the student rights group Bad Student and other pro-democracy activists. They criticize the government for its inefficiency and for how the education system is failing its students. Wanwalee testified that she posted the picture, which was taken after they were asked by a reporter to hold up the signs for pictures. She said that the sign came from an activity held during the protest where participants can write messages onto pieces of cardboard, and that some messages on the signs were written by someone else. Nueng and Nam, Wanwalee’s then high school friends, were also only tagged in the post, and Wanwalee said they were not involved in making the post, which make her think that the complaint was filed to harass political dissidents.

TLHR reported that Sukij testified that he was President of the Thai Phakdee group’s Chiang Mai chapter, and that he was given the documents used to file the complaint by other members of the group. He also testified that he did not know who posted the picture, but believed the three defendants made the posts together and that he does not know what Facebook’s tag function is.

TLHR said yesterday (10 October) that the Chiang Mai Provincial Court found Wanwalee guilty of royal defamation and sentenced her to 4 years in prison. Her sentence was later reduced to 2 years and 8 months because she gave useful testimony.

The Court ruled that the message on the sign Wanwalee was holding can be read to be about he King, and that she published the photo of the sign on Facebook even though she knew the message insulted the King, dismissing her defence that the message refers to the military and its information operation.

Charges against Nueng and Nam were dismissed. The Court ruled that it was unclear who the messages on the sign they were holding referred to. They also did not like or share the post.

Wanwalee was later granted bail on a security of 150,000 baht in order to file for appeal. She is facing a total of 4 counts of royal defamation and has previously been found guilty of one count for a speech she gave during a protest on 6 December 2020.

Sri Lankan security officials halted a bus that was carrying Tamil members of the families of the disappeared from Amparai and interrogated them, before eventually preventing them from attending a protest in solidarity with farmers in Batticaloa on Sunday.

The family members were on their way to join protest in Mayilathamadu, with livestock farmers protesting the encroachment of their grazing land by the Mahaweli Authority for new settlements.

However, they were halted at the Kallady bridge and subjected to questioning from 9 a.m. until noon, preventing them from joining the demonstration.

The incident occurred as Sri Lankan police came under criticism for their harsh response to the ongoing farmers' protest, including violent attacks on the protestors. Simultaneously, there has been a double standard in the treatment of counter-protests, such as one led by Sinhala Buddhist monk Ampitiya Sumanarathna, a monk known for making violent and racist remarks.

A spokesperson for the Amparai chapter of the families of the disappeared told reporters that the double standard employed by state authorities, once again, only goes to highlight the legitimacy of their call upon the international community to intervene to provide justice.

Reliable sources have confirmed that the Taliban arrested and detained Manija Sadeqi, a member of the “Spontaneous Women’s Movement of Afghanistan,” 15 days ago.

Laila Basim, another member of the Spontaneous Women’s Movement of Afghanistan, confirmed on Monday, October 23, in an interview with Hasht-e Subh Daily, that the Taliban apprehended Manija Sadeqi on October 7, 15 days ago, in the Kart-e-Naw area of Kabul city.

According to Basim, despite the 15-day efforts by Sadeghi’s family to secure her release, they have been unsuccessful.

Basim states that the reason for detaining female protesters is their resistance against the Taliban’s misogynistic actions.

It is essential to note that the Taliban also detained Neda Parwani along with her child and husband on September 19 and Julia Parsi on October 26 this year from Kabul city. These two women are also members of the Spontaneous Women’s Movement of Afghanistan.

The arrest of Parwani and Parsi has sparked various reactions.

Despite repeated calls from human rights organizations for the release of the detained female protesters, the Taliban have remained unresponsive to their actions.

Vietnamese authorities recently prevented Ms. Ngo Thi Oanh Phuong from leaving the country. She is widely known on social networks through her Facebook account named Phuong Ngo because she often speaks out against many social issues and has enthusiastically fought against negativity for many years.

According to VOA's own source, Tan Son Nhat International Airport Border Gate Police did not let Ms. Phuong leave the country early on the morning of October 5 after she had a boarding pass to fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Ho Chi Minh City. Narita airport of the Japanese capital.

Two representatives of the border police and a representative of Japan Airlines made a record of "temporary exit" for Ms. Phuong, the source said. The minutes that VOA saw read that she was not allowed to leave Vietnam "for national defense and security reasons" based on an article in the law on the entry and exit of Vietnamese citizens issued in 2019. 2019.

The minutes did not say in more detail why Ms. Phuong was not allowed to leave the country. VOA tried to contact Ms. Phuong and the relevant police agency to learn more but could not connect.

Ms. Phuong, 42 years old, permanently residing in Ho Chi Minh City, has been famous on social networks for many years due to her active criticism, fight against injustice and many volunteer activities, of which she especially stands out. combat road toll booths located in unreasonable locations and provide relief to those in need due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to VOA's research, Article No. 36 of Vietnam's 2019 law on entry and exit sets out regulations on 9 cases of temporary exit, including "people whom the authorities have grounds to believe that the Their exit affects national defense and security" stated in section 9.

Other cases temporarily banned from leaving the country are suspects and defendants; People involved in prison sentences are on probation; person with civil court obligations ; person who must fulfill tax obligations, etc.

Before the case of Ms. Ngo Thi Oanh Phuong, the Vietnamese government banned many other activists, activists, dissidents and critics from leaving the country such as Dr. Nguyen Quang A and lawyer Vo An Don. , Cao Dai follower Nguyen Xuan Mai, Protestant follower Doctor Eban, priest Truong Hoang Vu.

Poet Nguyen Thi Phuong, pen name Chieu Anh, reported to Project88 that she has twice been “invited” by Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) police to answer questions about her active support for political prisoners. At the first session on June 21, 2023, Phuong was asked about her middleman role of receiving money and then forwarding it to the families of prisoners. They also questioned her about a motorcycle she donated to the wife of political prisoner Huynh Truong Ca. Phuong told Project88 the police tried to frame her action as receiving funds sent from abroad as “support for terrorism.”

At the second meeting on October 5, she was once again grilled regarding what the police called “terrorism support funds.” Additionally, they asked about her sharing articles by RFA and former political prisoner Pham Thanh Nghien, who emigrated to the United States earlier this year. The police wanted Chieu Anh to sign a note promising not to repost content that has not been cleared by state censors, but she refused. Phuong was fined 7.5M dong ($300) for unspecified “violations of the cybersecurity law,” but she refused to pay, saying she did not violate any regulations. Watch our short interview with Chieu Anh from 2019 here.

Lawyers from the Mullaitivu Bar Association are continuing their strike for the second consecutive day, demanding justice for Judge T. Saravanarajah, who resigned from all his positions due to death threats linked to his verdicts in the Kurunthurmalai archaeology case.

The Mullaitivu Bar Association has announced that the strike will continue until they receive assurance that judicial officers can safely and independently perform their legal duties. The lawyers marched from the Mullaitivu courts complex to the Mullaitivu main junction and back to the courts complex, maintaining a peaceful protest.

Intelligence officers and Police were seen openly photographing and recording the protestors in an attempt to continue intimidating the legal professionals.

This indefinite strike began on October 2nd and has seen lawyers from Mannar, Kilinochchi, and Mannar joining in support. Lawyers from across the North-East will also participate in the protest by wearing black face masks while carrying out their duties for the next two weeks.

In Mannar, civil society activists gathered at the Mannar bus stand, expressing their lack of trust in the numerous investigation committees formed by the government for various issues in addition to being in solidarity with the ongoing protests throughout the North-East. The strike is emblematic of growing concerns over the independence and safety of judicial officers in Sri Lanka.

Officials of the National Investigating Agency (NIA) arrived in groups of four and five in 62 locations across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on October 2, in coordinated raids at the homes of human rights activists and researchers.

The raid teams – comprising of NIA officers from Delhi and the local police – arrived between 5.30 am and 6 am on the day, and stayed at the locations till afternoon.

One such raid was carried out at the house of a senior lawyer and rights activist Durba Suresh Kumar. Suresh, also a member of the Indian Association of People’s Lawyer, told The Wire that he was woken up by the NIA sleuths.

“I was woken up by the officers. They had flown down, along with panch witnesses. But the local police were not informed,” Suresh said. The local police, Suresh says, joined much later. From Suresh’s house, the NIA seized his phone and a 12-page pamphlet of the People’s War Group, dating back to 1993.

Suresh says for the longest period, he was not aware of the nature of the raid and the exact case in connection with which it was being conducted. The NIA later informed him that the ongoing raids were a part of the “Munchingiputtu CPI (Maoist) conspiracy case” – in connection with which similar raids were carried out at the residences of many rights activists and academics in 2021.

Suresh was served a notice under section 160 of the CrPC, asking him to be present before the NIA as a witness. This, Suresh points out, is both “unlawful” and “unethical”.

“I am a counsel for many persons named in the case. I represent them in the high court and now the NIA wants me to appear before them as a witness in the same case,” Suresh told The Wire over a phone call.

This is not the first time that a lawyer has been named an accused or asked to be a witness in the same case they have appeared as counsel in, before a court. Surendra Gadling, a Nagpur-based lawyer and an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, was also made an accused in one of the cases in which he had defended an accused in the conflict-affected Vidarbha region in Maharashtra.

HRF functionaries targeted

Of the 62 locations raided, 53 are in Andhra Pradesh and nine are in Telangana. Along with the raids on October 2, the NIA also arrested one Chandra Narasimhulu, allegedly a state executive committee member of the Pragathiseela Karmika Samakya (PKS), an alleged front organisation of the banned CPI (Maoist). Narasimhulu was arrested from Satya Sai district in Andhra Pradesh. Along with his arrest, the NIA has claimed to have found a pistol, 14 rounds of ammunition, and Rs 13 lakhs in a case from another spot in Kadapa district. Maoist literature and pamphlets were also seized, the NIA has claimed.

Most of those raided were unsure if they are being looked at as suspects or witnesses in the case. The house of K. Sudha, a state executive committee member of Human Rights Forum, was also raided. Sudha, who reaches at a state law university, said the NIA has taken her phone away.

As raids took place at Sudha’s house, V.S. Krishna, the convener of the HRF’s Andhra Pradesh and Telangana units reached Sudha’s residence. Krishna’s house was raided in 2021 in the same case. Krishna told The Wire that he got calls from two other HRF members, who said that the NIA broke into their houses because they were not home when officials arrived. “I tried contacting other members. When Sudha did not pick up the call, I knew the NIA had reached her place too,” Krishna said.

The two other person’s whose houses were raided when they were away are HRF’s AP state general secretary Y. Rajesh in Amalapuram and the organisation’s state vice-president K.V. Jagannadha Rao in Srikakulam. Rajesh, who was on his way back from Bengaluru, when The Wire called him late on October 2, said that the NIA contacted him a little before 6 am. “They came with a notice under Section 165 (2) of the CrPc, which authorised them to search the premise. Some of my neighbours went to my place and the NIA conducted the raid,” Rajesh said, adding that the NIA has not made any seizures from his house.

Books, vernacular literature

However, from another HRF functionary’s place, the NIA has picked up over 60 books. Sudha, who shared information about the raid, said, “They basically picked up every book and document that had red font on it.” Krishna said the officers did not know to read Telugu. “Most books and our write-ups are in the local language. They mindlessly picked things up and later call it incriminating,” he added.

Besides HRF and IAPL, houses of the members of the Civil Liberties Committee (CLC), the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), and the Revolutionary Writers Association (RWA), were also raided among others. The NIA has accused veteran rights activists and organisations of acting as “fronts” to the CPI (Maoist) organisation, banned in 2009. This claim has been vehemently opposed by rights organisations. HRF has called the NIA’s claim “a plain canard”. “Seeking to criminalise our human rights activity will never succeed. HRF is not an appendage of the Maoists or any other political party. HRF was formed on October 11, 1998 and we have turned 25 this month. We shall persist in spreading a human rights culture in society with the certitude that a broad-based and truly independent human rights movement is desirable and possible,” HRF said, in a press statement released earlier today, October 3.

The locations in Andhra Pradesh subjected to raids are in Guntur, Palanadu, Vijayawada, Rajhmundry, Prakasam, Bapatla, Eluru, East Godawari, Dr B.R. Ambedkar Konasema, Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Nellore, Tirupati, Kadapa, Anantpur, and Kurnool districts. The NIA said that the nine locations in Telangana include districts of Hyderabad, Mahabubnagar, Hanumakonda, Ranga Reddy, and Adilabad.

The investigation, first registered and handled by the local state police in 2020, was taken up by the NIA in 2021. Popularly known as the ‘Munchingiputtu case’, it deals with alleged Maoist movement and literature in a village of the Alluri Sitharama Raju district. The NIA has filed a chargesheet against seven persons in that case.

One of the immediate causes for worry expressed by those raided is around the seizure of electronic devices. Most of them are lawyers and researchers and very heavily reliant on their electronic devices for their work. “Seizure of electronic devices including mobiles without even providing cloned copies to the owners amounts to immediate lack of access to precious work-related material and contacts. It leads to an overwhelming loss,” the HRF statement reads.

“To confiscate these devices in such a sudden manner results in a stunning dispossession. It is not only a deprival of valuable property of the functionaries concerned but also of their right to livelihood, privacy and human dignity.”

The Phnom Penh Court has blocked three environmental activists, currently on probation for convictions related to their advocacy, from leaving the country to receive a prestigious international award.

In a letter published on Monday, the court’s prosecutor Chroeng Khmao stated that the trip was “not necessary” and that the activists were “not allowed to go abroad.”

Last week, Thon Ratha, Long Kunthea and Phoun Keoreaksmey with the Cambodian environmental activist group Mother Nature received an invitation to a November ceremony in Sweden to accept the Right Livelihood Award, known as the Alternative Nobel. The group has worked to expose environmental destruction in the country over the last ten years, including logging and sand mining.

“Undeterred by threats, harassment and arrests, Mother Nature Cambodia has emerged as a powerful voice for environmental preservation and democracy in Cambodia,” a press release from Right Livelihood states.

The three activists were arrested in 2020 and convicted with incitement for their involvement in planning a one-woman march to raise awareness of the impact of filling in lakes for development. They were released in 2021 after serving 14 months in prison, but are still under court supervision until 2025.

They were also handed a new charge of ‘plotting’ in 2021 in connection with an ongoing case concerning the documentation of sewage being released into the Tonle Sap River.

“This is a cruel thing for the judiciary in Cambodia to deny us as young people working on the protection of natural resources and the environment,” said Ratha, one of the award winners. “The reason that the prosecutor gave, ‘not necessary,’ that’s a ridiculous reason because we were going to go abroad to get a global award that is not easy for any group or individual or country to get.”

He believes the decision will give the international community the impression that Prime Minister Hun Manet is following in the footsteps of his father, and will negatively impact Cambodia. While “liberal countries” are getting along with the new government now, he said this could change when restrictions on freedoms continue.

“The case against us as Mother Nature is clearly a political issue,” he said “It is a restriction on the rights and freedoms of young people who dare to tell the truth, dare to be angry with their own national wealth, dare to expose corruption and the inactivity of officials on the extraction of natural resources.”

Appearing on stage to receive the award could have been a source of inspiration for young Cambodians, he said, showing that people from a small country can do great things. The activists plan to have representatives accept the award in person on their behalf.

“Right Livelihood awards, supports and honours Laureates regardless of whether they can attend the Award Presentation,” said Sydney Nelson, a communications officer for the organization.

Soeng Senkaruna, the human rights group Adhoc’s senior investigator, said Adhoc was very sorry to see the court’s rejection of the request and still insists that the court should be more open-minded.

“This decision is one that discourages young people who love natural resources and actively participate in their defense,” he said. “We are all Cambodians, but we do not value the Cambodian youth who protect all natural resources.” Y Rin and Plang Sophal, spokespeople for Phnom Penh Municipal Court, both declined to comment.

A leading Vietnamese climate activist has been jailed for tax evasion, the latest environmentalist put behind bars by the country’s communist government.

A court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Hoang Thi Minh Hong to three years in prison for dodging $275,000 in taxes related to her environmental campaign group Change, her lawyer, Nguyen Van Tu, said.

The 50-year-old is at least the fifth environmental campaigner to be jailed on tax evasion charges in the last two years as Vietnam’s authoritarian government steps up a crackdown on activists.

Her husband, Hoang Vinh Nam, said he was “disappointed” at the verdict.

“The sentence given to Hong today was too heavy,” he said. “I think it was unfair to Hong. The defence lawyer did his best but his arguments were not considered properly.”

