Uwazi

Editor-In Chief Narayan Prasad Adhikari and reporter Shalik Bhatta at https://www.onlinepana.com/ were attacked for reporting news in Sarlahi on September 22. Sarlahi district lies in Madhesh Province of Nepal.

Editor Adhikari shared with Freedom Forum that journalists duo had been doing followup reporting on illegal construction of a lake in the Bagmati Municipality. On the day of incident journalists reached the municipality office to interview the municipality chief on the same issues.

During the interivew, Mayor was unable to answer a few questions. Thereafter, while we were returning back, Mayor's brother and few other people attacked us, blocking our way on the highway. We have received injuries on head and face from the attack.

"I am preparing to file a First Information Report at the district police station against the attackers", informed Adhikari

Freedom Forum condemns the attack upon journalists for their news reporting. It is a sheer violation of press freedom. Hence, FF strongly urges the concerned authority to respect journalists' right to free reporting. The security authority is also urged to ensure safety and security of the journalists thus contributing to the free and fair reporting atmosphere for fellow journalists.

Myanmar beauty queen Han Lay, who called on the international community to help her country regain democracy during last year’s Miss Grand International pageant in Thailand, has been detained by Thai authorities in Bangkok, she told RFA Burmese on Thursday.

Han Lay was taken into custody on Wednesday night by immigration officials at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport as she returned from a three-day trip to Vietnam, she said in a phone interview.

She said she believes the military regime reported her to Interpol as being wanted for illegal activities in Myanmar, as retribution for her anti-junta activism at home and in Thailand.

“As I returned from Vietnam to Thailand, the system set off a ‘red notice’ when my passport was processed, saying that my name is on the Interpol list, so Thai authorities denied my entry into Thailand,” she said, adding that her passport was confiscated by Vietnamese airline officials and is now listed as “lost.”

“The normal procedure is to return the detainee to the country they left. But I refused to go back to Vietnam [for fear they would deport me to Myanmar]. So they have kept me in the airport.”

Thai immigration authorities released a statement saying that Han Lay was “denied entry to Thailand because she lacked the required travel documents under Thai immigration law.” The statement said immigration officials are “negotiating with the airline authorities to deport her,” but made no mention of her being under arrest.

Han Lay said the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) is working with the Thai government on her case.

“I hope they will help me to secure the best option, whether it is re-entry to Thailand or entry to a third country,” she said.

Visa renewal

Han Lay was a participant in the 2020 Miss Grand International pageant, held in Bangkok just a month after Myanmar’s military seized control of the country in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. After using the stage to appeal to the international community for the release of Myanmar’s ousted leaders, Han Lay remained in Thailand on a tourist visa, knowing she would likely face persecution back home, where she has since been charged in absentia for “high treason.”

After more than 18 months in Thailand, she had overstayed her visa and was unable to extend it any longer, so she traveled to Vietnam with the hope that she could reapply upon her return.

“It was easier to depart Thailand and apply for a new visa to return,” she said.

“Before my departure, I tried to confirm whether I would have any trouble upon my return to Thailand. [The Thai authorities] told me it would be fine, so I left. But I guess the authorities in Myanmar spoke with their counterparts in Vietnam before I returned to Thailand.”

Han Lay told RFA that Thailand cannot deport her to Myanmar while her case is being reviewed by the UNHCR, but she is unsure of what will happen to her after that. Attempts by RFA to reach Thai immigration authorities for comment on Han Lay’s status went unanswered on Thursday.

She noted that she could be sentenced to death by the junta if she were to return to Myanmar.

“I think an entire military division would be waiting for me upon my arrival at the airport [if I was deported home],” she said, noting that the charges she faces are even more severe than those under the country’s anti-terrorism law that are more commonly used to prosecute opponents of military rule.

“They wanted me to show support for the coup, but I said otherwise, so they accused me of offending the state. It’s pretty obvious what they are doing.”

‘I acted of my own free will’

But despite the uncertainty of her situation and the likelihood she will be unable to return to Myanmar while the junta controls the country, the beauty queen said she stands by her decision to condemn the military rule on the world stage.

“I believe what I did was the right thing to do … nobody convinced me to do it — I acted of my own free will.

“I got into this trouble not because of something I did wrong, but because I stood up for justice. I am hopeful that concerned organizations around the world will offer to help me out of this situation.”

Han Lay said that life for her in Thailand had been “a struggle” and expressed her appreciation to the Miss Grand Pageant organization for supporting her over the last 18 months.

“I am ready to start a new life if I get a chance to resettle in another country,” she said.

On Wednesday, a court in Kyrgyzstan convicted Next TV director Taalaibek Duishenbiev of inciting interethnic hatred over posts on the broadcaster’s social media accounts covering Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to news reports.

Duishenbiev, who was detained for seven months pending trial, was originally handed a five-year prison sentence, his lawyer, Nurbek Sydykov, told CPJ in a phone call. But a judge allowed him to leave detention and commuted his sentence to a three-year probationary period during which the journalist must report to authorities twice a month and refrain from leaving the capital of Bishkek, Sydykov said.

“We strongly condemn this unjust sentence against Next TV director Taalaibek Duishenbiev. Republishing newsworthy statements by well-known public figures is part of the job of a news outlet, and the absurdity of charging Duishenbiev with incitement for this makes it clear that authorities aim to disrupt the broadcaster’s coverage,” said CPJ’s program director Carlos Martínez de la Serna. “Kyrgyz authorities should immediately overturn Duishenbiev’s conviction, withdraw the onerous probation demands placed upon him, and stop prosecuting journalists on contrived charges.”

On March 3, 2022, officers from Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security raided Next TV’s offices and arrested Duishenbiev, who was later charged by a court with inciting interethnic hatred. The charges stemmed from the outlet’s social media posts covering claims by a former head of Kazakhstan’s intelligence agency that Kyrgyzstan had secretly agreed to provide military support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In June, prosecutors added an additional count of inciting interethnic hatred against Duishenbiev over another Next TV social media post citing claims Uzbek human rights activist Valentina Chupik made to Kyrgyz broadcaster Aprel that Russian authorities were pressuring former Kyrgyz citizens to enlist in the Russian military, according to reports and Ravshan Jeyenbekov, the opposition politician who owns Next TV, who spoke to CPJ in a telephone interview.

The court convicted Duishenbiev of incitement “by a group of individuals,” but prosecutors charged only Duishenbiev over the posts while maintaining a separate investigation into “unidentified individuals,” Sydykov told CPJ. Jeyenbekov called the vagueness of the investigation, and the sentencing, an attempt to keep Next TV “on a short leash.”

Sydykov said that the journalist has not yet decided whether to appeal the court’s decision.

CPJ emailed the Office of the Prosecutor General of Kyrgyzstan for comment but did not immediately receive any reply.

The prosecutor at a high-profile trial in Bishkek has asked the court to convict and sentence noted Kyrgyz investigative journalist Bolot Temirov to five years in prison on several charges that he and his supporters say are politically motivated.

The prosecutor asked the Sverdlov district court in the Kyrgyz capital on September 21 to find Temirov guilty and sentence him.

Temirov, whose trial started in June, reiterated his innocence.