State media said the charges related to revenue generated by Change from 2012 to 2022. Hong admitted the charges and along with her family paid the state 3.5bn dong ($145,000) in return for leniency, state media said.

Hong founded Change to mobilise Vietnamese, particularly young people, to take action on environmental issues including climate change, the illegal wildlife trade and pollution. But she abruptly shut down the group last year after four environmental and human rights activists were jailed for tax evasion.

“This conviction is a total fraud, nobody should be fooled by it,” said Ben Swanton, the co-director of The 88 Project, which advocates for human rights in Vietnam. “This is yet another example of the law being weaponised to persecute climate activists who are fighting to save the planet.”

Earlier this month Hanoi police detained the director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition, an independent energy policy thinktank.

Ngo Thi To Nhien, who has worked with the EU, World Bank and UN, was reportedly working on the implementation plan for Vietnam’s Just Energy Transition Partnership, a $15bn G7-funded project to help wean Vietnam off fossil fuels.

No official information on Nhien’s accusation has been made public.

Hong has been recognised internationally for her work: she joined the Obama Foundation Scholars program in New York in 2018 and was listed by Forbes among the 50 most influential Vietnamese women in 2019.

When she was detained in May, the UN’s human rights body was among many international groups to voice concern, warning of the “chilling effect” of tax cases against civil society groups.

Among the four green activists jailed last year was Nguy Thi Khanh, a globally recognised climate and energy campaigner who won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018. She spent nearly a year in jail before she was released last month.

Zholia Parsi, a women’s rights activist, was arrested with her elder son by the Taliban in Qala-e-Fathullah area in Kabul on Wednesday morning, sources confirmed.

According to sources, Parsi was arrested from her home in Kabul and some of their belongings, including mobile phones and a number of documents, were taken away by the Taliban.

This is the second arrest of a women’s rights activist by the Taliban in less than a month.

Taliban has not commented on the matter so far.

More details will be added to this story.

One of the residents with the initials BT who refused to be relocated for the national strategic project (PSN) Rempang Eco City was summoned by Galang Police. BT was accused of violating Article 28 of the Law on Electronic Information and Transactions (UU ITE).

The summons was issued on September 25 with the number B/02/IX/2023/Reskrim. BT's summons is scheduled for Wednesday (27/9) at the Galang Police Criminal Investigation Unit.

"For the purpose of the investigation, you are requested to be present to provide information which will be held on Wednesday, September 27, 2023," reads a copy of the summons.

BT was summoned after sending a message in a Whatsapp group regarding the rejection of relocation. BT is said to have called on residents to reject the basic necessities distributed by uniformed officers because it would lead to a request for residents' approval for relocation.

"[She] sent a message through the WhatsApp group of Sel Buluh residents, Kel Sembulang about her invitation / appeal / incitement to Sel Buluh residents not to easily accept free food if they don't want to end up being evicted from the village," wrote the summons.

Galang Police assessed that the message contained criminal elements, referring to Article 28 of the ITE Law, which reads that every person intentionally and without the right to disseminate information aimed at causing hatred or hostility of individuals and / or certain community groups based on ethnicity, religion, race and intergroup (SARA).

Public Relations Section of Barresta Police AKP Tigor Sidabariba denied that the letter was a summons. He said the letter was only for clarification.

"It was just a clarification, not a summons," Tigor told CNNIndonesia.com, Tuesday (7/26).

Form of criminalization LBH Pekanbaru Public Lawyer Wilton Amos Panggabean believes that the accusation is a form of criminalization against residents who refuse to be relocated.

"It is true like that [there is a summoning of residents], the accusation is in accordance with the article in the letter as a form of silencing the residents. They are trying to be criminalized," Wilton said when contacted.

Wilton said that until now the 43 residents who became suspects for refusing in Rempang have not been released. The 43 residents are not only from Rempang, but also Batam and Tanjung Pinang who are in solidarity to reject the project.

Wilton said that the Rempang advocacy team has not been able to access all the detained residents. Only 24 residents have been successfully assisted, the rest are still being sought.

"The advocacy team still cannot access all of them, so far we have assisted around 24 people and 2 people have been accompanied by others, we will continue to assist 43 people, including this new one," he explained.

Wilton admitted that there were still obstacles to assisting the 24 residents. The reason is, the advocacy team has difficulty meeting residents who are detained because the pretext is still in the process of investigation.

Thousands of residents of Rempang, Batam, Riau Islands are threatened with having to leave their homes because of the construction of the Rempang Eco City area.

The project, carried out by PT Makmur Elok Graha (MEG), will use 7,572 hectares of land or about 45.89 percent of the total area of Rempang Island of 16,500 hectares.

Thousands of residents did not accept having to leave the land they had lived on long before Indonesia proclaimed its independence. They persisted in defending their homes, even though TNI-Polri officers were deployed so that Rempang residents would agree to be relocated.

Clashes were inevitable. On September 7 and 11, 2023, clashes broke out. Police sprayed tear gas and children were rushed to the hospital. To date, 43 people who refused the relocation were arrested, accused of being provocateurs.

Two protesters have been sentenced to one year in prison for contempt of court after giving a speech in front of the South Bangkok Criminal Court on 15 July 2022 to demand the right to bail for detained activists.

On 19 September 2023, the South Bangkok Criminal Court sentenced Ngoentra “Mani” Khamsaen and Chiratchaya “Ginny” Sakunthong each to one year in prison for using offensive language against the judges. Both accused the judges of misconduct and unfairness in considering the request for temporary release of the detained activists. Such actions are deemed serious and have a detrimental impact on the credibility of the judiciary, according to Thai Lawyers for Human rights (TLHR).

The TLHR said the court granted bail of 35,000 baht each, with no condition set.

They were charged with contempt of court, defamation, and using a sound amplifier without permission at a protest on 15 July 2022. In their speeches, they criticised judges for rulings made in the case of monarchy reform activists Nutthanit Duangmusit and Netiporn Sanesangkhom, who were detained pending trial on royal defamation charges at the time.

Both were apprehended during the night of 25 August 2022. The authorities had never notified them of the charges in advance and they were taken to the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, which is outside the jurisdiction of the local police station where the incident occurred.

On 26 August 2022, they were denied bail on the grounds that their actions were deemed dangerous to the court since they accused judges of things that were not true in order to pressure the court. The charges also carry a severe penalty.

The complaints against them were filed by Netiphan Somchit, acting on behalf of judge Santi Chukitsappaisan, the Deputy Chief Justice of the South Bangkok Criminal Court.

Three indigenous people’s rights advocates investigating human rights violations were abducted in Mindoro Oriental.

According to Karapatan Southern Tagalog, they are Job Abednego David, 29, Peter del Monte Jr., 29, and Alia Encela, 19.

They were abducted in Malaglag village, Barangay Lisap, Bongabong town by soldiers belonging to the 4th Infantry Battalion and the 203rd Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

David, Del Monte and Encela were investigating human rights violations related to reports of bombings and shelling in the area earlier this year which were connected to mining and quarrying projects that affected the residents and indigenous people.

Before their disappearance, the families of David and Del Monte received messages from a suspicious Facebook account claiming to be General Randolph Cabangbang of the 203rd Infantry Brigade, asking them to contact him.

Human rights groups in the Southern Tagalog region condemned their abduction.

“This latest attack by the military on rights advocates only proves that there is no ‘Bagong Pilipinas’ (New Philippines) under Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. He only exposed himself as an enabler of state terrorism and attacks against the Filipino people,” said Rev. Luisito Saliendra, Karapatan Southern Tagalog spokesperson

Indigenous communities in Mindoro have been the primary targets of military operations, including test fire exercises, aerial bombings and strafing which affect thousands of residents.

Previous military abductions have raised concerns about the use of red-tagging tactics to justify human rights violations. Karapatan Southern Tagalog and other human rights organizations have called for a thorough investigation into these violations and justice for the victims.

“We are demanding for the immediate release of David, Del Monte and Encela and holding the 203rd Infantry Brigade and the 4th Infantry Battalion accountable for their actions,” Saliendera said.

A Chinese journalist who popularised the country’s stalled #MeToo movement and a labour activist were due to face trial Friday, with supporters voicing concerns for their health after two years in detention.

Sophia Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing were arrested on 19 September 2021, under the broad charge of “inciting subversion of state power” — but their trial in the southern city of Guangzhou was only announced this week, according to their supporters.

Calls to the court where they were expected to appear went unanswered.

The case shows how “the Chinese government has to a large extent eliminated the space for civil society activism”, Yaqiu Wang, China research director at Freedom House, told AFP.

“Authorities have arrested and silenced so many people, by this point, people can be thrown in jail for any perceived infraction of what is permitted, and the space for what is permitted is constantly shrinking.”

Authorities have not given details on Huang and Wang’s arrests.

The two were involved in running a weekly gathering in Guangzhou, a member of a group of supporters told AFP.

With “the whole of civil society fragmented, this was a way to reunite and reconnect, to foster a new network in Guangzhou”, they told AFP.

Police subsequently cracked down on the group, questioning over 70 people and detaining some over the course of several days, they said.

“There was so much PTSD after this attack (on the group)… Some activists had to leave Guangzhou, and (the community) is just not able to join together or connect anymore,” they added.

Huang and Wang’s trial is being held behind closed doors, and it is not known when their sentence will be announced.

Health concerns Huang wrote on social media about her experience of workplace sexual harassment as a young journalist at a Chinese news agency, in the wake of the global #MeToo movement.

She had been arrested before, after returning from reporting on Hong Kong‘s enormous pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Supporters said that her health had deteriorated significantly in detention at that time.

In February, the group said she had stopped menstruating and had experienced dramatic weight loss, as well as bad back pain.

“Her self-appointed lawyer was forced to withdraw from the case and replaced by government-appointed lawyer(s), who has not communicated with Huang’s family and friends,” a statement said.

The group member told AFP they had no further updates on either Huang or Wang’s health.

Both activists have been cut off from outside information, they said, with the detention facility refusing to pass on requested books, and granting no access to families or friends.

The families of the pair had been visited by police again this week and told not to come to Guangzhou for the trial, they said.

On Thursday, 32 NGOs released a statement demanding the pair’s release.

“These baseless charges are motivated purely by the Chinese authorities’ relentless determination to crush critical voices,” said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for China, in a Thursday statement.

“But activists in China refuse to be silenced despite the serious risks of raising their voices to address so-called ‘sensitive’ issues.”

The member of the supporters’ group who spoke to AFP said the pair had understood the risks.

“You want to make social change, you commit to social justice, you commit to the outcome,” they said.

“As a very close friend of theirs, I know they don’t regret what they’re doing.”

Police in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, have detained three civil rights activists on unspecified charges. Abzal Dostiyarov, Marat Turymbetov, and Maira Gabdullina were detained separately on September 22. Dostiyarov's lawyer Zhanar Balghabaeva told RFE/RL that her client is suspected of violating a law on mass gatherings. Police gave no more details, the lawyer said. Human rights activist Rinat Rafqat said the trio's detainments were linked to their participation in a rally in front of a court on September 19, demanding the release of imprisoned activist Aigerim Tileuzhan.

On September 22, student journalist Aila Joy Esperida received a letter signed by a regional administrative authority, a Naga City Barangay, summoning her and her parents for a discussion with unidentified members of the Philippine armed forces on September 24. The Democrat found that the letter contained no official Barangay seal, and no reason was provided for the invitation. A day prior, The Democrat photojournalist John Harvee Cabal received a similar letter from their Barangay.

Prior to the summons, during the 51st-anniversary Martial Law commemoration at Plaza Rizal in Naga City on September 21, Esperida and other student journalists were harassed by soldiers, who took photos of The Democrat’s student staff without their consent and demanded they provide personal information. The student journalists objected to this and urged the soldiers to delete the photos.

Esperida requested the identity of the soldier who collected their personal information, later identified as Sergeant Creo, who questioned the students about their presence at the plaza and encouraged them to join an Infantry division.

A similar incident took place on September 13, involving the publication's former Editor-in-Chief, Berlineth Nymia Montes. Similarly, pressure was exerted on her and her family, with members of the armed forcesinsinuating that she held an affiliation with Filipino terrorist organisations, a practice commonly known as ‘Red-tagging’.

The Democrat, affiliated with the College Editors Guild of the Philippines, is currently seeking the assistance of human rights attorneys and the NUJP. The publication's editorial team has also notified university authorities and scheduled meetings to plan their future actions.

Informed sources have reported the detention of Neda Parwani, a member of the “Spontaneous Women’s Movement of Afghanistan,” by the Taliban in Kabul.

At least two reliable sources have confirmed to Hasht-e Subh that the Taliban apprehended Neda Parwani on the morning of Tuesday, September 19, in the Khairkhana area of Kabul and subsequently transferred her to an undisclosed location.

According to sources, the Taliban have also detained the husband and a four-year-old son of this female protester.

As of now, the Taliban has not issued any official statement regarding this incident.

It is important to highlight that since the emergence of women’s protests in the country, the Taliban have detained and subjected several female protesters to torture.

Sources attribute the Taliban’s detention of female protesters to extortion by this group, alleging that the Taliban demand “money” in exchange for the release of female activists from human rights organizations.

Authorities in Vietnam arrested the director of an independent energy policy think-tank, in its latest crackdown on experts from the field of environment and ecology in recent years.

Ngo Thi To Nhien, director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise, was arrested for allegedly appropriating internal documents relating to state-owned firm Electricity of Vietnam, according to the state media reports.

She was detained on 20 September, spokesperson for the ministry of public security To An Xo, confirmed on Monday.

The official denied that the grounds for arresting Ms Nhien were related to “environmental activism”.

Earlier reports claimed that the think-tank’s top official was detained on 15 September.

“The security investigation agency of Hanoi city police issued an arrest warrant to Ngo Thi To Nhien,” Mr Xo said at a press conference late on Saturday.

If charged, Ms Nhien faced up to five years in prison, according to Vietnam’s criminal code.

According to a rights group, she was detained without any official confirmation.

Ms Nhien is a prominent researcher in Vietnam and has worked with a number of international organisations, including the World Bank, the European Union, the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank. She was reportedly working on an implementation plan for the country’s just energy transition partnership (JETP) at the time of her arrest.

The $15bn project will push Vietnam to wean off fossil fuels and is funded by the G7.

While the immediate reasons for her arrests are not clear, Vietnam is one of the few remaining communist single-party states that tolerate no dissent, including on environmental issues.

Human rights advocacy group The 88 Project have claimed that she has been arrested for “unknown reasons”.

In 2022, Human Rights Watch said that more than 170 activists had been put under house arrest, blocked from travelling or in some cases assaulted by agents of the Vietnamese government in a little-noticed campaign to silence its critics.

Ms Nhien’s arrest comes just days after a Vietnamese climate activist was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of tax fraud.

Hoang Thi Minh Hong, 50, who headed the environmental advocacy group Change, which works on environment and climate issues, was also fined 100 million Vietnamese dong ($4,100) by a court in Ho Chi Minh City, the state-owned Viet Nam News reported.

In what is rapidly becoming a sinister pattern, two individuals were abducted on September 15, 2023 by suspected State agents in Negros Occidental.

A Facebook post by Negros alternative media outfit Paghimutad reported that Bea Lopez, a 26-year-old peasant organizer and resident of Sitio Langud, Brgy. Camalandaan, Cauayan, Negros Occidental; and tricycle driver Peter Agravante, a resident of Sitio Tagnok, Brgy. Gil Montilla, Sipalay City were seized in Sipalay at around 10 a.m. They were reportedly on the way to Brgy. Gil Montilla when they were accosted by masked and armed men in a white van who forced them into the vehicle. The tricycle the victims were riding was also taken and loaded at the back of a pick-up vehicle.

On September 17, Agravante’s body was found in a cliff in Barangay Nagbo-alao, Basay, Negros Oriental. His wrists were bound with rope and his eyes, mouth and ankles bound in duct tape. He had a gunshot wound to the head. Witnesses said that at around midnight of September 16, a white pick-up truck stopped at the area and threw something by the wayside.

Lopez is among the latest victims in a string of abductions and disappearances under the Marcos Jr. regime.

Their abduction comes barely two weeks after that of environmental activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano who were reported seized in Orion, Bataan on September 2, 2023. Pictures of Castro and Tamano were shown to the media on September 15 in a press conference organized by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) but the two remain in military custody despite appeals by Jonila’s mother Roselie Castro for her daughter’s release. Contrary to numerous eyewitness accounts of the abduction, the NTF-ELCAC is making dubious claims that Jonila and Jhed voluntarily surrendered.

The Palace extended its heartfelt condolences to the family of Maria Saniata Liwliwa Gonzales Alzate, after being gunned down by still unidentified assailants in Banguet, Abra last Thursday.

Alzate was shot at least eight times while inside her parked white Mitsubishi Mirage G4 sedan two days ago. The gunmen were seen riding a motorcycle and immediately fled the crime scene.

"We are one with the family of Atty. Maria Saniata Liwliwa Gonzales Alzate in this time of grief, and we offer them our most sincere and heartfelt condolences," Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said in a statement this Saturday.

"We join our brothers and sisters in the legal profession in condemning the killing of Atty. Alzate, who was mercilessly gunned down in front of her home in the afternoon of 14 September 2023."

Bersamin described Alzate as a "fearless," "steadfast," and "principled" lawyer unrelenting in her pursuit of justice.

Alzate, according to National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) president Ephraim Cortez, was the third lawyer killed during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The NUPL is currently considering the possibility that the attack was connected to her profession, given the nature of the cases she handles.

The victim was said to have given her legal assistance to reported victims of illegal arrest, detention and torture allegedly perpetuated by the Philippine National Police.

She had also been providing pro-bono legal services to indigent litigants and has been serving as private prosecutor in the slaying of a teacher allegedly by a barangay chairperson.

"Her death is a tragedy as well for the good province of Abra and for the legal profession," Bersamin added.

"We will ensure that our law enforcement agencies will work relentlessly to bring to justice those behind this heinous act. Hot pursuit operations are already ongoing, and we call upon our citizens to remain vigilant."

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) likewise condemned the killing and joins the calls for enforcement agencies to urgently pursue the perpetrators in order to be brought to justice.

"In the midst of calls to address impunity, threats and attacks against the members of the legal profession directly affront the rule of law," stressed the commission.

"CHR has since stressed their important role: courts, lawyers, and judges are crucial in administering justice, as well as in uncovering the truth, especially for gross human rights violations."

CHR says that it's in the best interest of the state to protect lawyers to be able to dispense their duty of ensuring justice without fear of threats and retaliation.

Gonzales-Alzate is known to be the former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Abra chapter and has been an IBP Commissioner of Bar Discipline since 2015.

The Birinchi Mai district court in Bishkek said on September 11 that well-known political activist Zarina Torokulova was sent to pretrial detention two days earlier until at least October 30 on unspecified charges. Torokulova was detained last week. Media reports said at the time that she was accused of involvement in "mass unrest." No further details were given. Neither Torokulova's lawyers nor her relatives have commented. Torokulova is known for her criticism of the Kyrgyz government in posts on social media.

Phimchanok was charged with royal defamation for a post on her Facebook profile page saying “The government sucks. The institution also sucks.” Pol Col Nopparit Kantha, the superintendent of the provincial investigation department in Chiang Mai, filed charges against her on order of the Chiang Mai regional police working group on national security. Assuming the term “institution” was a reference to the monarchy, the police accused her of royal defamation.

Phimchanok was arrested on 18 March 2022 by a unit of around 15 officers and taken from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. The warrant was issued by the Chiang Mai Provincial Court. She never received a summons before being arrested.

Although Phimchanok’s lawyer requested bail during the inquiry process, the police said that a bail request could only be filed after she had been taken to court for temporary detention. Although the Chiang Mai Provincial Court granted her bail, she was not released until 11.40 on 19 March 2022. This caused her to miss her TCAS examinations, required for university entrance. Thereafter, she was also required to report to the court in Chiang Mai every 12 days, although she lives in Bangkok.

In court, Phimchanok testified that she posted the message but was referring to an educational institution, not the monarchy. She added that even if others think that it refers to the monarchy, it did not constitute royal defamation as the defamation law protects specific members of the royal family, not the royal institution.

On Wednesday (6 September), the Chiang Mai Provincial Court found her guilty of royal defamation. Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that the court cited prosecution witness testimonies saying that Phimchanok has previously been advocating for monarchy reform, making it probable that her post referred to the monarchy. The court also ruled that the royal defamation law covers the royal institution as well as the King, Queen, and Heir Apparent, members of the royal family specifically listed in the text of the law.

The court sentenced Phimchanok to 3 years in prison, but reduced her sentence to 2 years because she gave useful testimony. She was later granted bail using a 150,000-baht security and will be appealing her sentence.

TLHR noted that interpretation of the royal defamation law tends to vary from court to court. On 21 August 2023, the Chiang Mai District Court dismissed one count of royal defamation charge filed against student activist Thanathorn Vitayabenjang on the grounds that the statement he read during the protest in front of the Provincial Police Region 5 headquarters mention the monarchy but not specific members of the royal family. However, he was found guilty of another count of defamation for a speech given at the Three Kings Monument, which mentioned the King.

Conducted against the offices of Bhagat Singh Students Morcha (BSM) in the Benaras Hindu University and the homes of Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) activists, the statement said, the raids “come in light of the recent attempts at suppression of the Bihar-based Kaimur Mukti Morcha’s leadership which has been at the forefront of the Adivasi struggle in Kaimur plateau against the blatant land-grabbing for creating a tiger reserve in the area.”

Since the morning of 5th September 2023, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been raiding the offices of Bhagat Singh Students Morcha (BSM) in Benaras Hindu University. Simultaneously, NIA has raided the homes of Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) State President Seema Azad, her partner and advocate Vishwavijay, advocate Soni Azad and organiser of a workers’ organisation Ritesh Vidyarthi along with political activist Manish Azad in Allahabad.

Along with these raids, NIA has taken Seema Azad, Vishwavijay, Soni Azad and Ritesh Vidyarthi with them to an unknown location in an unlawful manner that reeks of undemocratic political repression. Information regarding their whereabouts is unavailable.

At the same time, at BHU, when two students from BSM attempted to talk to the investigation team regarding the raid being conducted at their offices, the officers slapped one of the students, screaming at the students for “daring to question” the raid in any manner. Two of the students, Akanksha Azad, the President and Siddhi, the Joint Secretary of BSM are forcefully made to sit in the room and interrogated while their phone have been confiscated by the NIA officers.

These raids happening now in Allahabad are part of a larger on-going campaign of political repression being undertaken in Uttar Pradesh, with the house of activist Rajesh being also raided in Deoria district. Rajesh is an activist of the Khiriya Bagh-Azamgarh farmers’ movement and a member of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha.

Similar raids have also taken place in Chandauli district. The raids come in light of the recent attempts at suppression of the Bihar-based Kaimur Mukti Morcha’s leadership which has been at the forefront of the Adivasi struggle in Kaimur plateau against the blatant land-grabbing of their lands for the sake of creating a tiger reserve in the area. In the past, police have opened fire on peaceful protests of the KMM and repeatedly abducted their activists.

Political activists, lawyers, intellectuals, and students who extend their support to movements against the corporate plunder of resources backed by the Indian state and its loot of the lands of farmers and Adivasis are continuously being branded as Maoists in a bid to silence all dissenting voices that expose the Indian state’s anti-people policies.

Abductions, violence, seizure of property and police brutality have become common practices by the state forces against all such dissent. In a time when the brutalities and undemocratic practices of the Indian state have become so open, all democratic-minded, justice-seeking, peace-loving people must come together in organized resistance towards such suppression.

Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) strongly condemns the undemocratic raids on its constituent organisation, Bhagat Singh Student Morcha (BSM) and Democratic- pro-people activists and subsequent detention of 4 activists by NIA.

We demand that these raids be stopped and detained activists be release immediately and unconditionally. CASR calls upon all the democratic progressive forces and individuals to join hands and resist this Brahmanical Hindutva fascist onslaught.

On September 4, police in Manipur state filed criminal First Information Reports (FIR)against four senior journalists under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, following the September 2 publication of a report by the Editors Guild of India (EGI) analysing trends in media coverage of ongoing violence in Manipur. The FIRs, lodged after a complaint from a local social worker, are based on the mislabelling of a photo caption included in the report for which the EGI issued a correction on September 3.

Announcing the charges at a press conference on September 4, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh alleged that the report would ‘provoke clashes’, and continued to label the report ‘highly condemnable’ due to a perceived lack of consultation during its production.

The four accused include senior journalists and EGI leadership, with investigative team Bharat Bhushan, Sanjay Kapoor, Seema Guha, and guild President Seema Mustafa named in the FIRs. Bhushan, Kapoor and Guha conducted a fact-finding mission to Manipur from August 7-10, with the report concluding that news coverage in the state had disproportionately elevated voices of the politically dominant Meitei people, with this bias ‘contributing to divisiveness and violence’.

In an official statement, the EGI expressed concern at the charges and comments made by Chief Minister Singh, urging the authorities to withdraw the files registered against their members. The Press Club of India also called for the dismissal of all charges, claiming the move constituted intimidation against the guild.

Since the outbreak of violence in May 2023, at least 160 people have been killed in Manipur, with thousands displaced. The increased presence of security forces has resulted in the harassment and assault of several journalists, with internet restrictions imposed by the state government for over four months limiting the scope and quality of news coverage in the area.

The IFJ said: “The publication of a report analysing a complex media context should not be met with legal retribution. If the Manipur government has legitimate issues with the contents of the report they should be discussed through non-criminal proceedings, instead of harassing journalists with arbitrary and intimidatory charges. The IFJ calls on Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and the Manipur state authorities to withdraw all cases against EGI leadership and journalists immediately.”

10 months after participating in an anti-government protest during the 2022 APEC Economic Leaders’ Week in November 2022, two activists have received police summonses on charges relating to the protest.

Labour rights activist Thanaporn Wichan and student activist Akhin (pseudonym) were charged for participating in the 17 November 2022 protest at the Asoke Montri intersection. Protesters were planning to march to the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, where APEC meetings were taking place, to submit a petition to APEC leaders on human rights violations in Thailand. However, they were prevented from marching by crowd control police, who blocked the Asoke Montri intersection. They then decided to read their statement at the intersection before ending the protest.

Both Thanaporn and Akhin were charged with violation of the Public Assembly Act for not notifying the police that they were organizing a protest. Thanaporn was also charged with using a sound amplifier without permission because she was a speaker during the protest.

Meanwhile, Akhin was charged with violation of the Act on the Maintenance of the Cleanliness and Orderliness of the Country for using paint during the protest. The police accused Akhin of splattering green paint around, some of which got on the crowd control police stationed nearby, and claimed that other protesters were throwing paint and water and spraying paint onto the officers.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said Thanaporn and Akhin received summonses on 4 September requiring them to report to Lumpini Police Station on 15 September to hear the charges. The summonses arrived 10 months after the event. TLHR said that two other activists also received summonses for the same protest, but were unavailable and had asked the police to move their appointment.

The police also named activists Nutthanit Duangmusit and Sopon Surariddhidhamrong as organisers of the protest, but neither have received a summons. Sopon is also detained pending appeal on a royal defamation charge.

Local officials in the central Afghan province where the Taliban detained 18 staffers for a long-serving humanitarian NGO earlier this month suggest the group was suspected of spreading Christianity, RFE/RL's Radio Azadi has learned.

Taliban intelligence and other officials in Kabul have remained silent over the detentions.

The International Assistance Mission (IAM) humanitarian group in Afghanistan on September 15 announced the detention of 18 team members from its offices in Ghor Province between September 3 and 13. It said they all appear to have been transferred to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

IAM and other information suggested the detainees comprise 17 Afghan nationals and a female American surgeon.

Early on September 16, IAM said it still "has not been informed of the reasons for the detention of our staff."

But Taliban officials in Ghor have accused them of spreading Christianity, which can be punished under strict interpretations of Islamic law in Afghanistan.

In a written message to Radio Azadi, Abdul Hai Zaim, the head of information and culture for the Taliban-led government for Ghor Province, confirmed the arrest of the IAM employees and claimed -- without providing evidence -- that they had been promoting Christianity.

The fundamentalist Taliban, who retook control of Afghanistan as U.S.-led international forces withdrew in 2021, have imposed a particularly harsh form of Shari'a law on the country when they have been in power at various points in the past four decades.

The internationally unrecognized Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has been accused by UN and other international officials of grave human rights offenses against non-Muslims, women, and minorities.

IAM said on September 16 that it had inquired with the Taliban-led Afghan government's Finance Ministry and was "working together with the UN and ACBAR, the coordinating body for NGOs in Afghanistan," to seek the release of the staff members.

IAM has worked in Afghanistan for nearly six decades, it said.

"IAM has worked in Afghanistan alongside Afghan communities for 57 years and we value and respect local customs and cultures. We stand by the principle that 'aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint,'" it said, adding, "All IAM staff agree to abide by the laws of Afghanistan."

Save for a pair of slippers and a piece of sandal, there were no traces of the two young women abducted by armed men in Orion town in Bataan province on the night of Sept. 2, a human rights group said.

The fact-finding mission of friends and colleagues of Jhed Tamano, 22, and Jonila Castro, 21, yielded no other leads as of Monday, according to Amador Cadano, spokesperson for the human rights watchdog Karapatan in the Central Luzon region.

In a post on social media, Karapatan sought online help for any information that could lead to the whereabouts of the two following the reported abduction.

According to Karapatan, Tamano works as a coordinator in the “Turn the Tide Now” program of the church group Ecumenical Bishop Forum-Central Luzon while Castro serves as a community volunteer for Akap Ka Manila Bay, a network of various sectors opposing the reclamation projects on Manila Bay.

Both environmental workers studied at Bulacan State University (BulSU) in the City of Malolos in Bulacan and were former members of the Student Alliance for the Advancement of Nationalism and Democracy BulSU, an activist group at the university.

Castro was an undergraduate psychology student in 2019 while Tamano was a business economics graduate in 2022.

Citing accounts of eyewitnesses, Karapatan said armed men were seen forcing Tamano and Castro inside a gray Toyota Innova in front of the Orion Water District in Barangay Lati at 8 p.m. on Sept. 2.

Tailed “Before they went missing, the two reported being tailed by men wearing civilian clothes. The two stayed in Sitio Ormoc in Barangay Balut (also in Orion) for at least three days, consulting the community for a possible relief operation,” Cadano said.

They were sent to Orion by Akap Ka to consult with communities that were affected by the new coastal road and reclamation project planned for the expansion of the free port of Bataan, according to Cadano.

The ongoing dredging work in Barangay Capunitan had so far displaced some 200 families in need of help, he added.

The two women were set to leave Orion on the night of Sept. 2 for another consultation in another town but they stopped replying to text messages from friends around 7 p.m., Cadano said.

Karapatan-Central Luzon held state forces, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and the Marcos administration “accountable for the enforced disappearance of Jhed and Jonila and all others who disappeared in the region and in the nation.” Cadano did not say the basis of the group’s suspicion.

He said the incident involving Tamano and Castro was the second case of enforced disappearances in the region after those of peasant organizers Elena Pampoza and Elgene Mungcal, also known as the Moncada 2, who went missing in July 2022.

Decades ago, a few people started settling on a swathe of land near an ecologically sensitive wetland engaged in agriculture and fishing. Over time, the population grew and a law was enacted to prevent any further destruction of the eco-sensitive wetland. As time passed, a new government in the name of ecological restoration suddenly started evicting the people, including those residing there before the law’s enactment. These people have become homeless and landless and stare at a dark future.

This is not a fiction novel but the reality of thousands of people in the Silsako Beel (lake) area, in Assam’s capital Guwahati. The latest massive eviction drive, from September 1 to 2, with the police’s and the CRPF’s help was firmly protested by the residents.

On September 1, the protest turned ugly when two women protesters “manhandled” by the police started removing their clothes.

“They were manhandled by the police. They tried to protect their land and home half-naked,” one of the protestors requesting anonymity told Newsclick.

Moments later, the two women and seven other protesters, including Krishak Mukti Sangram Samit secretary Bidyut Saikia and member Akash Doley, two other women and three other men, were arrested for rioting or obstructing a public servant in the discharge of duties. They were granted bail at the Chief Judicial Magistrate court in Guwahati the next day.

Besides, 34 other protesters, including women, were detained and released at midnight.

“Five male cops dragged me to the police van. My shoulders still hurt. There were no female cops. Other women protestors were treated similarly,” Sharifa Begum told Newsclick narrating her experience.

“We were ferried to the 4th Assam Police Battalion in Kahilpara, which is very far, and kept in an isolated room with a poor mobile network. We were cut off from the world. During the afternoon, we were asked if we were hungry. We refused to eat,” she added.

“The police dropped us near Borbari at midnight. We walked a long distance to reach our broken houses.”

TRAGIC TALES Rubi Basumatary, whose husband died two years ago, and her two daughters have stayed in Silsako since 2005. “We had bought the plot in 2002.”