Temirov and traditional bardic singer Bolot Nazarov, who performed anti-corruption songs on the YouTube channel Temirov LIVE, were arrested in January for allegedly possessing illegal drugs, which the two men say were planted by police.

In April, Bishkek city police filed additional charges against Temirov, accusing him of forgery and illegally crossing the border with Russia.

It said Temirov, who was born and raised in Russia and holds a Russian passport, used forged documents to obtain a Kyrgyz passport in 2008, which he then used to illegally exit and enter Kyrgyzstan.

Temirov has rejected all of the charges, saying they were brought against him after he published the results of his investigation suggesting corruption among top officials of the Central Asian nation.

Kyrgyz authorities have denied that probes against Temirov are politically motivated.

Temirov was among 12 people recognized by the U.S. State Department last year as anti-corruption champions.

Authorities in the Chinese capital have issued a ban on low-altitude flights and drones over the city ahead of a five-yearly congress of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) next month.

The CCP will hold its 20th National Congress from Oct. 16, amid a mounting wave of censorship and curbs on the freedom of dissidents, petitioners and rights activists around the country.

Light and ultra-light aircraft, gliders, delta wings, hot air balloons, airships, para-gliders, drones, model aircraft and free and tethered balloons are banned from Beijing's skies through Oct. 31, the municipal police department said in a notice dated Sept. 15.

"It is prohibited for units, organizations or individuals to fly low, slow or small aircraft such as drones ... for any purpose," the statement said.

"Violations will be ... punished by police according to [current laws]," it said, reminding the city's residents that flying lanterns are already banned.

Meanwhile, outspoken critics of the government have been informed they are to leave Beijing under police escort in the next few days, with similar measures reported in Tianjin, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces.

"I'm traveling right now," Beijing-based commentator and former 1989 student protester Ji Feng told RFA on Wednesday. "[Officials] from my hometown are here with me."

"My friends are all being taken away from their homes [on enforced 'vacation'] at the moment," he said. "Some left earlier than me ... I'm coming back at the end of October."

"I'll be allowed home as soon as the congress is over." Daily forcible disappearances

Ji estimated that thousands of other activists around China are also being ordered to leave town ahead of the event.

Shenzhen-based dissident Lin Zhengliang said the security measures appear stricter than in previous years ahead of similar politically sensitive events.

"This is unprecedented," Lin said. "The current controls on dissidents at designated locations is kind of crazy."

"Dissidents are being forcibly disappeared every day, including those who are taken out of town on 'vacation'," Lin said. "They also hold people on criminal detention and release them on bail pending trial, extended the control period beyond the 20th National Congress."

"Even in Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province, which is far from the political center, Beijing, there are many dissidents who have gone missing and have finally been confirmed as in detention," Lin said.

Authorities in the capital have already begun expelling petitioners -- ordinary Chinese who pursue complaints about official wrongdoing through the "letters and visits" system -- from Beijing.

"My landlord suddenly told me I had to [go back to my hometown]," a petitioner currently living in Beijing's Daxing district who gave only the surname Li told RFA.

"They are driving us away to maintain stability because the 20th National Congress is about to start," she said.

Migrant workers are also being targeted, she said.

"My husband started working at the garbage dump here in Daxing yesterday, and just two days later, he was fired," Li said. "[The policy of] 'registering' the floating population means that you're not allowed to stay in Beijing."

"You are not allowed to work here, and you are not allowed to live here," she said.

'Stability maintenance'

A resident surnamed Wang, who lives on the outskirts of Beijing, said state security police have been conducting mass raids on migrant populations in the area.

"The state security police are detaining people every day, and holding them in various places," Wang said. "Yesterday, they forcibly held down and dragged away someone from Yancheng, Jiangsu province."

"Anyone with petitioning materials on them will be forced to leave Beijing, as if they were escorting prisoners," she said.

Authorities in one local community in the southwestern province of Sichuan are tightening "stability maintenance" measures by appointing local heads of household security supervisors for every 10 households, reports said.

Each supervisor under the Neijiang Chang'an community neighborhood committee will be responsible for anyone deemed a risk to social stability in their group of 10 households.

A dissident who gave only the surnamed Tan from the central province of Hunan said additional stability measures were put in place in his hometown of Zhuzhou city from Wednesday.

"Yes, full controls are in place starting today," Tan told RFA. "A local friend of mine said he has been taken out of town."

Petitioners in the northern port city of Tianjin said the authorities have set up three levels of checkpoints to catch petitioners trying to get into Beijing that way.

Pakistan Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Secretary General Rana Muhammad Azeem was hit by an unlicensed vehicle in a targeted attack amid ongoing persecution of journalists in Pakistan. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the PFUJ condemn the attack and urge authorities to hold those responsible to account.

On the night of September 19, Azeem was travelling home from work when a vehicle ran into his car before quickly fleeing the scene. Though Azeem was unharmed, his car was significantly damaged as a result of the crash.

The PFUJ has concluded that the incident was a deliberate attack intended to silence Azeem who has been critical of the government on his live TV talk show. A first information report was filed at the local police station, however, the individuals responsible for the incident remain unknown.

Harassment and attack on Azeem have already been reported in the past. On February 28, 2021, a criminal accusation notice was published against him. Similarly, unknown assailants fired shots at his home on September 16, 2014. The PFUJ believes that these tactics against Azeem are in a bid to silence his critical voice.

PFUJ President, GM Jamali, said: “The PFUJ strongly condemns this targeted accident and warns the government to look into evergrowing incidents threatening journalists which are not only attempts to curtail the right of free speech and expression, but criminal acts”.

IFJ General secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “We strongly condemn the attack against our colleague and well respected journalist Rana Muhammad Azeem. We urge authorities to conduct a due investigation into this attack and hold those responsible accountable.”

The head of Hong Kong's journalists' union has been charged with obstructing a police officer in the course of their duty, amid an ongoing crackdown on critics of the government under the national security law.

"I just received a call from the police asking me to go to the Mong Kok Police Station today for them to formally file a case against me," Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) announced via his Facebook page on Monday.

Chan arrived at the police station at 3.30 p.m. local time and left after half an hour, after being formally charged with "obstructing official duties."

He will appear at West Kowloon Magistrates' Court on Sept. 22.

Chan, former deputy assignment editor at now-defunct pro-democracy news outlet Stand News, was re-elected as HKJA chairman in June.

He has frequently spoken out against ever-diminishing press freedom in the city.

He had been planning to study journalism on a scholarship at the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, and had been scheduled to leave Hong Kong at the end of September.

It is unclear whether Chan will now be allowed to leave to take up the scholarship as planned.

Chan told reporters outside the police station he would be seeking legal advice on the matter.

"I need to seek legal advice on how to do that," he said. "[The police] also asked me if I would leave the country at the last minute."

"I told him I was planning to spend six months [overseas] and he said he would inform the court," Chan said. "It was odd that he asked my out of the blue like that, as I was waiting for them to process my bail."

Measure of declining press freedom

Chan said his arrest, which was criticized by the city's Foreign Correspondents' Club at the time, was indicative of the current state of press freedom in the city.

"I have heard a lot of things since my arrest, but I have not been able to verify them, so I won't mention them now," Chan said. "It would be ridiculous if I were unable to go to the U.K. because of this."