“No, we didn’t receive an eviction notice,” a weeping Basumatary told Newsclick amid the ruins of her demolished house, her shelter for more than a decade.

“Yesterday (September 1) they arrived to tell us that only our gate and a small room will be demolished. However, bulldozers razed our entire house today,” she alleged.

Silsako’s residents are insecure and scared with drones checking whether any structure remains.

Kalpana Terang and Ritubh Hazarika had similar stories to narrate. They still can’t understand how people settled there even before the Guwahati Water Bodies (Preservation and Conservation) Act was enacted in 2008 could be evicted.

“We are not illegal immigrants but indigenous. We voted for the BJP and never imagined even in our wildest dreams that they could do this to us. We committed a sin by trusting [chief minister] Himanta [Biswa Sarma] when he announced in his election campaign that everyone would be allotted pattas,” one of the residents requesting anonymity said.

A policeman guarding the bulldozers requesting anonymity said, “What the government is doing is a crime. We are helplessly performing our duty; we have no option. People should not be tortured like this.”

A female cop who resides in Silsako lost her house and livestock as well.

“We have been here for the past 30 years. We saw paddy cultivation here. Can anyone grow rice in a wetland?”

ask Wahida Begum and Shaira Begum.

“We received electricity bills mentioning the house numbers allotted by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation. How can they say we are illegal?”

Wahida and Shaira told Newsclick that the population grew there after 2008. “During Prafulla Mahanta’s time, a wall was erected and we were told that a new MLA hostel would be developed here. But the wall is far away from our house and so is the beel (the wetland).”

The eviction was a nightmare for Jasula Brahma, his wife and their school-going son. A contractual driver with the health department, he has stayed there for 15 years. “No notice was served before the demolition drive. I too have electricity bills mentioning my address and the GMC house plate and holding numbers.”

Moved by the tragedy, Jamuna Bala Dutta (92), who stays far from the area, came to meet the evicted residents. “I could not stop myself from visiting these troubled people. Do governments ever do any good work? These people are being tortured,” she told Newsclick.

GOVERNMENT’S CLAIMS, RESIDENTS’ FEARS Newsclick had earlier reported that the government claimed that removing the residents is necessary for ecological restoration and to address Guwahati’s artificial flood issues under the ‘Mission Flood Free Guwahati’.

However, the residents fear that the cleared land might be handed over to big corporate lobbies in the name of developing infrastructure. They also questioned why Ginger Hotel, Himatsingka building, Badruddin Ajmal’s building and Assam minister Jayanta Malla Baruah’s house, allegedly obstructing the wetland, remain intact.

Akhil Gogoi, president of Raijor Dal and MLA from Sibasagar, alleged that the state government is “evicting indigenous people but safeguarding Badruddin Ajmal, Himatsingka and the Ginger Hotel”.

Assam Jatiya Parishad president Lurinjyoti Gogoi aid in a statement: “While people of Assam are evicted from their houses, Baba Ramdev is given lakhs of bighas. This shows how the BJP is anti-indigenous and anti-people.”

He also alleged that Sarma and his family own huge swathes of land. “Himanta Biswa Sarma and his family cannot realise the agony of the evictees as they possess huge swathes of lands,” he was quoted in a media statement.

In the previous Newsclick report, Supreme Court lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika raised some critical questions regarding the eviction drive and the lack of clear demarcation for the boundary of the protected wetland.

Naina Begum, an evictee and a vocal youth against the eviction, told Newsclick, “A few days back, revenue minister Jogen Mahan said at a meeting that no project has been planned in the area.”

She alleged that the land will be “probably handed over to some big building lobbies who will construct housing complexes here”.

Most residents believe that the drive is motivated towards handing over the huge swath of land to big corporate lobbies.

Authorities in the Indian capital of Delhi must swiftly and impartially investigate the arson attack on the home of journalists Khushboo and Nadeem Akhtar, as well as the threats of death and rape, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

In the early hours of August 30, the Akhtar family home in the Sultanpuri area of northwest Delhi was set ablaze, according to news reports and Khushboo Akhtar, who spoke with CPJ by phone.

The Akhtar sister and brother team run Pal Pal News, a YouTube-based political affairs channel with more than 2.1 million subscribers. Akhtar told CPJ that she believes the attack was retaliation for Pal Pal News’ critical coverage of the challenges faced by Indian Muslims and other underrepresented groups, including vulnerable caste groups, farmers, and tribal communities.

“Delhi police must conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the arson attack on the home of journalists Khushboo and Nadeem Akhtar and hold the perpetrators to account,” said Kunāl Majumder, CPJ’s India representative. “The rising level of retaliation against Indian journalists covering the plight of minority communities is alarming. Khushboo and Nadeem Akhtar must be allowed to report without fear of violence or reprisal.”

Akhtar told CPJ that many religious items, including copies of the Quran and Ramayana, were taken out of a locked cupboard and burned before the perpetrators set the house on fire. The incident came to light when neighbors noticed smoke emanating from the third floor of the house and alerted Akhtar, who had relocated with her family to a different home last year. By the time she and her brother arrived at the scene, the house had been reduced to ashes.

Akhtar has recently received threats, including some involving death and rape, through social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, primarily over her journalistic work covering violence and discrimination against Muslims, according to the journalist and a copy of her complaint to the police, which was reviewed by CPJ. Her brother has also received death threats, Akhtar said.

Darshan Lal, station house officer of the Sultanpuri police station, where Akhtar filed her complaint, told CPJ via text message that police are still investigating the arson.

Posters have been pasted in Batticaloa Town against Amalanayagi, the coordinator of the Association of Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared- Batticaloa District, who led the protest remembering the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on 30th August, in Batticaloa town. These posters pasted by unidentified persons said “come and join the rally to get dollars”, trivialising her activism as something done to gain financial benefits from the foreign countries, feeding to Sinhala nationalist discourse also supported by the state.

Free Tibet has seen new videos, in which Gonmo Kyi, sister of imprisoned Tibetan businessman Dorjee Tashi, is seen lying on the floor of a hospital.

The videos, received by Tibet Watch on 25 August, show the appeal letter Gonmo took to Lhasa People’s Court on 23 August asking for a retrial of Dorjee Tashi’s case. Police personnel reacted with force, stopped her, dragged and beat her in front of the court. She was taken to Lhasa People’s Hospital afterwards but was refused admission, even as she lay vomiting on the cold floor.

This is the second time this month Gonmo has been beaten for seeking justice for her brother’s unjust verdict. Earlier this month, she went to Drapchi prison, where her brother is being held, hoping for a meeting. But her pleading was rejected and she was instead beaten, leaving her with injuries to her arms.

The recent police violence has left her in urgent need of medical treatment. Without any response from the hospital, however, she has now been taken to her home.

Dorjee Tashi has been in prison since his arrest in July 2008 and was sentenced to life imprisonment for “loan fraud”, a charge he and his family contested through a series of protests outside courts. While in detention he has been subjected to torture.

A retired ophthalmologist and his family were arrested in Mandalay on Wednesday for allegedly funding the anti-regime People’s Defence Force (PDF), according to sources.

Dr. Mya Than and his wife Myint Myat Khine, both in their 70s, were taken into custody along with their 45-year-old son, Yan Naung Tun, a neighbour told Myanmar Now.

“They’re a peaceful and charitable family. They always give free treatment to patients who can’t afford it,” said the neighbour, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The family’s clinic and condominium apartment, located next to each other in the city’s Aungmyaythazan Township, were also sealed off following their arrest, photos shared on pro-junta Telegram channels showed.

According to the neighbour, Myint Myat Khine was an associate professor at the Mandalay University of Distance Education until she quit her job after the military seized power in February 2021.

Her arrest on Wednesday appeared to be related to her participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against military rule, the neighbour added.

The regime has designated the PDF, which serves as the armed wing of the shadow National Unity Government, as a terrorist organisation. It has also criminalised virtually any form of support for the anti-junta resistance.

In recent weeks, it has stepped up its efforts to stifle dissent in Mandalay. On August 9, it re-arrested Nwe Nwe Win, chair of the Shwe Mahar Nwe Social Welfare group, following her release from prison as part of an amnesty earlier in the year.

She was accused of “engaging in political activities under the guise of social work” after a doctored photo of her holding a protest sign was posted on a pro-regime Telegram channel.

The following week, on August 13, the regime detained Myint Myint Than, a shop owner in her 70s, for writing a post on social media expressing sympathy for young anti-junta activists.

Last week, the junta closed Mandalay’s Golden Gate Private High School and arrested its founder and management team, and earlier this week it shut down the privately owned Mingalar Hospital for allegedly employing doctors taking part in the CDM.

Regime opponents say the recent wave of arrests, which has also targeted alleged members of urban guerrilla groups, is a sign of the military’s tenuous grip on power.

“They’re trying to instil fear in the public because they know they’re losing,” said a young man based in a liberated area.

He also urged people living in Myanmar’s cities not to lose heart as they face growing pressure from the junta to abandon hope of real political change.

“I just want people to know that the revolution wouldn’t have gotten this far if everyone was afraid of them. I would also like to apologise to people in urban areas and ask them to hang on a while longer.”

The Islamabad Capital Police on Sunday said that human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and former lawmaker Ali Wazir were arrested “for investigation” hours after the activist posted on social media platform X that unidentified people were breaking into her home.

“Islamabad Capital Police has arrested Ali Wazir and Imaan Mazari,” the police said on X (formerly Twitter). “Both suspects were wanted by the Islamabad Police for investigation. All action will be taken in accordance with law.”

The police did not specify what case they were investigating the human rights lawyer and the lawmaker from South Waziristan in.

It added that the news issued by the public relations department of the Islamabad Capital Police should be accepted as correct. “No one is authorised to give a statement from a police station.”

The development comes after Imaan posted on X in the early hours of Sunday that “unknown persons breaking down my home cameras banging gate jumped over”.

About an hour later, her mother, former PTI leader Shireen Mazari, posted that “policewomen, plainclothes people and r ager (sic) types took my daughter away after breaking down our front door”.

“We asked who they had come for and they just dragged Imaan out. They marched all over the house,” Shireen said. The former human rights minister said her daughter was in her sleeping clothes and asked to change but “they dragged her away”.

“Of course no warrants or any legal procedure. State fascism. Remember we are only two women living in the house. This is an abduction,” she said.

Speaking to the media outside a district and sessions court, Shireen said that officials scaled the gate of her home, beat up her guard and locked him inside his cabin. She said that officials also seized the guard’s phone and his gun, and then broke down their front door.

Shireen said that they then began to bang on her bedroom door. “As soon as we opened the door, they dragged Imaan and took her away. Policewomen were also trying to drag me outside,” she said.

The ex-minister said she then asked the officials whether they were here to arrest both her and Imaan, to which a man in plainclothes gestured to the other to let Shireen go.

Shireen said that officials asked her to point out Imaan’s bedroom as they needed her laptop and phone. “Twenty men went upstairs. They found the room, turned it upside down and seized her laptop and cellphone.”

She said that a policewoman also told her to surrender her own phone which she did. She said that Imaan was willing to go with the police officials but asked to change her clothes. “They said there is no need and dragged her away.”

She said that 20 people entered their home while more officials were standing outside. “There were six female officers that I saw but there was no male wearing the blue uniform of Islamabad Police,” she said.

Imaan, Wazir remanded in two cases Imaan and Wazir were later presented in a district and sessions court on the count of two cases which were heard by Judicial Magistrate Ihtasham Alam Khan.

According to the detailed court order, the investigating officer (IO) requested 10-day physical remand for the two in a terrorism case but the judge ordered that the two be presented before an anti-terrorism court for the request with Imaan kept in a women police station till tomorrow.

In the second case, the detailed court order said the IO requested five-day physical remand for the two but the judge said the court could not grant Imaan’s physical remand.

She was instead sent on 14-day judicial remand with orders to be produced on September 2 while Wazir’s two-day physical remand was granted subject to pre and post-medical examination. The IO was ordered to show concrete progress in the investigation.

FIRs registered under terrorism charges Two first information reports (FIR) were registered against the two on Saturday at the Tarnol police station and Counter-Terrorism Department police station.

The first FIR was registered on the complaint of Tarnol Station House Officer (SHO) Miam Mohammad Imran under Sections 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 395 (punishment for dacoity), 440 (mischief committed after preparation made for causing death or hurt) and 506ii (criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The FIR said that the complainant on Friday at 5pm was present with other police officers at Tarnol Phatak chowk to maintain peace and calm during a rally of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). It said that the rally led by PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen, including Wazir and Imaan, began moving from the spot allocated to it in violation of its no-objection certificate.

The SHO said when the police officers attempted to stop the rally from moving towards Islamabad then the rally’s 700-800 participants armed with sticks confronted the officials. He said that upon being stopped after attempting to move towards Islamabad again, the crowd blocked both lanes of GT road by placing containers and staged a demonstration while traffic was completely blocked.

SHO Imran said when the PTM leadership and supporters were asked to open GT road for traffic, the rally participants attacked the police while issuing threats of dire consequences, broke mirrors of official vehicles, forcefully shut down shops and a petrol pump and snatched anti-riot kits from the police.

The second FIR was registered on the complaint of Inspector Mohammad Ashraf under PPC Sections 124A (sedition), 148, 149, 153 (inciting to riot), 153A (promotion of enmity between groups) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and Sections 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) and 11 (power to order forfeiture) of the Anti-Terrorism Act read with Section 21i as well.

The inclusion of 124A (sedition) in the FIR remains a source of confusion as the Lahore High Court (LHC) had in March invalidated the section, which pertains to the crime of sedition or inciting “disaffection” against the government, terming it inconsistent with the Constitution.

The inspector said he was present at Tarnol when a PTM rally of around 900-950 people blocked GT road. He said Pashteen, Imaan and others had spoken against state institutions and their heads in their speeches, attempted to incite rebellion, weaken the army, compel officers to abandon their duties, promote terrorism warned of dire consequences for the judiciary and called on people to engage in civil war and strife.

The FIR specifically pointed out Pashteen and Imaan for attempting to create distance between Pakhtuns and the army and spreading fear in the public by threatening of marching towards Islamabad.

On Friday, up to 3,000 people had attended the protest in Islamabad, where both Imaan and Wazir gave speeches condemning harassment against Pakhtuns and called for missing people to be returned.

“You are being stopped as if you are the terrorists, while the [Pakistani] Taliban have taken over your homes again,” Imaan had told the crowds in a video posted on social media.

A PTM spokesman told AFP that dozens more members were also detained since the protest held in the capital.

In a recent and concerning development, Taliban fighters have reportedly detained eight individuals associated with the “Union and Solidarity of Afghan Women” movement following an attack on a gathering of women protesters in Kabul.

Sources reveal that the Taliban apprehended these eight individuals within Kabul city and have taken them into custody. The incident unfolded on Sunday, August 20th, when Taliban fighters executed the arrests from a confined location in the Khairkhana district of Kabul.

An insider source informed Hasht-e Subh that these women have been identified as Hajar, Khatol, Lima, Farida Moheb, Husna, and three others whose names are undisclosed. The source added, “The women had assembled to organize an event, but the location was surrounded, and they found themselves unable to leave.”

According to the source, as darkness descended, Taliban fighters entered the premises and apprehended the detained women. Photographic evidence obtained by Hasht-e Subh also indicates that Taliban fighters initiated an assault on the site where these women had gathered.

Meanwhile, the Union and Solidarity of Afghan Women’s movement verified the incident through an official statement, affirming that these women were detained before they could carry out their planned protest action.

The statement reads, “Members of this movement had planned to hold a protest in a confined area within Khairkhana Square in Kabul due to security concerns. However, before the protest could take place, Taliban forces stormed the site and detained eight of these women.”

It’s important to note that this isn’t the first instance of the Taliban detaining women activists. Since assuming control over Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed various restrictions on the country’s citizens.

About the Human Rights Defender: Ms. Mubeena Khatoon (35) is a WHRD at Banda associated with many social and human rights organizations. She is a Convenor of “Chingari” a social organization which works for children's education, women and cases of domestic violence. She also works on issues of discrimination against women and Dalits. Background of the Incident: In December 2022, Ms. Mubeena had sought information regarding allotment of houses via an RTI from District Urban Development Agency (DUTA) Department, Banda. However no response was given regarding her RTI from the department. Details of the Incident: In January 2023, a letter was sent by Mr. Rajesh Kumar, City Magistrate, Banda District, to Ms. Mubeena which said that that as the convener of the so-called Chingari organization, she corresponds with higher officials on various subjects. When the reply is sent to her, it is returned to the sending office after commenting that the address is incorrect. Thus, she was directed to present herself and present the information on the following points regarding “Chingari Organization”. • Attested photocopy of the certificate of registration of "Chingari Sangathan" • List of names, addresses and mobile numbers of all officials of the organization • Full correspondence address of the organization • Certified photocopy of the constitution related to the working duties of the organization • Details of the work done by the organization till date. On February 13, 2023, a similar letter was sent by the City Magistrate to Ms Mubeena. The subject line of the letter said: In relation to the alleged unregistered Chingari organization, living under illegal occupation in Manya Kanshiram Colony Moja Nimmipar. On February 21, 2023 Ms. Mubeena replied to both these letters in writing to the City Magistrate, Banda saying that “you asked for information about Chingari organization, which I provided to you through registered post. It was clarified that Chingari is an unregistered organisation which was created by local people to help each other. In response to that letter, you have sent me this letter that any kind of activities of unregistered organization are invalid. In this regard, I submit that there are lakhs of self-help groups running in the country who are unregistered. Would you call those groups invalid as well? I request you that if any group or organization works together to create a society, please provide a copy of the act declaring it invalid. Because till now I knew that the Constitution gives us the right that any person can do creative work by forming a group or organization. You have written in the letter that it is mentioned in my letter that I have been paying instalments in block number 24 for 4 years. At the same time, it has also been written to register an FIR against the person illegally collecting rent from the government building and vacate the illegal encroachment. Regarding this, I submit that I have not written any such letter in which it is written that I am paying rent for any government accommodation. The language of your notice is fabricated. I am suspecting that such a fake letter has been written with the intention of hatching a conspiracy against me. I request you to please provide a photocopy of that letter. I am also requesting that many people have encroached upon Kanshiram Colony with the help of DUTA department officials. DUTA department has illegally allotted houses to those people by taking money. If you really want to conduct an impartial investigation, I can provide the list of officials of the DUTA department and the illegal occupants of the houses.” On February 23, 2023 Ms. Mubeena also filed an RTI to Public Information Officer/City Magistrate Banda under which she demanded to know under which law and which section the social and creative activities done by the organization will be invalid. On August 17, 2023 a letter was sent to Ms. Mubeena by Mr. Rajesh Kumar, City Magistrate, Banda. This letter said that in an application Ms. Mubeena stated that she had been paying rent in that colony for four years so, she should be provided a residence. She was asked to vacate the house and provide possession to DUDA office. Otherwise, the house will be vacated with police force. However Ms. Mubeena denied any wrong doing and alleges that she and her social organisation are facing harassment and being targeted by the City Magistrate due to her RTI. Regarding this whole matter, Ms. Mubeena says that “I sought information from the DUTA department through an RTI, but instead of responding to that RTI, the City Magistrate is continuously harassing me and my organization. Until now no information has been given to me by the DUTA department. I am afraid that they are trying to implicate me in some fake case.”

Another royal defamation complaint has been filed against student activist Benja Apan for a speech given during a protest on 3 September 2021.

The complaint was filed by Rapeepong Chaiyarut, a member of the ultra-royalist group, People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy. He claims that Benja insulted the monarchy in a speech she gave at the protest. Citing police records, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that Benja was accused of royal defamation for speaking of her dream to see a democratic society in which everyone is equal and power belongs to the people, not MPs, senators, capitalists, the military, and the elites. During her speech, she also mentioned King Bhumibol and King Vajiralongkorn as being part of a network of elites that support each other.

The 3 September 2021 protest took place at Ratchaprasong Intersection. It was called by activist groups United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration and Thalufah to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, a new Constitution, and monarchy reform. Benja and 16 other protesters were previously charged with violation of Covid-19 regulations issued under the Emergency Decree and for blocking a public road in October 2021. The case is still with the police and has not been submitted to a public prosecutor for indictment.

TLHR said that Benja reported to the police to hear the royal defamation charge on Wednesday (16 August) after receiving a police summons. TLHR also noted that they were told by the police that they sent a summons to Benja once before, but she did not receive it, so they sent her another summons, which she received.

Another student activist, Kiattichai Tangpornphan, was also charged with royal defamation for a speech he gave at the 3 September 2021 protest. Kiattichai was among the 17 protesters charged with violation of the Emergency Decree and blocking a public road. He received a summons this July to report to a police after Rapeepong filed a royal defamation complaint against him.

TLHR said that Kiattichai was accused of royal defamation for giving a speech criticising the government for damaging the monarchy. By way of example, he cited amending sections relating to the monarchy in the 2017 Constitution, increasing budget given to the monarchy, using the royal defamation law against critics, and allowing the SiamBioScience company to produce Covid-19 vaccine.

At least 256 people have been charged with royal defamation since the start of the student-led protests in 2020. Benja is now facing 8 counts of the charge, while Kiattichai is facing 4 counts.

A hunger strike by domestic workers at the House of Representatives building in Jakarta ended in violence. Police confiscated their property and beat the protesters. The action has been held since August 14, 2023 until the Domestic Workers Protection Bill is passed.

During the action on August 16, 2023, the police beat and confiscated the protesters' equipment. The head coordinator of JALA PRT, Lita Anggraini, was suddenly hit during an argument with the police at the House of Representatives Building, Jakarta.

A female police officer named Ponco stated that in welcoming Independence Day, no protest should take place.

"We are celebrating independence, so we must not organize protests," said Ponco.

Lita Anggraini stated that this protest was carried out because it was celebrating the independence of domestic workers, "Same, because today we are celebrating the independence of domestic workers, so we carried out the protest."

Ponco and dozens of other police officers then closed in around the protesters who were carrying small red and white flags with the words pass the PPRT bill. The police told the protesters to go home because they were disrupting the independence day celebrations and jamming traffic.

"Today many domestic workers have been victimized, ma'am," said Jihan Faathiah, an protestor from Perempuan Mahardhika.

Then the next second, the police told the protesters to go home. The protesters refused, and one of the police men was in civilian clothes. Then, they hit the protest signs and hit Lita Anggraini on the head.

"The police hit my head, yes, watch out, don't do violence," Lita Anggraini shouted.

The police kept telling the protesters to go home. However, the protesters refused and remained in front of the DPR RI Building. At that time, President Jokowi was reading out his State of the Nation Address.

The protesters hoped to meet President Jokowi. They asked the President to urge the DPR leadership to immediately pass the Domestic Workers Protection Bill. This bill has been pending for 19 years.

Domestic Workers (DWs) are staging a hunger strike starting on Monday, August 14, 2023 in front of the House of Representatives Building, Jakarta. This protest will be carried out until the PPRT Bill is passed into law.

The protest was held in 6 cities in Indonesia, namely Jakarta, Medan, Tangerang, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Makassar. Not only domestic workers, community leaders and civil society networks also joined these protests.

The situation of domestic workers and labor today is not good, following several bad practices in the legislative process carried out by the Government. Among them, not listening to waves of criticism and resistance by continuing to force the enactment of the Omnibus Law on Job Creation.

The same thing is felt by Domestic Workers who have been waiting for about 19 years. The urge is for the Draft Law on the Protection of Domestic Workers (RUU PPRT) to become a DPR Initiative Bill.

Since it was drafted in 2001, the PPRT Bill was submitted to the DPR in 2004. After the stipulation process in Baleg on July 1, 2022, KSP formed the PPRT Law Task Force 2002. On January 18, 2023, President Joko Widodo delivered a statement to accelerate the discussion and ratification of the PPRT Bill. March 21, 2023, the Chairperson of the House of Representatives established the PPRT Bill as a House Initiative Bill. The government has sent a Presidential Letter on April 5 and DIM of the PPRT Bill on May 16, 2023 to the DPR. However, during the May - July 2023 session, the PPRT Bill was never discussed and passed.

19 years is not a short time for domestic workers to wait for a legal umbrella to protect them. For 19 years, the PPRT Bill has been held hostage, just as domestic workers are held hostage in modern slavery and human trafficking. During this time, the omission of suffering and violence experienced by domestic workers by the DPR has become a collective memory that must be heard by the legislators that the ratification of the PPRT Bill must be done immediately.

Among the victims of human trafficking, there are also domestic workers. However, the emergency situation of violence and human trafficking in Indonesia is not accompanied by the seriousness of the DPR to follow up on the discussion of the PPRT Bill.

The Koh Kong Provincial Court this afternoon convicted 10 Koh Kong land activists of malicious denunciation and incitement to disturb social security, including three activists who have been detained in prison since June on separate cases. Around 60 community members from 197 Land Community and 955 Land Community gathered outside the court in support of the activists as the verdict was read.

The 10 convicted activists are Chhan Chheurn, Det Huor, Erb Vy, Erp Teung, Heng Chey, Inn Thou, Kert Nov, Kong Men, Puo Houn, and Sok Chey. All 10 were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and ordered to collectively pay 40 million riel (approximately US$9,600) in compensation to tycoon Heng Huy. Erb Vy’s sentence was fully suspended, while the remaining nine intend to appeal the verdict.

Det Huor, Heng Chey and Sok Chey were already detained in Koh Kong Provincial Prison as a result of separate cases, and were transported to the court in a blacked out police van. They will remain in prison on those separate charges, while no arrest warrants were issued for the six other activists whose sentences were not suspended, indicating they will remain out of prison pending appeal.

These convictions follow other convictions of Koh Kong land activists in recent weeks. On 4 August, the Supreme Court upheld additional convictions of malicious denunciation and defamation against Det Huor. On 2 August, the provincial court found two women activists, Phav Nheung and Seng Lin, guilty of defamation and incitement to disturb social security. Both were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and ordered to pay 40 million riel (approximately US$9,600) in compensation. In addition to this arrest warrant from 2 August, another warrant was issued on 29 June sentencing Nheung and Lin to pre-trial detention.

Kazakhstan journalist Sandugash Duysenova, known for her investigative work on social issues and corruption, was humiliated and tortured by investigators during detention. The journalist was brought into custody over an article she wrote, all charges against her were later dropped. The Coalition For Women In Journalism vehemently condemns the abuse by police and calls on authorities to investigate Duysevnova’s allegations immediately and prosecute those responsible.

On August 11, 2023, Sandugash Duysenova was detained by police in the Zhetysu region of southeastern Kazakhstan. The journalist was charged with privacy violation and disclosing personal information after publishing an article that revealed the identity number of a convicted murderer.

During her time in police custody in Taldykorgan, Sandugash Duysenova was forced to strip naked and was filmed by investigators, who tortured and humiliated her. They also threatened to harm her family if she did not confess to the charges against her.

Such acts of police torture and harassment against journalists have far-reaching and devastating consequences. They inflict physical and psychological trauma, undermine freedom of expression, erode public trust in law enforcement agencies, discourage investigative journalism, and instill fear, effectively silencing journalists.

Upon her release, Duysenova called for an investigation into the police abuse she endured and for those responsible to be held accountable.

Her case has garnered attention from both local and international media, as well as human rights organizations. Local journalist organizations issued an open letter to the Kazakh President, urging the prevention of torture and degrading treatment of journalists within law enforcement agencies. Activists also highlighted that forcing the reporter to strip naked and recording her can be seen as an attempt to pressure Duysenova due to her journalistic work.

Human rights organizations called on Kazakh officials to adhere to their constitution which prohibits torture as well as the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which the country has ratified.

On August 15, 2023, the prosecutor general's office dismissed the criminal case against Duysenova due to a lack of evidence. The journalist welcomed the decision and expressed gratitude to her supporters for their solidarity.

Despite the trauma she experienced, the award-winning journalist remains determined to continue her important journalistic work and political activism. Last year, Duysenova was presented with the International Media CAMP Award for her photograph depicting the toppled statue of Nursultan Nazarbaev in Taldykorgan during the period of crackdowns in Kazakhstan in January 2022.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism stands in solidarity with Sandugash Duysenova and calls for justice to be served. We call on Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev to urgently condemn the horrific treatment of Duysenova in police custody and urge the Human Rights Ombudsman and Public Prosecutor to conduct a thorough investigation into the journalist’s claims and hold those responsible to account.

Hong Kong national security police on Thursday arrested 10 people for "collusion with foreign forces" and "inciting riot" over a now-defunct fund set up to help those targeted for involvement in the 2019 protest movement.

"The National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force today ... arrested four men and six women, aged between 26 and 43, in various districts for suspected 'conspiracy to collude with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security,' ... and inciting riot," the police said in a statement on the government's website.

"The arrested persons were suspected of conspiracy to collude with the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund to receive donations from various overseas organizations to support people who have fled overseas or organizations which called for sanctions against Hong Kong," the statement said.

The arrests come after the arrests of Cardinal Joseph Zen and other trustees of the now-disbanded Fund prompted an international outcry in May 2022.

Police searched the arrestees' homes and offices with court warrants, seizing documents and electronic communication devices, it said, adding that the 10 are being held "for further enquiries."

"The possibility of further arrests is not ruled out," it said, warning the general public "not to defy" the national security law.

Hong Kong police typically don't name arrestees, but Reuters identified one of the 10 as pro-democracy activist Bobo Yip, who was photographed waving at journalists as she was taken away.

The London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch said the arrests were a "new low" in an ongoing crackdown on dissent under the national security law, which was imposed on the city by Beijing in the wake of the 2019 protests.

"Today’s arrests mark a new low in the deterioration of Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms," the group's research and policy advisor Anouk Wear said in a statement.

"It was already an overly broad and political interpretation of the law, including the National Security Law, to arrest and fine the trustees and secretary of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund last year," Wear said.

In May 2022, police arrested five former trustees of the fund – retired Catholic bishop and Cardinal Joseph Zen, ex-lawmakers Margaret Ng and Cyd Ho, Cantopop singer Denise Ho and cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung – on suspicion of "conspiring to collude with foreign forces."

While they were never charged with the offense, the five were later found guilty of failing to register the fund – which offered financial, legal and psychological help to people arrested during the 2019 protest movement – and were each fined H.K.$4,000.

"The arrest of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund’s staff for alleged collusion and rioting is an absurd criminalization of providing legal and humanitarian aid," Wear said.

"This is an attempt by the Hong Kong government to rewrite history and frame all association with the protest movement as criminal, which is deeply damaging to rule of law and civil society."

Zen, whose passport had been confiscated following his arrest as a condition of his bail, was allowed to retrieve it to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI in January, handing it back again on his return.

Zen was among six Hong Kongers nominated for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in February.

A charity worker who was released from Mandalay’s Obo Prison under a junta amnesty earlier this year has been arrested again, according to sources close to her family.

Relatives of Nwe Nwe Win, the chair of the Shwe Mahar Nwe Social Welfare group, said they lost contact with her after she left her home in Mandalay’s Chanmyathazi Township on Wednesday afternoon to donate blood at a local hospital.

“After she left for the hospital, her phone went dead. We didn’t know she had been arrested until we saw the post on Han Nyein Oo’s Telegram channel,” said the family friend, who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity.

Han Nyein Oo is the name of a pro-junta social media account that had earlier made calls for Nwe Nwe Win’s arrest. Late Wednesday, it posted photos of her blindfolded and seated in the back of a police vehicle after she was arrested for “engaging in political activities under the guise of social work.”

In a previous post, the channel showed a photo of a woman that it claimed to be Nwe Nwe Win holding up a sheet of white paper with the words “35th anniversary of the 8-8-88 uprising” written on it. Tuesday, August 8, was the anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy protest movement.

“They posted that photo just hours before she was arrested, but that wasn’t her in the photo,” said the family friend. “Since her release, she hasn’t been politically active at all. She has only been doing charity work.”

Another friend agreed that the woman in the photo, whose face was blurred, was not Nwe Nwe Win.

“They have entirely different hairstyles. And [Nwe Nwe Win] wouldn’t post such a picture on her Facebook,” said the friend, who also did not want to be named.

“Somebody framed her,” she added.

Nwe Nwe Win’s friends and family also expressed concern about her health, as she has been receiving treatment for a number of medical conditions since her release from prison in early May.

Nwe Nwe Win was arrested during a raid on her group’s office in Mandalay’s Aungmyay Thazan Township on November 15, 2021. She was later handed a three-year prison sentence on charges of incitement.

Hundreds of political prisoners, including doctors, lawyers, teachers, social welfare activists, and monks, are currently being held at Obo Prison and in the notorious Mandalay Palace interrogation centre, where many have died in regime custody.

Pro-junta Telegram channels have increasingly been used to target activists opposed to the regime that seized power in February 2021.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 24,238 people have been arrested since the coup, of whom 19,733 are still in detention.