"I think it's plain to see the environment Hong Kong journalists are working in from this incident."

The FCC said at the time of Chan's arrest that it "supports journalists’ right to cover stories without fear of harassment or arrest."

The statement won a rebuke from China's foreign ministry, which said it constituted "interference with the rule of law" in Hong Kong, and that there was no such thing as absolute press freedom.

The HKJA said Chan was arrested after officers claimed he failed to comply with an ID check while at a venue as part of a journalistic assignment.

"Just as Ronson Chan was about to show his ID to one of the female police officers, another plainclothes officer stepped forward and yelled at him to 'cooperate'," the HKJA said in a statement at the time.

"Chan asked the policeman to show his warrant card and asked the officer to confirm his full name and department, as he could only see the surname Tan," the statement said.

"But the officer immediately issued a warning, and, within a few minutes, had Chan in handcuffs under arrest, en route back to Mong Kok police station."

An art exhibition about enforced disappearance has been postponed indefinitely as the venue's owner said they were 'uncomfortable' after being contacted by the police.

The student activist group Mok Luang Rim Nam had planned an exhibition titled “Dawn of Justice” to raise awareness about enforced disappearance and human rights violations in Thailand. The exhibition, which the group said would be done as ‘immersive art’ and also feature panel discussions, workshops, and performances, was scheduled to take place between 20 – 25 September at the exhibition space and community mall Changchui.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported yesterday (19 September) that the organisers were informed by Changchui that the venue’s management was contacted by the police, and that officers from Bangplad Police Station wanted to speak to the activists.

One of the organisers then contacted the Deputy Superintendent of Bangplad Police Station, and was told that it was normal for officers to talk to event organisers and that they were not harassing the group. When the activist asked if the police summoned everyone who has recently organized a concert at Changchui for a conversation, the Deputy Superintendent said that their question was rude and hung up. The group has not been able to contact him since.

Changchui’s management later contacted the activists and told them that the police were pressuring them and told them to make sure that the monarchy or the royal defamation law would not be mentioned during the event and that the three-finger salute would not be used.

Student activist Sopon Surariddhidhamrong, one of the exhibition organisers, said that there should have been no reason for the authorities to prevent an art exhibition from taking place. He also noted that the organisers booked the exhibition space far in advance and that no concerns were raised when they submitted the exhibition concept notes to the venue management. Although the management did ask them to be careful when talking about the monarchy, Sopon told them that the monarchy wouldn’t be mentioned as the event was an art exhibition, while he himself is prohibited from leaving his residence and from talking about the monarchy by his bail conditions.

Sopon also told TLHR that the venue management told the organisers that they agreed with the police demands, and asked the group to postpone the exhibition for the time being. He also said he heard one of the venue’s employees saying that someone “more powerful than the venue owner and more powerful than the police” wants to stop the exhibition.

After it was announced that the exhibition will be postponed indefinitely, a group of activists went to Changchui to ask the management to explain why the exhibition needed to be postponed. The group held signs asking why the exhibition was cancelled and covered their heads with black plastic bags.

Mint, a traditional Thai dancer-turned-activist who was also among the exhibition organisers, said that she wanted to demand an explanation from Changchui’s management, because saying that they are “uncomfortable” is not enough, noting that the organisers have prepared for months, had explained everything to the venue management in detail, and did everything that was agreed by both sides. It was therefore unfair to cancel at the last minute.

“I’m beyond expecting anything, because we did not prepare for a bomb to be dropped,” Mint said. “We were happy for the police to come to the exhibition, but this is not what that is. It’s cancelling us before the beginning of the event, and a day before we open, and what about all the preparation work we’ve done? I feel really bad that this happened.”

Sophon announced on Monday night (19 September) that they are no longer able to hold the exhibition at the original venue, but that it is not cancelled, merely postponed until they can find another venue.

He wrote on his Facebook page that the Dawn of Justice exhibition Is intended to restore justice to those whose rights have been violated and restore truth to the society, and that the organisers did nothing illegal and did not harass anyone.

“What happened reflects how our society is dominated by fear,” Sopon wrote. “They are afraid of even art, even speaking the truth. If we don’t stand up and fix it or change it, we may have to keep living in fear.”

A court in Yangon sentenced Myanmar journalist Htet Htet Khine, a freelance producer for BBC Media Action, to three years in prison with hard labour on Thursday.

The Bahan Township court convicted Htet Htet Khine of incitement under Section 505a of the Penal Code more than a year after her arrest in August of last year.

She was arrested along with columnist Sithu Aung Myint at an apartment where they had been hiding in Yangon’s Bahan Township. The junta accused her of harbouring Sithu Aung Myint in her home and of working as an editor for a radio station run by the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) called Federal FM.

The coup regime initially opened a case against her under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act for her alleged involvement with the NUG, which the junta has designated a terrorist group.

That case—for which she faces an additional three-year sentence if found guilty—is still pending.

In addition to her work as a producer, Htet Htet Khine also presented a program called “Khan Sar Kyi”—“Feel It”—for BBC Media Action.

Sithu Aung Myint, a contributor to media outlets such as VOA Burmese and Frontier Myanmar, had been evading arrest since the coup regime charged him with incitement in April of last year. Following his arrest, he was also charged with sedition, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

In a statement, BBC Media Action’s director of programmes, Richard Lace, said that the organisation was “alarmed” by the sentence and expressed concern for Htet Htet Khine’s safety and well-being.

“This, and other detentions of media workers in the country, runs counter to basic principles of human rights and freedom of expression,” he said.

The two journalists are being detained in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison.

Since the coup in February last year, the regime has forced at least 12 media outlets to shut down and arrested 142 journalists. Of these, 57 remain behind bars, including 26 who have already been convicted on various charges.

A 24-year-old protester charged with royal defamation for wearing Thai traditional dress at a mock fashion show during a protest on Silom Road on 29 October 2020 has been sentenced to 3 years in prison for an offence against the Queen.

On 14 September, the Court of Appeal has allowed her bail with 300,000 baht securities.

Jatuporn Sae-Ung was charged with royal defamation, violations of the Public Assembly Act, the Emergency Decree, and the Communicable Diseases Act, and using a sound amplifier without permission. She was accused of insulting the Queen by wearing a Thai traditional dress to participate in the “Ratsadorn Catwalk” fashion show, staged at the 29 October 2020 protest, a gesture seen as mockery of the royal family.

The complaint against her was filed by Waritsanun Sribawornthanakit, the owner of a pro-establishment Facebook page who also filed a complaint against Noppasin Treelayapewat, a 17-year-old protester, for wearing a black crop top to the same event with the message “My father’s name is Mana, not Vajiralongkorn” written on his back.

Because Noppasin is still a minor, his case is being handled by the Central Juvenile and Family Court. His sentencing date has not been set.

The ”Ratsadorn Catwalk” took place after it was reported that the Ministry of Commerce received a 13-million baht budget for the overseas exhibition of new products by the Sirivannavari brand, a fashion label owned by the King’s younger daughter, Princess Sirivannavari.

The 29 October 2020 protest took place on the same day that Sirivannavari’s new collection was being launched at the nearby Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Although there were no speeches, protesters participated in the fashion show, performed, and exhibited artwork to support monarchy reform.