Tushar Gandhi, Teesta Setalvad, and G G Parikh were stopped by Mumbai police from attending a peace march on the anniversary of the Quit India movement. Gandhi was detained, Setalvad was asked to stay indoors, and Parikh was issued a preventive notice. The government organized a separate function to mark the occasion. The organizers criticized the BJP-led government for attempting to co-opt and distort the freedom struggle. Gandhi was detained for three hours and paid his respects to the place where the movement began after being released.

Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, activist Teesta Setalvad, and 99-year-old freedom fighter G G Parikh were stopped on Wednesday by the Mumbai police from attending a peace march organised on the anniversary of the Quit India movement.

Gandhi was detained and taken to Santacruz police station, Setalvad was asked to stay indoors amid police bandobast while Parikh was issued a preventive notice by the D B Marg police. The march was to culminate at August Kranti Maidan, the place from where Mahatma Gandhi gave a clarion call for the British to quit India in 1942.

The government organised a function at the same venue to mark the occasion, in which chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar participated. They also launched the Meri Mati, Mera Desh campaign during the function.

In a post at 7 am on social media platform X, Gandhi said, “For the first time in the history of Independent India, I have been detained at Santacruz police station, as I left home to commemorate 9th August Quit India Day. I am proud. My Great Grandparents Bapu and Ba had also been arrested by the British Police on the historic date.”

A statement signed by organisers Madhu Mohite, Feroze Mithiborwala and Guddi S L, read: “On the 81st anniversary of the historic Quit India movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, we witnessed a draconian crackdown by the BJP-led regime in Maharashtra. Our veteran freedom fighters have been commemorating this ever since 1943. Dr Parikh, who continues to lead the march even at 99, had participated in the movement as a student in 1942. He is utterly distraught at this bizarre turn of events. Every year, we, as the People’s Movement, commemorate the Quit India Movement by marching from Tilak Statue at Girgaum Chowpatty to the August Kranti Maidan. This year, however, we were prevented by the communal fascist regime.”

The organisers also alleged that 50-odd activists were detained by the police at D B Marg Police station. They hit out at the BJP saying that the BJP-led government was “attempting to commemorate the day for the first time—the day that their ideological predecessors had opposed, even as the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha connived with the British Empire”. “The advertisement issued by the BJP-led government does not even mention the Quit India Movement. It is once again clear that the BJP-RSS are trying their best or rather their worst to co-opt and distort our freedom struggle,” read the statement.

Gandhi, through his social media profile, said that he had been detained for three hours. “I was about to leave for August Kranti Maidan around 8 am when two people approached me and asked where I was going. When I told them, they said I couldn’t do that. They then took me to Santacruz police station. I was made to wait in the senior inspector’s cabin until 11.30 am before being let off,” he said. “The police told me there was an event organised by the state government at the same venue and my presence there could cause a law-and-order situation.” Gandhi said he did pay his respects to the place where the Quit India Movement began in 1942 after being let go along with Setalvad and Parikh.

Senior officials, including joint commissioner of police Satyanarayan Choudhary and deputy commissioner of police for Zone 9 Krishnakant Upadhyay, refused to comment on Gandhi’s detention. However, the letter sent to Parikh by the DB Marg police mentioned that he did not have the necessary permission to conduct the peace march in their jurisdiction. It also cited restriction of movement under Section 144 issued from July 31 to August 14, saying that action could be taken against him and his accomplices for illegal assembly. It also pointed out a high court order that said all rallies and protests in the city should only be done at Azad Maidan.

The D B Marg police detained 22 people relating to the Quit India Day, as they violated the Mumbai police commissioner’s order prohibiting gatherings of more than five persons. “We have already registered a case in this matter under Section 135,” said a police officer.

Maharashtra BJP vice-president Madhav Bhandari said he would not answer questions on Teesta’s detention since “she is out on bail in many cases for financial misappropriation”. “The action against Gandhi and other activists was taken by the police as per their common practice,” he said. “The government had no role in it. As far as the allegations against BJP over August Kranti Diwas go, I want to ask Teesta and Gandhi whether they hoist the tricolour in their houses. People know what we are and what they do.”

Shinde said, “The clarion call by Mahatma Gandhi for the British to quit India inspired the youth. The freedom fighters stood against the British rule. The freedom we got was the result of the sacrifice by thousands of martyrs.”

Eighteen activists of the Thalu Wang group have been summonsed to hear charges in connection with a protest on Sunday in front the Ministry of Culture demanding senator Naowarat Pongpaiboon be stripped of the title "national artist".

The summonses were issued by Huai Khwang police in response to a complaint filed by officials from the Ministry of Culture and Huai Khwang district office, Pol Maj Gen Atthaporn Wongsiripreeda, commander of Metropolitan Police Division 1, said on Tuesday.

Those summonsed include Netiporn "Boong" Sanehsangkhom, Tantawan "Tawan" Tuatulanond and Thanalop "Yok" Phalanchai.

They face charges of trespassing, damaging property, violating the 2014 coup-makers' National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) ban on the use of fireworks or similar objects, violating the Public Assembly Act of 2015 in organising a gathering without prior permission and breaking the Cleanliness and Orderliness Act prohibiting vandalising of public property, Pol Maj Gen Atthaporn said.

All 18 were required to report to the police to acknowledge the charges this week.

Police had examined and collected evidence from the protest site to support the charges, he said.

On Sunday about 5pm, members of the Thalu Wang (breaking into the palace) group gathered at the entrance gate of the Ministry of Culture on Thian Ruamit road in Huai Khwang district. They sprayed coloured paint on the footpath, on decorative cloth on the ministry's fence and on the road surface.

They also splashed coloured liquid on the ministry's name sign and lit coloured smoke flares in front of it.

Some of the protesters were dressed in black and wore a variety of masks to hide their faces.

They demanded the Ministry of Culture strip senator Naowarat Pongpaiboon of the title of national artist because he had abstained when the joint parliament sat to vote on the nomination of Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat for prime minister on July 13. Mr Pita failed to get the required support, with the majority of senators opting not to vote.

The protesters also called for the abolition of Section 112 of the Criminal Code, known as the lese majeste law.

Activist Tanruthai Thanrut reported to Pathumwan Police Station today (7 August) after a royal defamation charge was filed against her by Anon Klinkaew, leader of the ultra-royalist group People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy, over a speech she gave during the 14 July protest.

The protest was called after Pita lost the first round of voting on 13 July. Activists gathered at the courtyard in front of the BACC and gave speeches. They handed out flyers calling for the abolition of the Senate, while a large piece of cloth was laid out for people to write messages, many of which condemned the Senate’s actions for disrespecting the people and disregarding election results by not approving a Prime Minister candidate nominated by the winning party.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that the complaint against Tanruthai was filed because she gave a speech saying that no institution is above the people and demanding that the Senate and House of Representatives respect the result of the election.

TLHR noted that Tanruthai asked the police to amend the record to say that Anon has previously threatened her on social media and that the complaint against her was filed because of differences in political ideology.

Tanruthai said that she did not mean to do damage to the country, but gave her speech because she wants to improve it. She said she is not concerned about being charged, but is confused about the legal proceedings because she was told that the process involving a royal defamation charge is different from the normal process.

Tanruthai said that she has been harassed after the complaint against her was filed. People have tried to dox her on social media, while others made comments attacking her. Someone also called her mother and told her that Tanruthai could be going to jail.

The harassment has not yet interfered with her personal life, Tanruthai said, and she doesn’t care if people attack her online. However, she will consider pressing charges if the harassment worsens.

Police officials have forcibly returned more than a thousand residents of Pasaman Barat who had been demonstrating at the West Sumatra Governor's Office since Monday (31/7/2023). The process was marked by turmoil and the arrest of several residents, students, and non-governmental organization members who were accused of being provocateurs.

The forced repatriation of residents of Nagari Air Bangis, West Pasaman, consisting of adult men and women, children, and elderly residents, occurred at the Grand Mosque of West Sumatra, in the city of Padang, on Saturday (5/8/2023) afternoon. The incident took place while approximately 20 representatives of the masses were in a dialogue with the Governor of West Sumatra and members of the Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkopimda) at the Governor's Office of West Sumatra.

During the incident, the crowd who had been using the first floor of the Grand Mosque of West Sumatra as a place to stay during the demonstration were reciting prayers while waiting for the results of the dialogue with their representatives. However, the police dispersed the residents and some of them were lifted onto buses to be sent to Pasaman Barat.

"We were forced to leave the mosque. Our belongings were scattered. We didn't want to leave, but we were dragged away. As women, we are not strong enough to resist," said Rismawati (40), one of the protesters who were forced to leave by the authorities, while waiting for a bus in the courtyard of the Grand Mosque of Sumatra Barat, on Saturday afternoon."

Rismawati, who is a resident of Jorong Pigogah Patibubur, Nagari Air Bangis, explained that actually she and her husband have been participating in the protest since Monday and will not go home until their demands are met. However, their family cannot do anything.

"I don't know what will happen next," said Rismawati resignedly. This family is threatened with losing a hectare of oil palm land because it is affected by the 30,000 hectare oil and petrochemical refinery national strategic project (PSN) that has been proposed by the Governor of West Sumatra to the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment since 2021.

On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of remaining residents gathered in the courtyard of the Masjid Raya Sumbar. They were waiting for buses to take them back to their hometowns. Hundreds of police officers were guarding and overseeing the process of mass repatriation.

Samsul (35), a resident of Jorong Pigogah Patibubur, expressed the same thing. "We were forcibly sent home without any negotiation, while our friends were still in dialogue at the governor's office. Some residents were immediately put on the bus, how could we resist," he said.

Previously, around 1,500 residents of Nagari Air Bangis accompanied by students and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) held a demonstration in front of the West Sumatra Governor's Office since last Monday. The residents demanded that the national strategic project proposal be revoked as it encompasses their managed area.

The masses also demanded that the land they had managed for generations be removed from production forest status. They also demanded that members of the Mobile Brigade guarding the community plantation forest (HTR) program managed by the multi-business cooperative (KSU) in the area be withdrawn. HTR locations also overlap with community land.

In addition, the crowd also demands that two people detained by the West Sumatra Regional Police for purchasing farmers' harvest be released. They were detained for allegedly buying palm oil plantation products located in forest areas without permission.

Not only did the police forcefully return the residents, they also arrested dozens of citizens, students, and NGO members who accompanied the crowd. They were accused of being provocateurs who held the crowd back from returning to Pasaman Barat.

Director of Legal Aid Institution (LBH) Padang, Indira Suryani, in a written statement, stated that there were 4 citizens, 3 students, and 7 legal assistants who were arrested and forcibly taken to the West Sumatra Regional Police Office.

"The police's actions constitute an abuse of power and a violation of human rights as their use of force clearly violates the guarantee of protection and respect for freedom of expression in public, as regulated by the 1945 Constitution, the Human Rights Law, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Freedom of Expression in Public Act, and the Human Rights Law," he said.

Separately, the Head of the Operational Bureau of the West Sumatera Regional Police, Chief Commissioner Djadjuli, stated that there were indeed several individuals who were taken by the authorities, but he did not know the exact number. "Several are suspected of inciting residents to persist, so we detained them for questioning," he said.

Regarding the forced repatriation of protesters, Djadjuli explained that the authorities had previously invited and urged citizens to go home. Some citizens agreed, while some did not, and some provoked others to not leave. "We took those who provoked us, and those who did not want to go, we transported them (to Pasaman Barat)," he said.

According to Djadjuli, law enforcement officers cannot wait for the crowd to be sent home after the dialogue process is completed. Because it is feared that after the dialogue, the crowd will still remain at the Masjid Raya Sumbar and Padang City. "This is a place of worship and it disturbs the activities of other communities," he said.

Djadjuli added that during the last 5-6 days of holding protests, the residents also did not have permits. The mass action on Jenderal Sudirman Street in front of the West Sumatra Governor's Office disrupted traffic. "We are helping these Air Bangis residents to return home, so that they can continue their activities. Children can go to school, parents can work," he said.

Several police officers dressed casually are suspected of intimidating and using violence against journalists while covering the forced return of protesters at the Grand Mosque of West Sumatra in Padang, West Sumatra. Three journalist organizations condemn the obstruction of journalistic work.

Chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Padang Aidil Ichlas, Sunday (6/8/2023), said that at least four journalists were victims of intimidation or violence by the apparatus. The four journalists are Nandito Putra (Tribunnews), Fachri Hamzah (Tempo), Dasril (Padang TV), and Zulia Yandani (Classy FM).

"We condemn such actions. In fact, a female journalist has also become a victim. Some of the journalists who tried to break up and release their colleague who was about to be lifted were also threatened and their shirt collars were grabbed," said Aidil.

Tribunnews journalist, Nandito Putra, in a press statement, explained that he was grabbed by plainclothes police officers while recording the return of protesters and doing a live broadcast for his media on Saturday afternoon. Prior to that, he was also prohibited from taking photos and his cellphone was about to be confiscated by the authorities.

According to Nandito, around 3:30 pm, he was broadcasting live on Facebook Tibunpadang.com to record the situation of West Pasaman residents who were rejecting the national strategic project (PSN) in the courtyard of the West Sumatra Grand Mosque. After recording the condition of the residents for two minutes, he directed the camera towards the police who were pulling a woman.

“I followed the crowd to a distance of about 3 meters. However, when I was recording, suddenly some plainclothes people came and grabbed me. My cellphone was taken by force. Then the apparatus asked me what my purpose was and I explained that I was reporting," said Nandito.

Nandito was only released after two journalists protested against the police officer's actions. However, in that effort, the security forces also lifted Fachri Hamzah's shirt collar, a Tempo journalist, and made threats. The same officer also threatened Aidil Ichlas, Chairman of AJI Padang, who at that time was also trying to release Nandito.

The incident ended a few minutes later after several officers from the Padang City Resort Police intervened and apologized to Nandito, Fachri, and Aidil for the incident.

On another occasion, Dasril, a journalist from Padang TV, also experienced intimidation by police officers. At the time, Dasril was recording the arrest of a member of the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) Padang who was accompanying the protesters.

Suddenly, a police officer obstructed Dasril's camera from recording. "That's enough, don't record anymore," said the officer. However, Dasril continued to do his job.

Meanwhile, Zulia Yandani, a female journalist from Classy FM, also experienced violence during the chaotic mass repatriation incident. At that time, Zulia had just finished praying and heard the commotion on the first floor of Masjid Raya Sumbar.

Seeing the tense situation, Zulia then recorded the incident, but was approached by a number of police officers who then took her phone. "I have explained that I am a journalist, but they still pulled me and lifted both of my legs. They were going to take me to the car," she said.

Due to the police's act of intimidation and violence towards journalists, three journalist organizations in West Sumatra, namely AJI Padang, Pewarta Foto Indonesia (PFI) Padang, and Ikatan Jurnalis Televisi Indonesia (IJTI) Sumbar, issued a joint statement through a press release.

These three journalist organizations are of the opinion that the actions taken by the police have violated press freedom. However, Law Number 40 of 1999 concerning the Press has clearly regulated matters related to journalistic work.

Such intimidation action also violates Article 18 Paragraph (1) of Law Number 40 Year 1999. The article states, "Any person who unlawfully and intentionally performs actions resulting in obstructing or impeding the implementation of the provisions of Article 4 paragraphs (2) and (3) shall be punished with imprisonment for a maximum of 2 years or a maximum fine of IDR 500 million."

Therefore, AJI Padang, PFI Padang, and IJTI Sumbar condemn the acts of intimidation and violence by the police towards journalists on duty at the Grand Mosque of Sumbar. The three associations also urge the Chief of West Sumatra Regional Police to apologize for the incident of intimidation and violence.

The Chief of Police of West Sumatra is urged to process his members who intimidate and use violence against journalists in accordance with regulations. In addition, the Chief of Police of West Sumatra is requested to ensure that standard operating procedures for handling demonstrations always prioritize professionalism, persuasion, and respect for press freedom.

On the other hand, AJI Padang, PFI Padang, and IJTI Sumbar appreciate the actions taken by several police officers from Polresta Padang who prevented violence against several journalists and immediately apologized. Finally, the three journalistic organizations also urged journalists to continue to adhere to the journalistic code of ethics while working.

On Saturday afternoon, at the Masjid Raya Sumbar, one of the journalists who became a victim, Zulia Yandani, reported the issue to the Inspector General of Sumbar, Suharyono. Initially, Suharyono responded jokingly to the alleged behavior of his member who is suspected of being intel. "So the intel is still fond of you, Mom," he said.