The South Bangkok Criminal Court today (12 September) found Jatuporn guilty of royal defamation and violation of the Public Assembly Act and sentenced her to 3 years in prison and a fine of 1,500 baht. It then reduced her sentence to 2 years in prison and a fine of 1,000 baht because she gave useful testimony.

The court order sentencing Jatuporn was signed by judge Watanaphon Chaimani.

Weeranan Huadsri, Jatuporn’s lawyer, said that the Court saw Jatuporn’s action as premeditated, because Jatuporn and Noppasin made preparations before joining the protest, and so it ruled that they intended to mock the King and Queen and damage the royal family’s reputation.

Weeranan noted that the judge ordered all observers to leave the courtroom, claiming that this was the court’s Covid-19 prevention measure, but did not order the proceedings to be carried out in secret. Only Jatuporn’s partner and her guarantor were allowed to remain.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) said that Jatuporn’s lawyer requested bail for her in order to file an appeal using a 300,000-baht security. However, the court forwarded her bail request to the Appeal Court, so Jatuporn will be held at the Central Women’s Correctional Institution until the Appeal Court rules whether to grant her bail or not.

Before she was sentenced, Jatuporn told TLHR in an interview that she was prepared to be imprisoned, because she had seen news reports of other people being found guilty.

The charges against her have disrupted her life. She has had to travel back and forth between Buriram and Bangkok to meet the public prosecutor, and many times she has had to travel to sign a single document, or just to hear that the meeting has been postponed. She is also unemployed, as she often has to travel to meet the public prosecutor or go to court and can’t work full time.

“An employer wants someone who can work full time, which I can’t do because I’m caught up with the case,” she said. “On this, I understand them. This is why I am unemployed right now.”

Jatuporn said she was formerly a royalist, and that she was taught by both her family and school to love the late King Bhumibol. After his death in 2016, Jatuporn got a tattoo of the number “9” in Thai as a symbol of her loyalty, but since being charged with royal defamation, she added three red lines over the original tattoo.

“How do you judge whether someone does or doesn’t love the monarchy?” Jatuporn asked. She said that being charged has made her feel like it’s no longer possible to love or respect the monarchy.

“I want the monarchy to think carefully about who damages the monarchy more; people calling for reform or those who hold up pictures and go around beating up other people?”

Jatuporn said that she felt the court proceedings were not very fair, noting that it was unclear whether notes could be taken during hearings and that she wanted to be able to take notes on things that may have benefited her case. She also wanted to tell the plaintiff that she just wanted to wear a traditional dress because the event was a fashion show, and she does not often have the chance to wear national dress.

“I didn’t want to be anyone. I just wanted to be myself in a traditional dress, that’s all,” she said.

Following Jatuporn’s sentencing, Amnesty International Thailand issued a statement calling her sentence “a chilling prelude of what’s to come,” as at least 210 people have been charged with royal defamation since the start of the pro-democracy protests in 2020, and called on the authorities to drop charges against participants in peaceful protests and release those arbitrarily detained.

“The mock fashion show was a satirical take on the political situation of the country – a peaceful public event akin to a street festival with music, food, and dancing. Participants should not be punished for participating in a peaceful assembly,” said Amnesty International’s Deputy Secretary General Kyle Ward.

“With protests picking up again in Thailand, this latest conviction underlines the degree to which Thai authorities continue to repress peaceful dissent.

“Thai authorities are obliged to protect the peaceful exercise of the rights to expression and assembly, but they instead continue to pursue criminal proceedings against demonstrators, many of them young people or even children. These young protesters should be free to express their opinions and participate in discussions in society, and should not face the prospect of unwarranted prison sentences and criminal records.”

At least 15 people, including two freelance journalists, were arrested during a crackdown on a protest in Yangon’s Kyeemyindaing Township on Tuesday, according to sources.

One protester who managed to evade arrest told Myanmar Now that plainclothes regime forces appeared almost immediately after the rally on Panbingyi Street began at around 4:45pm.

“Some people hadn’t even gotten out of their cars when [the junta troops] showed up pointing their guns at them,” said the protester, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The purpose of the rally, which was timed to coincide with the opening of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, was to call on the world body to retain diplomat Kyaw Moe Tun as Myanmar’s permanent representative.

Last December, the UN’s credentials committee voted to keep Kyaw Moe Tun—who weeks after last year’s coup delivered an impassioned speech denouncing the military takeover—in the post, in a blow to the junta’s bid for international recognition.

Protesters were just beginning to unfurl banners that read “UN: Prove Your Existence For Justice” when regime forces in civilian vehicles parked on Panbingyi Street started making arrests, another activist told Myanmar Now.

At least one person who attempted to flee the scene was shot in the leg and another was severely beaten after being captured, according to a local resident.

“The protesters ran past our car as they were trying to get away. The plainclothes officers started shouting that they were thieves and told bystanders to stop them. Some people at the end of the street caught them. After that, two shots were fired,” said a woman who did not want to be identified.

The planned flash mob protest was organised by several anti-regime groups, including the Octopus Youth Organisation, the Education Students Union, the Myanmar Labour Alliance, and the Bama Youth Network.

The Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar, another group that took part in the protest, said in a statement that four of its members—Nay Min Tun, Aye Chan Aung, Zue Zue Ra Khine, and Yamin Kay Thwe Khine—were among those arrested, along with a driver named Than Zaw.

The identities of the other detainees, including the two freelance journalists, could not be confirmed at the time of reporting.

Panbingyi Street was the scene last December of another protest that ended when regime forces used their vehicles to ram into a crowd of demonstrators.

Although there were reports of several deaths in that incident, the junta later claimed that only two men and a woman had been injured in what it called a “crowd dispersal operation”.

Despite tight security and violent crackdowns, pro-democracy groups continue to hold rallies in Yangon calling for an end to military rule.

Last month, the regime arrested a protester and a freelance photographer who marked the 34th anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising on August 8 by displaying umbrellas with the number eight printed on them in Burmese.

One of those who escaped arrest on Tuesday said the latest attempt to crush the anti-coup movement would not deter activists determined to restore civilian rule.

“Those of us who are still free will just redouble our efforts to bring down this dictatorship,” he said.

More than 600 mostly young Uyghurs from a village in Ghulja were detained by authorities in Xinjiang on Monday after they ignored a strict COVID-19 lockdown and staged a peaceful street protest against a lack of food that has led to starvation and deaths, a local police officer said.

The detention figure was much higher than China’s official number issued the same day on an official police website stating that only two people who violated the lockdown restrictions in Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) city were sentenced to five days of detention.

Ghulja, a city of roughly a half-million mainly Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Ili (Yili) Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in the northern part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), has been under lockdown since early August, prompted by outbreaks of COVID-19.

Video posted by Uyghurs on Chinese social media last week showed that strict policies were denying them medical care and preventing them from getting food, leading to starvation in some cases. RFA could not independently verify the videos

The lockdowns, along with mandatory testing, are part of China's “zero-COVID” approach to preventing the further spread of the highly contagious respiratory virus, but they have triggered exorbitant commodity prices, significant food shortages, and a lack of health care, especially for those living below the poverty line.

In response to the zero-COVID policy, the residents of Ghulja’s Karadong village walked en masse out of their homes and took to the streets.

“We came out because of the deaths, otherwise we would have remained silent,” a Uyghur protester said in a soundbite of a social media post on Monday. “Look at these people who took to the streets! We, the people of Karadong village of Ghulja city, took to the streets! They [the authorities] did not send any aid here; therefore, people took to the streets when they couldn’t endure it.”

The villagers demonstrated despite warnings that aired on state-run Xinjiang TV warning citizens that authorities would punish them as “separatists” if they "spread rumors" about the wave of COVID-19 infection in the area.

“Those who use the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic to create and spread rumors to split the country, harm the unity of the country, or incite the overthrow of the state regime and the socialist system, fall under Article 103, Section 2, and Article 105, Section 2 of the Criminal Law and will be prosecuted for the crime of inciting to split the country and to overthrow the state regime,” the announcement said.

When asked by RFA about the number of protesters arrested, an officer at the Karadong Town 2 Police Station said 617 people from Karadong village had been detained. He also said officers from his station arrested 182 people in the neighborhood for which they are responsible.

“Most of them are misguided youths — 17, 18, 19 [years old] or even younger,” he said. “Some of them I have spoken to. They all said they did wrong and acknowledged the [Chinese Communist] Party’s and the government’s benevolence. During the interrogations, they all expressed remorse.”

The officer said officials are helping impoverished families during the lockdown implemented since early August

“Village and township cadres are visiting and distributing flour, oil and meat,” he said. “Economically well-off families in the village are also helping the poor.”

An officer at the Ghulja Yengihayat Police Station contacted by RFA said he did not know how many people involved in the protest were arrested

“Those handling the case know this. We don't know. They haven’t informed us yet,” he said.

An officer at the Ghulja City Police Command Center declined to provide information about the protesters over the phone.

“Please ask the relevant offices,” he said. “We cannot provide information about this. There is data published by the police department about this, look it up online.”

But when RFA pointed out to him that there was a difference between the information posted online and what the officer from the Karadong Town 2 Police Station said, he replied: “I don't know how many cases have been filed in this case. The prosecutors know that.”

'Terrible things are transpiring'

Many Uyghurs have posted short videos of the starvation they are experiencing on China’s Douyin video-hosting service, though some of them, including some Han Chinese, complained that censors were deleting their videos.

A warning in the Uyghur language telling residents not to post any information about the COVID lockdown on social media appeared on Douyin on Monday.

“Starting today until Sept. 18, nobody is allowed to share any news, any graphic with news written on it, or images of desperate expressions or videos on social media, especially in separate chat rooms because our country will hold its National Congress on October 18,” the message said. “We’re all fully aware of it. That is why we must strictly abide by this.”

The Chinese government wants to prevent large-scale COVID outbreaks in Xinjiang and other parts of China in the run-up to the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, when the party’s national policy goals for the next five years will be set and its top leadership elected.

Meanwhile, Uyghur residents have complained that their residential management offices are charging exorbitant fees to deliver for food donated from outside the area, while Uyghurs from outside Ghulja say housing manager have refused to accept food they wanted to donate to help those in the city environs who need it.

Members of Uyghur organizations abroad demonstrated peacefully over the weekend to protest the starvation of Ghulja in front of Chinese embassies and consulates around the world, in the United States, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Australia and Turkey.

Adrian Zenz, a researcher at the Washington, D.C.-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and expert on the Xinjiang region, tweeted Monday, “terrible things are transpiring from Uyghur regions, including severe and potentially life-threatening conditions caused by lockdowns.”

“My heart very much goes out to the Uyghur community at this time, praying for strength in the face of what appear to be depictions of utter desperation and even death amid a ruthless COVID lockdown,” he tweeted. “Years of oppression have left Uyghurs in the region utterly helpless.”

As many as a dozen people in Ghulja country have died from starvation or lack of access to medicine since the coronavirus lockdown was imposed by Chinese authorities, RFA reported on Sept. 9, citing information from residents and local officials.

At the end of August, the United Nations’ human rights chief issued a report on Xinjiang, saying that China’s arbitrary detention and repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in the region “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

On 12 September, South Bangkok Criminal Court accepted a defamation lawsuit filed by Thammakaset Co Ltd, the 39th of its kind, against Angkhana Neelapaijit, Puttanee Kangkun, and Thanaporn Saleephol over their tweets about labour rights violations at their farm.

The Court later freed the three on bail, according to defence lawyer Sor Rattanamanee Polkla’s Facebook post.

Tittasat Soodsan, another defence lawyer, told Prachatai that the case was originally filed in 2019 as 4 separate cases, 2 against Angkhana and one each against Puttanee and Thanaporn. The plaintiff’s lawyer later in the same year proposed to the Court merging the cases into one, to which the Court agreed.

All the cases stem from sharing 2 twitter posts and 3 retweets to support other defendants who had been sued by the company. The 5 tweets contain a link to an open letter related to defamation cases that Thammakaset has filed. The open letter in turn contains a link related to a Fortify Rights video about labour rights. The video has been the subject of a defamation suit.

Tittasat said bail was allowed without any security, but the defendants have to attend every Court hearing, the next being scheduled for 14 November for trial and evidence examination.

Thammakaset’s barrage of lawsuits came after 14 Myanmar workers submitted to the National Human Rights Commission a petition claiming that they were made to work for below-minimum wages without overtime pay and that their documents had been seized by their employer. The company sued them in October 2019 for defamation but the case was dropped.

The company later sued at least one academic, six human rights advocates, and one journalist for either producing or recycling information about its alleged labour rights violations.

The company’s strategy has stirred criticism and condemnation from human rights organisations, who see it as Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPP), or lawsuits that are filed to stop people from addressing public issues.

In March 2020, a group of UN experts condemned the continued misuse of the judicial process by Thammakaset to harass and silence human rights defenders who have spoken out against its abusive and exploitative labour practices.

“We are deeply troubled by the information we continue to receive about migrant workers, human rights defenders, academics and journalists facing ill-founded defamation cases by the company Thammakaset when they raise legitimate concerns about working conditions in this company,” the experts said.

Tittasat said the lawyers on Monday submitted to the Court a request to drop the case, citing the lawsuit as judicial harassment under Section 161/1 of Criminal Procedure Code that allows the Courts to dismiss a case if it finds that it has been filed to harass another. The Court dismissed the request, saying they still did not have enough information to confirm this.

The Court’s decision again brings into question how the provisions under Section 161/1 are implemented in practice. Tittasat has asked the Courts to consider this provision in many SLAPP cases but never succeeded.

“In the past, we used [Section 161/1] in every case. There has never been a Court ruling that the lawsuit was dishonest,” said Tittasat.

The Taliban Vice and Virtue Department in Kandahar province has detained four women who are United Nations employees on the charges of violating the “hijab decree” and spreading alleged “immorality”.

A reliable UN source told Hasht-e Subh Monday that the detainees are the staff of immigration, children, and women organizations related to the UN.

The source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Taliban rebels arrested these female employees early this morning in front of their office and brutally beat their driver.

According to this source, these women were imprisoned by the Taliban for several hours.

It is reported that the Taliban told these female staff that they were arrested for “not observing hijab at the office” and spreading “immorality” in the society.