However, after Zulia convinced that the police officer's actions were serious, Suharyono summoned the Director of Intelligence of the West Sumatra Provincial Police, Commissioner Sunarya, to apologize directly to Zulia for the incident.

Reporter at https://golkhabar.com/, Shanti Gharti Magar was attacked while reporting a protest on August 3 in Kathmandu. The incident took place in the premises of Metropolitan Police Circle, Teku.

Talking to Freedom Forum, reporter Magar shared that she was reporting on clash among police persons and protestors on the day of incident. While taking video of police officers misbehaving with the protestors, a police person approached reporter Magar and shouted at her for taking video.

Magar has also posted the video on her social media page. In the video, Magar has repeatedly told the police officers that she was a media person and also asked them to see her identity card but the officers did not listen to her, rather took her into the police station.

Magar has injuries on her forehead and has pain on chest and stomach. "They almost detained me in the police station and also hit me in my sensitive body parts", she added, "I have not been able to attend office since the day of incident."

"Not only me, other human rights activists (mostly women) were also severely attacked in the incident", informed Magar.

Freedom Forum condemns the attack as it is a sheer violation of press freedom. FF urges the security authority to respect journalists’ rights and differentiate among protestors and journalists during protests. Journalists must be provided safe space for reporting in such circumstances.

Three Koh Kong land activists were this week found guilty of criminal charges including defamation, incitement, and malicious denunciation for their peaceful activism in defence of their communities’ land rights.

On 2 August 2023, the Koh Kong Provincial Court found two women activists guilty of defamation and incitement to disturb social security. Phav Nheung and Seng Lin were sentenced to one year’s imprisonment each and ordered to pay 40 million riel (approximately US $9,600) in compensation to the plaintiff. Both were the target of a complaint launched by former community representative Chhay Vy, whom the women had accused in 2019 of having seized land. The charges were dropped against a third woman, Khorn Phun.

In a separate case this morning, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the Sihanoukville Appeal Court against a third land activist from Koh Kong, Det Huor. Huor was convicted of malicious denunciation and defamation following a complaint made by tycoon Heng Huy about Huor’s Facebook post dated September 2021. Huor was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and a 2 million riel fine (approximately US $500), which was reduced to 6 months’ imprisonment and a 1 million riel fine both suspended by the Sihanoukville Appeal Court in October 2022. The Supreme Court’s judgment upholds this decision.

Huor and Nheung have been in pre-trial detention since 29 June 2023 – Nheung alongside her 18-month-old son – after being charged with incitement in a separate case alongside nine other land community members. The charges followed their attempt to peacefully travel to Phnom Penh to submit a petition to the Ministry of Justice.

Taliban authorities must stop their relentless crackdown on the media in Afghanistan and allow private broadcaster Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV to continue its work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

On Sunday, July 30, about 20 members of the Taliban provincial police raided the office of Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV in Jalalabad city, in eastern Nangarhar province, after receiving information about a journalism training workshop attended by both male and female journalists from the broadcaster, according to news reports and a journalist familiar with the situation, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal. On Tuesday, armed members of the Taliban provincial police then shuttered the broadcaster’s operations and sealed its office, according to those sources.

“The Taliban must allow the broadcaster Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV to resume operations promptly and ensure its employees, including female journalists, are allowed unfettered access to professional training,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “It is appalling that the Taliban cracked down on a media outlet because of women’s participation at a journalism training session. Denying women of their rights has become the hallmark of the Taliban regime.”

Hamisha Bahar Radio and TV has 35 employees, including nine women, according to the journalist who spoke with CPJ. Under the Taliban, women face severe restrictions on education and employment, which the United Nations says have increased in recent months.

CPJ contacted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid for comment via messaging app but received no response.

In August 2022, CPJ published a special report about the media crisis in Afghanistan showing a rapid deterioration in press freedom characterized by censorship, arrests, assaults, and restrictions on women journalists since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021.

The Bangladeshi authorities must urgently end the use of excessive force against protesters, Amnesty International said today, after verifying evidence of reports of violent attacks against protesters and opposition party leaders during a sit-in protest organized by the country’s main opposition party, on 28 and 29 July. The eyewitnesses Amnesty International spoke to said that the protests were largely peaceful prior to the police attacking them.

The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) protest, which called for a caretaker government to be appointed before the elections in January 2024, was held at various entry points to Dhaka, the capital. The protests ended with violent clashes with the police.

“The videos and images that Amnesty International has verified shed light on the human rights violations by the Bangladeshi authorities. We call on the Government of Bangladesh to guarantee strict adherence to the law by the law enforcement agencies, as well as full respect for the people’s right to exercise their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, in order to avoid further harm to people’s physical integrity and possible escalation of this crisis,” said Smriti Singh, interim Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International.

We call on the Government of Bangladesh to guarantee strict adherence to the law by the law enforcement agencies, as well as full respect for the people’s right to exercise their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, in order to avoid further harm to people’s physical integrity and possible escalation of this crisis.

Smriti Singh, interim Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International Amnesty International’s researchers and Crisis Evidence Lab reviewed 56 photos and 18 videos from the protests, and the organization also collected nine eyewitness testimonies to corroborate the findings.

Use of less lethal weapons A journalist at the Matuail protest site, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Amnesty International that the police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the protesters, even though they were only chanting slogans and sitting on the floor.

Another eyewitness, who was with the families protesting against enforced disappearances at the BNS Center market, told Amnesty International: “The police fired tear gas at protesters… As far as I could see, the protesters didn’t have any weapons with them.”

A video posted on Twitter, and geo-located by Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab, shows a crowd of people running from tear gas at the Institute of Child and Mother Health Hospital in Mutuail, Dhaka. At least five of them appear to be women. The video was filmed within the ground of the hospital, right at the entrance of one of its buildings.

Tear gas should not be deployed near or around a hospital. According to the United Nations guidelines on the use of less lethal weapons, police should minimize the incidental impact of the use of force on susceptible people, including older people, children, pregnant women and people suffering from illnesses, who may have difficulty escaping affected areas.

“Police should not use tear gas, rubber bullets on peaceful protesters. The fact that the Bangladeshi police is resorting to using tear gas inside a hospital reveals their alarming disregard for international law. The police should always bear in mind the diversity of those participating in a public assembly and their varying means of escaping or avoiding exposure to tear gas,” said Smriti Singh.

Police should not use tear gas, rubber bullets on peaceful protesters.

Unlawful use of force A videoposted to Twitter, and geolocated to Dholaikhal Road by Crisis Evidence Lab, shows police officers beating protesters with long, baton-like sticks. In the video, protesters are clearly running away from the police. The protesters have no visible weapons and do not pose any apparent threat to the police officers. The use of weapons against unarmed protestors is disproportionate and excessive.

In another portion of the same video, protesters can be seen lying on the ground while police officers continue to beat them. In another video posted on Twitter, geolocated to Dholaikhal by the Crisis Evidence Lab, at least four police officers can be seen beating senior BNP politician Gayeshwar Chandra Roy with long batons as he lays on the ground while posing no apparent threat to the police. These incidents may amount to a violation of the absolute prohibition of torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

“Amnesty International has repeatedly called for restraint from law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh. The government must ensure that the police respect international human rights law and follow the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, which clearly states that police should only resort to the use of force exceptionally when strictly necessary and proportionate in pursuit of a legitimate law enforcement purpose,” said Smriti Singh.

Groups in civil clothes attack protesters alongside police Niloufar Yasmin, a female BNP political activist who suffered injuries during the police crackdown on the protest at the BNS Center market, told Amnesty International: “When (the police) fired tear gas, we scattered. (But) then groups in civil clothes caught me and assaulted me. The police did nothing to stop them.”

According to another eyewitness, the police barricades were manned not only by law enforcement officials but also by people in civilian clothes purportedly to be the supporters of the ruling party.

Amnesty International also verified at least seven photos and two videos, including evidence shared by an eyewitness journalist, of people in civilian clothing, brandishing weapons like hammers, sticks, and clubs at the protests. The evidence includes footage of these individuals beating up protesters ‘side by side’ of police personnel or branding batons and sticks at protesters.

In media statements, the police said that law enforcement officers in plainclothes were deployed as well, though according to United Nations General Comment 37 on the right of peaceful assembly, deployment of officers in plainclothes must be strictly necessary in the circumstances and officers must never incite violence.

“It is just unacceptable for civilians to join in with the police as they attack protesters. Amnesty International also condemns the unlawful use of force on protesters. The government must ensure that all those suspected of criminal responsibility are held to account, and impartial, independent, and swift investigation is conducted against the police officers that failed to prevent such breaches of the law. It is the duty of the authorities to facilitate and protect the right to peaceful assembly,” said Smriti Singh.

A 74-year-old woman has been charged with royal defamation for a speech she gave during a protest on 26 July 2023 at Thammasat University, following attempts to bar Move Forward Party candidate Pita Limjaroenrat from becoming prime minister.

Chiraphon “Nit” Butpaket has been charged under the royal defamation law, known as Section 112, and Computer-related Crime Act over a speech she gave allegedly criticising the monarchy during the 26 July protest. Thai Lawyers for Human Rights reports that the complaint was filed on 27 July 2023 by Anon Klinkaew, leader of the ultra-royalist group People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy.

A summons for Chiraphon was issued on 8 August 2023. On 22 August 2023, she went to the Khlong Luang Police Station to acknowledge the charges. According to the police report, during the protest, she gave a speech and raised a three-finger salute.

She is alleged to have criticised the monarchy by saying that she wanted the country to be a democracy and did not want the monarchy to be above the law. She was reportedly also critical of the country’s 13 successful coups and raised issues regarding the support and endorsement these received.

The plaintiff contends that Chiraphon intentionally insulted and defamed King Vajiralongkorn, while leading the audience to misunderstand that what she said was true. He also noted that her speech was disseminated through social media platforms.

The protest was organised by the Thammasat University Student Union at Thammasat University’s Rangsit campus in response to attempts by the Senate and the Constitutional Court to block Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat from becoming Prime Minister despite his party winning the election.

Chiraphon rejected the charges and will provide a written statement within 30 days. The inquiry officers scheduled a hearing for 25 September 2023 and released her after taking her fingerprints.

A retiree, Chiraphon sells congee in front of a school in Nonthaburi Province. She has several health conditions, including issues with her heart and kidneys, which have left her easily fatigued and struggling with walking.

She defines herself as a citizen who loves democracy and an outspoken advocate of justice since the 6 October 1976 massacre.

Upon learning of the charges against her, Chiraphon was shocked. She has always tried to provide support and encouragement to those being prosecuted for political reasons, never imagining she would find herself in such a situation.

“112 cases carry severe penalties of 3 to 15 years of imprisonment. I used to visit Somyot, Arnon, and many others who were charged under Article 112. The law is not fair. There is no way for people beat 112 charges. We don’t have the right to speak the truth or even express our thoughts, do we?” said Chiraphon.

Chiraphon says that the main topic she addressed in her speech was the military. She feels it is excessive to bring 112 charges against her, noting that this is why the royal defamation law needs to be amended, to keep the country from regressing to previous centuries when even looking at the king was forbidden.

On 21 July 2023, an attempt to kill the human rights defender Siti Zabedah Kasim (Siti Kasim) took place, which she survived. An improvised explosive device (IED) was planted on the human rights defender’s car and was discovered behind her tyre by a mechanic in a car service workshop in Bangsar.

Siti Kasim is a human rights lawyer and a LGBTIQ+ rights defender. She has defended Orang Asli indigenous communities vindicating their land rights against mining and logging activities in Peninsular Malaysia. Siti Kasim is also a prominent advocate for the LGBTIQ+ community in the country.

The explosive device was confirmed to be an IED by the Bomb Disposal Unit. Although the attacker remains unknown, the Inspector-General of Police has stated that “Placing the bomb is a serious crime and amounts to attempted murder,” while the police are trying to trace the suspect through fingerprints and other evidence.

Siti Kasim has previously received death threats for advocating for LGBTIQ+ rights and speaking out against the rise of religious extremism in Malaysia. However, this recent incident is the most serious she has ever faced. As a result, the woman human rights lawyer is worried for her and her family’s safety.

On 23 July 2017, Siti Kasim filed a police report at the Sentul police station, Kuala Lumpur, after death, rape and acid attack threats were published against her online relating to her work for LGBTIQ+ rights. On 13 June 2017, Siti Kasim was informed that she was to be charged under section 186 of the Penal Code for “obstructing a public servant in discharge of his public functions” in light of a raid which was carried out on an event hosted by transgender women by the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) in Kuala Lumpur on 3 April 2016. Front Line Defenders expresses grave concern at the threats and attack on the life of human rights defender Siti Kasim, which it believes are solely motivated by her peaceful and legitimate work in defence of LGBTIQ+ rights in Malaysia. Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned for the physical and psychological well-being of the human rights defender and her family.

Seventeen days after starting a peaceful protest, road blocking protest by residents of Pematang Bedaro Hamlet, Teluk Rasa Village, Kumpeh Mulu, Muaro Jambi, Jambi, was forcefully dispersed by hundreds of police on Thursday, 20 July 2023. A total of 29 residents, including two six-year-old children, were arrested and taken to Jambi Police.

The protest began when five residents of Pematang Bedaro Hamlet were arrested in early July. They were accused of stealing palm fruit from land disputed between the community and PT FPIL. Residents of Pematang Bedaro Hamlet demanded that the five be released, by blocking the company's main road. However, the residents experienced violence and intimidation.

"My hands were handcuffed with grip rope, and the police slammed me," said Nunung Sugianto, one of the victims who was rushed to hospital and treated in the intensive care unit (ICU). Another victim named Angga, aged 18, suffered punches and kicks that injured his lip and lower face.

From the video and photo documentation obtained by Betahita, it appears that police officers pulled and dragged residents by force. A number of videos circulating on social media show the same thing. One video shows police tearing down a tent erected by residents to recite Surat Yasin in front of the company's main road.

The residents' last protest on Thursday, 20 July 2023, involved a joint prayer to commemorate the Islamic New Year. Because they were protesting, the prayer event was held on the PT FPIL road.

According to Edy Kurniawan Wahid, a researcher from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), violence and intimidation still occurred when residents were questioned at the police station, except for two children. One resident named Yusuf claimed to have been slapped and hit with a blunt object, sustaining injuries to his nose and a busted upper lip.

"On the morning of 21 July, 29 residents were released. But with the condition that they are obliged to report. The possibility of arrest remains if they do not report. In addition, eight mobile phone units belonging to residents were still confiscated by the police," Edy told Betahita, on Friday, 21 July 2023.

"The children who were arrested also suffered psychological trauma. They refused to go to school because they were still traumatised by the police arrest," Edy added.

Edy said that the residents were also not accompanied by legal counsel when examined, so they were not at liberty to provide information. Edy assessed that the mandatory reporting status did not make sense. Because legally, the mandatory report status only applies in investigations or when someone has been named a suspect, such as in city or house arrest.

"There is no mandatory reporting term if you are not a witness or suspect. Therefore, we consider this a form of further intimidation of the community. The impact is that people are discouraged from fighting for their rights," said Edy.

Edy said YLBHI also condemned the use of violence and criminalisation by the police in handling the agrarian conflict.

""The community did not commit a crime, nor did they destroy anything. They just sit and pray. Most of those who participated were women, who are vulnerable groups. So we regret and condemn this force dispersal," said Edy.

Frandody from the Jambi Regional Secretariat of the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA) said that the conflict between the people of Pematang Bedaro Hamlet and PT FPIL has been going on for 25 years. According to him, the first conflict began when the company seized 400 hectares and 340 hectares of community land (Sumber Jaya Village).

"For 25 years, residents have never received compensation for the seized land. Instead, they faced injustice and intimidation," said Frandody.

According to Frandody, Komnas HAM had investigated the case and provided recommendations for compensation for the community's land. However, this was not done. A number of facilitated dialogues, including in the Jambi DPRD Special Committee, were also not attended by the company.

"This agrarian conflict was left prolonged. Meanwhile, the community has lost their livelihood. This is also what drives resistance from the community," said Frandody.

"We deeply regret the arbitrary actions of the police. They should have been guarding the protesters, not siding with the company," he concluded.

A Channel 13 media worker and Sangu News journalist have been physically assaulted by Maldivian police while covering an opposition protest in Malé’s Republic Square on July 20. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate, the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA), in condemning the assault and urging authorities to conduct an immediate investigation into the incident.

In a video posted to Twitter, a Maldives Police Service (MPS) officer can be seen forcibly grabbing Channel 13 cameraperson Misbah, pushing him away from a protest attended by leaders of the Maldivian opposition ‘Progressive Congress’ coalition held in Male’s Jumhooree Maidhaan, or Republic Square on July 20. The officer pushes Misbah into Sangu News journalist Maathu Hussain and a prone activist, with the two media workers falling to the ground. Both were wearing press cards identifying themselves as members of the media.