According to reports, the Taliban fighters have already arrested a number of women in Kandahar for alleged allegations.

Authorities shoved and struck unionists with walkie-talkies as members of eight unions attempted to submit a petition against union-busting to the Labor Ministry and the Council of Ministers office.

Around 400 participants from eight unions and two civil society groups submitted a petition to the Labor Ministry and Council of Ministers on Sunday highlighting 31 cases of union-busting that occurred during the pandemic, particularly affecting garment unions and a casino workers’ union at NagaWorld casino.

The workers were blocked and faced violence from security personnel as they walked from the Labor Ministry to the Council of Ministers. Seak Panha, a member of the NagaWorld union, said at least two of their members lost consciousness and others were injured when authorities tried to stop the group.

Panha said they first attempted to submit the petition to the Labor Ministry but when no one from the ministry came to receive the letter they decided to walk to the Council of Ministers building.

Authorities met them at the intersection near the Institute of Technology of Cambodia and began shoving and hitting some members, she said.

“When we arrived under the [overpass] bridge, they came to stop us and hit us. They even hit us with walkie talkies. Two of our friends lost consciousness,” she said, saying they passed out while being shoved by the authorities.

A livestream from labor rights group Central showed unionists walking away from the melee with red marks on their faces.

NagaWorld workers have clashed with police and security guards as they have protested the firing of more than 1,300 workers by the casino corporation last year.

Phnom Penh Police spokesperson San Sokseyha denied any violent actions by the police and instead blamed the unionists for the violence.

“We never violate those illegal protestors who are always planning incitement, yelling and making inappropriate actions to the authorities, while the authorities try to stop them from clashing with each other,” he said.

The petition does not provide details of the 31 cases but lists federation members affected by union-busting, such as the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions, Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union and Independent Trade Union Federation. Unions have told VOD of union-busting tactics used during the pandemic.

Cambodia Tourism Workers’ Union Federation president Touch Kosal added one of his local unions has also seen its union leadership laid off.

“We have seen that the solutions [so far] aren’t enough. We want to see the Ministry of Labor take action for union leaders to get back to work,” he said. “The Ministry of Labor is our parent and has to compromise for the solution.”

Ou Tepphalin, president of the Cambodia Food and Service Workers Federation, said the unions had collected data on attempts to dissolve different unions and realized unions across industries were facing similar problems.

She wasn’t confident that the Labor Ministry would respond, but added that it’s important to raise the busting of unions with officials.

“At least we are trying to demand for our freedoms as a group of unions,” she said.

Labor Ministry spokesperson Heng Sour did not respond to a request for comment, and government spokesperson Phay Siphan said the Council of Ministers couldn’t address the issue of union-busting.

“If the Ministry of Labor couldn’t solve it, the union should file a complaint to the court. Because the court can make a judgment, and the Council of Ministers only does administrative procedures,” he said.

A group of hooligans attacked the office of Avenues Television located at Maharajgunj, Kathmandu for the news broadcast in the television on September 11. Kathmandu is the federal capital of Nepal.

Reporter at the television Raju Bhandari shared with Freedom Forum that the television channel was scheduled to broadcast a news about alleged sexual abuse of girls in Ananta Seva Nepal children's home by its owner Udaya Raj Bhatta at 9:00 pm. The television authority also called the owner Bhatta to speak in the program.

"But before starting the program, 5 to 6 hooligans forcefully tried to open the gate of the media house and pelted stones at the gate. The hooligans sent by Bhatta not only attacked the media house but also manhandled me and my fellow reporter Kamal GC and seized the mobile phone of program presenter Sushil Pande", said Bhandari to FF.

He also informed that Bhatta is in detention at Metropolitan Police Circle, Maharajgunj and the investigation is ongoing.

Freedom Forum condemns the incident becausse the obatruction on reporting on the serious issue- violence againt girls- and assault on journalists and media house is against the notion of free press and right to information.

Hence, FF strongly urges the concerned authority to respect the media's right to free press. Together, media persons are also urged to maintain additional sensitivity and safety while reporting the serious issues as violence.

The Taliban’s Intelligence forces have arrested at least 8 local journalists in Paktia province after the news of female students’ protest leaked.

A reliable local source says that following the news of the protest of female students in Paktia, the intelligence of the Taliban detained and interrogated 8 journalists for several hours on Saturday (September 10th).

Taliban forces have searched the journalist’s equipment and mobile phones, warning them to be cautious in publishing news.

Meanwhile, local sources say that the students of Simin Akbari High School in Samkanai district of Paktia, who had gone to school on Sunday morning (September 11th), returned home after being fired upon by the Taliban.

Closing the education doors to girls after nearly a week in Paktia has spiked widespread reactions.

In the days leading up to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s arrival in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, activists have been arrested and intimidated for protesting their relatives’ imprisonment in China's Xinjiang Province and its vast internment camp system.

Bakhyt Zharykbasova’s husband, Baibolat Kunbolat, was one of those arrested and sentenced to 15 days in jail. For more than a year and half, Kunbolat has been organizing demonstrations outside the Chinese Consulate in Almaty, the country's biggest city, demanding the release of his brother along with other Kazakhs whose relatives are missing, jailed, or trapped in the neighboring region.

But in the lead-up to Xi’s high-profile September 14 visit -- his first trip abroad in more than two years -- protesters say they have been met with a wave of arrests, police summonses, and warnings not to travel to Nur-Sultan in an attempt to prevent dissent during the Chinese leader’s state visit.

“The authorities warned him and I warned him, [too], but he decided that this is what he is going to do and [that] he will keep doing it,” Zharykbasova, whose husband was arrested on September 10, told RFE/RL. “Baibolat says he is fine [in detention], but I know they will not let him out as long as the Chinese president is here.”

China’s crackdown in Xinjiang has seen more than 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslim minorities put into mass detention camps. Since Beijing’s dragnet accelerated in 2017, the plight of ethnic Kazakhs interned in China has been an unexpected source of dissent, with the testimonies of former detainees and family members fueling a guerrilla advocacy campaign that brought outsized international attention to the issue.

This left the Kazakh government walking a tightrope between appeasing Beijing -- which denies the long list of abuses that have been documented in its camp system -- and dealing with an exasperated segment of its population lobbying for family members in China.

“There is only one goal here [with these arrests and threats] -- to please the Chinese leader,” Yerbol Dauletbek, the leader of the officially registered chapter of Atajurt Eriktileri, a group lobbying for ethnic Kazakhs detained in Xinjiang and their relatives, told RFE/RL. “This is how [the government] helps to hide the crimes of China.”

Silencing Xinjiang Protests

Demonstrators were facing growing pressure from the authorities even before Xi’s meeting with Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev was announced.

In recent years, the government has led a swift crackdown against activists working on Xinjiang issues in the country: shutting down organizations, arresting activists, and intimidating leading figures into exile, leaving only a small but devoted segment -- such as Kunbolat and his peers -- for public protests.

On September 12, Gulfiya Kazybek, Gaukhar Kurmanaliyeva, and Qalida Akytkhan -- who were all part of ongoing protests outside the Chinese Consulate in Almaty and embassy in Nur-Sultan since February 2020 -- said police officers removed them from a bus that they were on while traveling to a wedding in the southwestern city of Shymkent.

“The police demanded that we get off the bus and then they took us to the police station,” Kazybek told RFE/RL.

Once at the police station, the three women were told that an administrative case had been opened over the violation of “the procedure for holding peaceful assemblies” and they were handed summonses.

Kurmanaliyeva and Kazybek went to their local police station in Almaty on September 13 but were told by officers that no materials on their case had been received yet and they were asked to wait for a phone call for more information which had not been provided by the time this article was published.

Kurmanaliyeva told RFE/RL that she believes security operatives had been tailing her and other protesters since September 10, saying that she and others had documented instances of being followed at the market and outside their homes.

“We'll keep protesting until our relatives are out,” she said. “I am against Xi Jinping's visit. He is making genocide against Kazakhs and Muslims in Xinjiang and he comes here like nothing has happened. He should answer for what he is doing.”

Following the release of a damning UN report earlier this month that said China has committed “serious human rights violations” in mass detention camps in Xinjiang that may be crimes against humanity, activists urged Toqaev to raise the issue of the treatment of ethnic Kazakhs during his talks with Xi.

Kurmanaliyeva says an official from Almaty's city administration had told her Toqaev would raise the plight of their relatives when he meets with Xi, although she doubts it will happen.

“They just didn't want us to go to [the capital],” Kurmanaliyeva said. “They told us: ‘You'll create a bother.’”

Other protesters who had been part of the regular pickets outside the Chinese Consulate and embassy also faced detention and harassment in the lead-up to Xi’s visit.

Akikat Kaliolla, a musician whose relatives are believed to be in Xinjiang’s camp system, was also sentenced to 15 days in jail for allegedly violating laws on public protests and was taken directly by police from his recording studio.

Nurzat Yermekbay, who has also regularly participated in demonstrations against the camps, said he was detained for four hours on September 10 in Almaty and warned by police “not to go to the capital.”

Bekzat Maksutkhan, the head of Naghyz Atajurt, an unregistered advocacy group that works with families who have relatives missing in Xinjiang, told RFE/RL that the Kazakh authorities have been effective in silencing dissent around the issue and that the treatment of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang is not receiving mainstream attention in the country.

The Chinese Embassy in Nur-Sultan has not responded publicly to the appeals of protesters and neither the embassy nor the consulate in Almaty responded to RFE/RL’s request for comment about the fate of ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang and the protesters’ complaints.

Xi Arrives

The fact that Xi chose Kazakhstan and Central Asia as the location to first step outside of China since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic brings prestige and geopolitical significance to the government in Nur-Sultan.

Expanding its already deep economic and political ties with China has been a priority for the Kazakh government and local authorities have treaded cautiously with Beijing over the issue of interned Kazakhs.

The issue is further complicated by the complex family connections across the lengthy 1,782-kilometer border between China and Kazakhstan.

Cross-border ties have been a mainstay for centuries but accelerated when the Kazakh government sought to attract ethnic Kazakhs living in Xinjiang to move following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This led to many Chinese-born Kazakhs uprooting and resettling in neighboring Kazakhstan. They have become permanent residents and even Kazakh citizens while still maintaining close connections to family in China.

In instances where Kazakh citizens, many of whom were originally born in China, were detained in Xinjiang, the Kazakh government has negotiated behind-the-scenes with Beijing to secure their release. But it says it has no jurisdiction in other cases.

“Since the Kazakh diaspora living in Xinjiang are citizens of the People's Republic of China, all issues related to them relate to China's internal affairs,” a spokesperson for the Kazakh foreign ministry told RFE/RL. “Therefore, it’s necessary to consider ways to resolve this issue without prejudice to the comprehensive and eternal strategic partnership between Kazakhstan and China.”

Temur Umarov, an expert on China’s relations with Central Asia at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told RFE/RL that the internment camps are a sensitive political topic for Beijing and, given Nur-Sultan’s track record, Toqaev is unlikely to raise the issue publicly and even less likely to criticize China’s detention system during meetings with Xi.

“There is an unspoken rule in relations between Kazakhstan and China: only successes are publicly raised and problems are never spoken about,” he said. “The countries of Central Asia cannot afford to criticize Beijing simply because they depend on [China]. Criticism can come back to haunt them with economic consequences.”

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Thailand.

Description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed about the judicial harassment against Ms. Nada Chaiyajit, a human rights defender and human rights campaign advisor at the Manushya Foundation, a member organisation of FIDH in Thailand. Ms. Nada has been active on LGBTQI+ issues and corporate accountability for the past 15 years, and is also the Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) advisor for the Thai Business and Human Rights Network, on whose behalf she has submitted complaints to the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT) and government agencies related to gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace.

On September 10, 2022, Nada Chaiyajit received a court summons issued on August 22, 2022, ordering her to appear on October 31, 2022, at the Bangkok Criminal Court for a preliminary hearing during which she will be informed of potential charges against her. This summons followed a complaint filed under Articles 326 (“defamation”), 328 (“libel”), and 91 ("multiple distinct offenses") of Thailand’s Criminal Code, by Mr. Santsith Naothaworn, a politician and elected Bangkok councillor from the Move Forward Party (MFP). The complaint by Mr. Santsith stems from several social media posts published by Nada Chaiyajit in May 2022, in which Ms. Nada alleged Mr. Santsith had sexually harassed a transgender woman who was employed at his company. In the posts, Nada Chaiyajit claimed that the transgender woman was repeatedly subjected to several acts of harassment by the politician, before she was eventually laid off.

In addition to speaking out for her on social media, Nada Chaiyajit supported the transgender woman with submitting a complaint to the NHRCT on June 15, 2022. As part of NHRCT’s investigation, which is still ongoing, the MFP was requested to respond. After the Disciplinary and Ethics Committee of the MFP conducted an investigation, the board found that Mr. Santsith was responsible for sexual harassment. As a result, the party suspended his participation in the party’s events, and banned him from carrying any additional political portfolios as a member of the Bangkok Metropolitan Council for one year. Mr. Santsith was also placed on probation to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. Subsequently, on July 18, 2022, a compensation agreement between the politician and the victim of the sexual harassment was signed before the Thai Department of Labour Protection and Welfare for violation of labour rights, because Mr. Santsith did not respect the one-month notice to dismiss an employee, as provided by Thai law.

The Observatory notes with concern that defamation cases and Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are frequently used in Thailand by both state and non-state actors to harass journalists, political activists, human rights defenders, and organisations to ultimately suppress their right to freedom of expression, which is enshrined in international human rights law, and particularly in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Thailand is a state party.

The Observatory condemns the judicial harassment against Nada Chaiyajit, which seems to be only aimed at preventing her from exercising her right to freedom of expression and her legitimate human rights activities.

The Observatory calls for the respect of Nada Chaiyajit’s rights to due process and fair trial, and for an end to all acts of harassment, including at the judicial level, against her, as well as all other human rights defenders in the country.

The Observatory also urge the Thai government to repeal criminal defamation provision of the Criminal Code.