The incident has been widely condemned by the Maldivian media community on social media. In an interview conducted hours after the incident, Police Commissioner Mohammed Hameed announced that he had ordered the suspension of the offending police officer and that an investigation into the incident from the Special Operations Department was underway.

The demonstration was organised by leaders of the Progressive Coalition, comprised of the People’s Party of the Maldives (PPM) and People’s National Congress (PNC), and protested charges laid against former-President Abdullah Yameen and his resulting disqualification from contesting September’s Presidential elections. Police were seen arresting the opposition leaders conducting the protest and escorting them into vans, although all have since been released.

Journalists in the Maldives continue to face harassment and assault from police while covering opposition rallies. In February, Channel 13 reporter Shaheed and media worker Misbaah were assaulted, pepper sprayed, and struck by police while covering a joint PPM and PNC rally. In March, Avas journalist Hussain Juman was assaulted and briefly detained by police while covering a PPM rally in Malé.

The MJA said: “MJA strongly condemn the brutal attack by a police officer on the journalists covering today's opposition gathering at the Republican Square. We urgently call upon the National Integrity Commission and the police to conduct a swift and thorough investigation and take necessary measures against the officers who obstructed journalists and media workers during the incident. It is imperative to establish a comprehensive national framework to safeguard journalists and formulate clear guidelines for media coverage of protests and gatherings.”

The IFJ said: “Journalists must be able to report without fear of obstruction, harassment or assault and these repeated incidents make clear the need for greater safety measures for media workers in the Maldives. The IFJ condemns the assault committed by local police and urges authorities to conduct a transparent investigation into the incident.”

Security forces used water cannons and fired guns into the air to disperse a women’s protest in Kabul on July 19 over the Taliban-led government’s decision to close women’s hair and beauty salons.

Dozens of women took part in the rare public protest in the center of the Afghan capital. They held a poster with the slogan: "Don't take away our bread and water."

Beauty salons are a source of livelihood for women in Afghanistan, where the Taliban-led government has curbed the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls in education and most forms of employment.

One female protester told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that Taliban security officers beat some of the demonstrators with batons and used tear gas to break up the demonstration.

"Yes, they were very violent. They fired shots in the air and sprayed water on us. They beat the girls. They took their mobile phones," one woman told Radio Azadi through WhatsApp. Another demonstrator also described the violence used by security forces against the women.

"They shot around us. They hit us with electric batons. They beat us with rods. We ran from alley to alley,” said the protester. “I am 15 years old, and I want to defend my mother's right, my sister's right, everyone's rights.”

Both women requested anonymity to protect themselves from retribution. Their accounts could not be independently verified.

The office of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) responded on Twitter to reports of the crackdown.

“Reports of the forceful suppression of a peaceful protest by women against the ban on beauty salons -- the latest denial of women’s rights in #Afghanistan -- are deeply concerning. Afghans have the right to express views free from violence. De facto authorities must uphold this,” UNAMA said.

The Taliban government's order to close women's beauty salons was issued last month.The Taliban's Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued a letter on June 24 conveying a verbal order from the supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. On July 4, Mohammad Sidik Akif Mahajar, a spokesman for the ministry, confirmed the contents of the letter, which had been circulating on social media.

The spokesman justified the order, saying the salons charge exorbitant amounts of money for makeup and that some of the procedures performed, such as plucking eyebrows and adding hair extensions, are illegal.

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice gave women's salons a month to close their doors.

A farmer and a community worker were arrested by soldiers on July 12 in Atimonan, Quezon while conducting community research.

In an alert released by human rights group Karapatan Southern Tagalog, farmer and community health worker Miguela Peniero and youth volunteer Rowena Dasig were arrested by members of the 85th Infantry Battalion in purok Banaba, barangay Caridad Ibaba, Atimonan.

Karapatan-ST said Peniero and Dasig were studying the potential impacts of the proposed combined cycle gas turbine power project and liquefied natural gas terminal plant to be operated by Atimonan One Energy, Inc. (A1E) on coconut farmers and fisherfolk communities.

According to the group, A1E’s original plan to build a coal-fired power plant “was opposed by environmental groups and residents of Atimonan due to the health risk from using fossil fuels, and the loss of lands and livelihood.”

In a social media post, 85th IB claimed that two are members of the revolutionary group New People’s Army.

Karapatan said a humanitarian team has tried to visit Peniero and Dasig yesterday, July 17, at the Atimonan Municipal Police Station (MPS) but they were denied access to the two.

“The soldiers are present at the police station and blatantly disregard the rights of the Peniero and Dasig to be assisted by a paralegal and to receive aid brought by the team,” Karapatan-ST said in an update.

The group said that the military also did not sign the certificate of detention and has given them a runaround regarding the whereabouts of the two.

They were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives, a charge which was commonly used against activists and human rights defenders.

Peniero is a former political prisoner and a cancer survivor. She was arrested on Feb. 4, 2012, in Calauag, Quezon by the 88th Infantry Battalion for trumped-up charges. She was released after serving her sentence for eight years. Meanwhile, Dasig is the secretary general of Anakbayan Southern Tagalog doing advocacy work in peasant communities in the Quezon Province.

The Environmental Defenders Congress (ENVIDEFCON) denounced the charges against Peniero and Dasig, and demanded their immediate release.

The group refuted the claims of the 85th IB, saying that Dasig or Owen as they call her, has worked with environmental groups such as Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment in campaigns against the destructive Kaliwa Dam and other environmental campaigns of communities around the Rizal and Quezon area. Her most recent community organizing work against the planned fossil gas plant is clearly environmental defense work, they added.

The ENVIDEFCON said ending fossil fuel use is imperative for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

“Fossil fuels are the primary driver of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming and environmental degradation, so any plans for a fossil fuel power plant in the Philippines should be discouraged. Despite this, the Marcos Jr. administration has prioritized the expansion of the fossil gas industry,” the group said.

According to its website, A1E is the developer of the first ultra supercritical coal-fired power plant in the Philippines. The 2×600-MW plant will be built in Atimonan, Quezon and has been certified as an Energy Project of National Significance (EPNS) under Executive Order No. 30.

However, the ENVIDEFCON said that many studies show that communities located near such plants are at risk of experiencing various illnesses. “It is in this light that Dasig and Peñero were researching possible health impacts of the proposed liquefied natural gas plant, not to mention other possible impacts on local biodiversity,” ENVIDEFCON said.

“Any community organizing work done in these areas to resist new fossil fuel infrastructure is environmental defense work that will benefit not only the communities in the area but all Filipinos who depend on a stable climate and healthy ecosystems for our survival,” they added.

The ENVIDEFCON said that the arbitrary arrest and continued detention of Peniero and Dasig is “not only a violation of their rights but also a disturbing indication of escalating state terror and human rights abuses against environmental defenders under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.”

Responding to the completion of one year of university student Khadijatul Kubra’s pre-trial detention under the draconian Digital Security Act (DSA) in Bangladesh, Nadia Rahman, Amnesty International’s Interim Deputy Regional Director for South Asia said:

“The year-long incarceration and repeated denial of bail to Khadija is a travesty and flagrant violation of the right to freedom of expression in Bangladesh. She should be in university, studying for her degree and not in jail waiting for her fate to be decided under a draconian law. Her continued arbitrary detention comes against the backdrop of a rapidly shrinking space for critical voices and sets a chilling precedent for anyone whose views the authorities disagree with.

"The year-long incarceration and repeated denial of bail to Khadija is a travesty and flagrant violation of the right to freedom of expression in Bangladesh," stated Nadia Rahman, Amnesty International’s Interim Deputy Regional Director for South Asia.

“Despite the government’s decision to repeal the draconian DSA, authorities continue to use the legislation to undermine human rights and persecute critics and activists. Amnesty International calls on the Bangladeshi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Khadija and all those who are arbitrarily detained in Bangladesh solely for peacefully exercising their human rights including to freedom of expression.

“Moreover pending her release, Khadija should be provided with regular access to adequate healthcare and be held in conditions that meet international standards.”

Background: Khadijatul Kubra was a 17-year-old student of political science at Jagannath University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She had hosted a webinar on campus politics for the social media page called “Humanity for Bangladesh” in November 2020. Almost two years later, on 27 August 2022, Khadijatul Kubra was arrested under DSA and the next day was sent to Kashimpur Jail in Dhaka. Police officers had seen a recording of the webinar on YouTube uploaded by one of the guest speakers – formerly a Bangladeshi army official now based in Canada who had made comments perceived to be critical of the Bangladeshi authorities. A case under DSA was filed for attempting to ‘deteriorate law and order’ and for ‘defaming’ the prime minister, among other charges.

Since then, Khadija’s bail applications have been rejected several times and despite having allegedly developed medical problems including kidney issues, as per the family and media reports Khadija was transferred to a ‘condemned cell’ earlier this year which is reserved for death-row convicts. On 10 July 2023, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court adjourned her bail hearing for four months, stating she should be able to take responsibility for the views expressed on her talk show.

Indigenous and human rights groups condemned the terrorist designation of four Igorot activists in the Cordillera by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) just over a month after beating a rebellion case filed against them.

In a July 10 press release, the ATC announced the designation of Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) pioneer Abellon-Alikes, chairperson Windel Bolinget, regional council member Stephen Tauli, and researcher Jennifer Awingan-Taggaoa as terrorists.

The government accused them of being members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) Ilocos Cordillera Regional White Area Committee and the Cordillera White Area Committee

CPA condemned the designation of four of its leaders, calling it a “relentless attack against indigenous peoples’ activists.”

“While we at CPA continue to seek legal remedies to ensure our safety, security, and human rights in this shrinking democratic space, the state also weaponizes everything at its disposal to silence us,” the statement said.

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) also slammed their inclusion in the terrorist list. The group also urged the government to remove their names.

Bolinget is a member of the international coordinating committee of the network.

“Indigenous peoples’ pro-active defense of their ancestral lands, life, rights, and territories are never acts of terrorism but a vibrant exercise of their right to self-determination,” the group said.

“Their vocal expression of dissent and democratic freedoms to criticize any powers that be must be ensured and protected, not silenced, criminalized, vilified and further marginalized,” IPMSDL added.

Justification

ATC said their designation under ATC Resolution No. 41, approved on June 7, were “based on verified and validated information, sworn statements, and other pieces of evidence gathered by Philippine law enforcement agencies.”

Abellon-Alikes and Bolinget allegedly violated Sections 10 and 12 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), which refers to recruitment to and membership in a terrorist organization and providing material support to terrorist organizations, respectively. Meanwhile, Awingan-Taggaoa and Tauli supposedly breached Section 10.

Since 2017, cases filed against them in local courts, implicating them in several attacks committed by the communist rebels, were dismissed or quashed.

Abellon-Alikes, Awingan-Taggaoa, Bolinget, and Tauli were among the seven activists from the Ilocos and Cordillera charged with rebellion in January. They were implicated in an NPA ambush in Malibcong, Abra in October 2022. Last May, the regional trial court in Bangued quashed the warrant and excluded them from the case for lack of probable cause.

The CPA chair was also included in a murder charge in Davao del Norte. A court in Tagum City dismissed the case in July 2021 for lack of probable cause.

Meanwhile, for Abellon-Alikes, the quashing of the warrant last May was her fifth legal victory since 2017.

Bolinget said the recent ATC resolution, designating them as terrorists, proves that the ATA intended to target activists and government critics.

He added: “It is a government tool, a last resort when their systematic legal harassments fail to silence activists and the democratic mass movement.”

‘Hit list’

Human rights group Karapatan said the designation sets up the four individuals to graver attacks and human rights violations.

“With the State’s trumped-up accusations against these activists failing to prosper in courts, the ATC is now resorting to designation not only as a way of curtailing their movements and derailing their pro-people and human rights advocacies but to set the victims up for arrest on other trumped-up charges or worse, for involuntary disappearance or extrajudicial killing,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

She called the designation list “a virtual hit list.”

“We condemn the ATC for unjustly, arbitrarily, and maliciously designating political activists as terrorist individuals and endangering their lives, safety, and security in the process…We will hold the ATC and its co-conspirators in the intelligence agencies and the NTF-ELCAC accountable for any harm that may befall these designated individuals,” Palabay said.

“We deplore the increasing use of terror laws against activists and peasants to suppress political dissent and violate basic rights and civil liberties, as what numerous human rights advocates and groups have warned when the Anti-Terrorism Act was signed into law,” she added.

Security threats from conservative Islamic groups in Indonesia have forced organizers of a Southeast Asian LGBT event to move it from Jakarta to an undisclosed location.

The Indonesian capital was to host the five-day ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Queer Advocacy Week conference from July 17.

However, the organizing committee which received death threats from conservative groups decided to move the venue citing "security reasons after monitoring the situation very closely, including the anti-LGBT wave on social media.”

“The decision was made to ensure the safety and security of the participants and the committee,” the committee said in a statement.

Arus Pelangi, a Jakarta-based LGBT rights advocacy outfit and the local organizer, claimed in a July 16 statement that they received a barrage of death threats via social media like Twitter and Instagram.

Personal accounts of its activists and the identity of the organizers were disclosed on social media to tarnish its image, Arus Pelangi further claimed.

Hendrika Mayora Victoria, 35, a Catholic transgender and coordinator of Fajar Sikka, a same-sex advocacy group, said, "Indonesia is not ready to accept diversity and is increasingly homophobic."

This latest case was a worrying signal, Victoria added.

"What's sad is that hate speech, under the pretext of certain religious teachings, continues to be echoed," Victoria told UCA News.

"The event actually aims to unify the vision of an inclusive ASEAN region and strive for a safe space for civil society."

The Journalists Union for Diversity and the Alliance of Independent Journalists in a July 16 joint statement lamented local and national media coverage which fueled persecution of same-sex couples.

Most online media reports contain more statements from politicians, police, Ulema (religious) councils, and government officials calling for anti-LGBTQ laws “to increase hostility, hatred, discrimination and persecution against the group," they said.

The Human Rights Working Group, a coalition of NGOs, with the Secretariat for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation of the Franciscans as one of its members, urged the police to investigate and take action against perpetrators of hate speech.

Daniel Awigra, the group’s executive director, said the cancellation of the event in Jakarta was "a form of powerlessness and failure of the state in its constitutional obligation to guarantee a sense of security for everyone without exception to express and assemble peacefully."

"The state should actually take action against the perpetrators who have been spreading incitement and hatred," he said.

Same-sex couples are vulnerable to discrimination in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world.

Earlier this month, Garut district in West Java province passed a regulation criminalizing same-sex activities.

In December last year, a visit by US special LGBTQ envoy Jessica Stern was canceled after resistance from Islamic groups.

In December 2021, Bogor, a city in West Java province passed a regulation to prevent sexually deviant behavior.

Between 2006 and 2017, Arus Pelangi recorded 172 cases of persecution in Indonesia, including intimidation, physical and verbal abuse, and maltreatment against same-sex couples.

The National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), one of the oldest women organisations in the country who in their last three-member, namely Annie Raja, Nisha Sindhu and Deeksha Duivedi’s visit to Manipur conducting fact finding mission over Manipur ethnic conflict have been slapped with FIR for allegedly hurting sentiments of the Manipuri Meira Paibis. NFIW general secretary Annie Raja along with NFIW national secretary Nisha Sindhu and independent Advocate Deeksha Duivedi had visited both Meitei areas and Kuki areas and came to the conclusion that the May 3 riot was state-sponsored. The three-member NFIW addressing media at Manipur Press Club in Imphal on July 1 had said that the May 3 riot in Manipur was a state-sponsored riot and that is why the state government is not making any effort to control it. According to HY News, the three were booked on Saturday, July 8 at Imphal Police station for disregarding women Meira Paibis of Manipur and terming the protest of Meira Paibis against the resignation of Chief Minister as “stage-managed drama”. The FIR has been registered under sections s 121- A/124/153/153-A/ 153-B/ 499/ 504/505(2)/34 of IPC by one L. Liben Singh (53), son of late Sanoujam Pholo Singh of Heingang Makha Leikai. Annie Raja the general secretary of the women’s organisation had alleged that chief minister N Biren Singh kept himself busy at around 7 pm on May 3, by tweeting and making social media posts on the vice president of India’s visit to Manipur, when people were being killed and houses torched. Jagdeep Dhankhar’s in his one day-long visit on May 3 attended events at DM University campus and Manipur University.