A fact-finding team which probed the murder of an anti-stone quarry activist has asked the state government to form an expert committee to inquire into the illegal activities of stone quarries in Karur district and submit a white paper on it. The nine-member team comprising Manapparai MLA P Abdul Samad of Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, Swaraj India party national president Christina Samy, R R Srinivasan of Poovulagin Nanbargal and advocates Mohan, Balamurugan, Kennedy and I Asir of HRD carried out day-long inspections at 26 quarries in K Paramathi area on Saturday. It was here that activist R Jeganathan, 49, of Kalipalayam was mowed down by a truck on September 10. Based on a complaint by his wife, police arrested S Selvakumar, 39, owner of Annai stone quarry in Kalipalayam village, truck driver Sakthivel, 24, and labourer Ranjithkumar, 44, for murder. The team met the victim's wife P Revathy and two sons. The team told reporters that none of the quarries they visited had any information displayed about their nature, extent, period of lease etc. This lack of basic information amounted to fundamental violation of mining rules. They said that over 200 quarries functioning in the district were dug to a depth of 350 feet or more. They mined the quarries beyond the permitted depth. They said the information provided by the officers about quarries was contradictory to what they found during the inspection. Hence, they demanded that the government form an expert committee under the direct monitoring of the chief minister which should come out with a white paper on the functioning of quarries. The team also insisted on providing security to social activists. Saying that Jeganathan faced threats to his life a few times earlier, the team demanded that the government announce Rs 50 lakh compensation to his family as well as a government job to a member. The body of Jeganathan was accepted by the family on September 14 after four days of protest.

On 9, September 2022, well-known youth rights defender and the National Organiser of Youth for Change (YFC), Lahiru Weerasekara was arrested by Maradana police as he was returning from a peaceful protest at Galle face in Colombo. The defender is currently held at the Maradana police station. Lahiru Weerasekara is a prominent youth activist, former student leader and human rights rights campaigner. He is the National Organiser of Youth for Change (YFC) and has been active in the peaceful protests taking place in Sri Lanka linked to the economic crisis. Protesters have been calling for a change in the system of governance, an end to impunity, corruption and mismanagement as well as accountability for crimes, including but not limited to economic crimes. Lahiru Weerasekara has been at the forefront of peaceful protests and in the campaign against ongoing reprisals against protesters including violence, and persecution under anti-terror law of peaceful protesters. On 9 September Lahiru Weerarsekara attended a peaceful protest at Galle face in Colombo, and was returning on his bike, when he was stopped by three uniformed police officers and forced into a police jeep. He was reportedly assaulted inside the jeep and threatened to hand over his mobile phone, which he refused. The human rights defender was taken to the Maradana police station where is currently held. Lawyers were permitted access to Lahiru Weerarsekara at the police station. Conditions in remannd are extremely unsanitary and infested with rats posing a serious health risks. The police state that his arrest is based on a peaceful protest held by the IUSF on 30 August. Police shared with lawyers that he will be presented before the Magistrate Court on 10 September but there is no confirmation of time or any official communication. Lahiru Weerasekara has been targeted several times during the past four months. On 30, August 2022, uniformed and plain-clothed police officers forcibly entered press conference held at the the Centre for Society & Religion in Maradana in search of the defender. The human rights defender is being targeted due to his peaceful human rights activism and participation in peaceful protests. Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the arrest of Lahiru Weerasekara and reprisals against peace- ful protesters. The right to peaceful protest must be protected under national and international human rights commitments. The use of legal sanctions against human rights defenders and student leaders is counter to Sri Lanka’s public commitments to human rights and to preserve the right to peaceful dis- sent. Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Sri Lanka to cease all harassment, violence, and reprisals against human rights defenders in the country.

Victor Das, a teacher at a private coaching centre, was arrested on September 9 by Assam Police and slapped with several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This has spurred widespread reactions from across the spectrum of society. Das invited imposition of serious charges upon him in his attempt to raise some alleged corruption in the recently held ADRE (Assam Direct Recruitment Examination) for various grade III and grade IV posts under the government of Assam.

In his tweets, Das raised the issue by tagging the chief minister, Assam Police, DGP Assam and GP Singh (Special DGP in Assam). The tweet caused a stir as people on social media started expressing their discontent over the matter and urged the government and the police to take a serious note of the issue. The police ultimately arrested Das, and the court sent him to police custody for seven days. Das has been in police custody for the past four days.

The Background

The Assam government conducted the ADRE for around 26,000 jobs in grade III and grade IV categories. Around 12 lakhs youngsters applied for posts through the much-advertised recruitment process. Ministers and officials came out with directives to ensure that this time the examination and the entire recruitment process go without an iota of corruption and malfunction at any step.

Notably, in an unusual happening, the government suspended the internet on August 21 and 28 of August. There was also resentment from different sections of society towards such a drastic step by the government, especially from those who depend overwhelmingly on the internet for their daily business.

It is worth mentioning that Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma came out with a lofty claim of giving jobs to one lakh youths during his election campaign in 2021.

Victor Das appeared as a spoiler in the whole episode of chest-thumping about conducting an anomaly-free examination. As a private coaching centre teacher, Das also taught students who appeared for the ADRE. He even seemed jubilant in his earlier tweets when the examination papers included questions he had taught the students. However, things did not appear as smooth and clean as it was thought and advertised.

On September 7, Victor posted a tweet alleging the involvement of a massive lobby in the corruption, including ex-MLAs. He alleged that in what appears to be a scam, there are demands of money from Rs 3 lakhs to 8 lakhs for securing one of the jobs for which the ADRE was conducted.

Among all those tagged, including the CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, only GP Singh, the special DGP of Assam Police, was seen to have replied to Victor’s tweet, which still appears in the thread. GP Singh, in his reply, urged Das to provide specifics and details to be sent to his inbox. In his other tweets that alleged the leak of the ADRE question paper, responses from others could also be seen expressing the same apprehensions. A few of his students also replied, saying that the demand for bribe money for the job is genuine.

The issue took an ugly turn from here on. Das was summoned to a Guwahati police station as a part of an enquiry into the matter. After a daylong marathon questioning at the Panbazar police station, Das was arrested on September 9. On that day, the Twitter handle of Guwahati Police informed that Das has been arrested for spreading rumours and being involved in a conspiracy to create discord among various sections of the society.

Sections Imposed on Victor Das

Victor Das has been booked under sections 120B, 153, 153A, 384 and 505 of the IPC. Das is in police custody now as a court in Assam ordered him to be remanded for seven days. This is how a whistleblower ended up inviting charges of extortion, criminal conspiracy and intention to cause enmity between groups.

It is worth mentioning here that Das’s father died two years back, which Das alleges to be cold-blooded murder. He was often seen tweeting about the issue of his father’s alleged murder and he also said that he knew about the culprits.

Notably, in these earlier tweets, Das used to tag the same officials and the CM as he did in the recent case of alleged corruption in the ADRE.

His father, late Kumud Ch. Das, was an employee in the NF Railway and was in the process of uncovering a huge scam in his office, Das says in his tweets. The case is still not settled.

Right after Das was arrested, there has been widespread discontent among people, especially those who appeared in the ADRE with hope amidst acute unemployment in the state.

The opposition parties slammed the government, alleging that a complainant has been victimised. This is an obnoxious act of suppressing people's voices, the opposition claimed in unison.

Akhil Gogoi, MLA from the Sibsagar constituency, in his press statement said, “There is no more democracy in Assam now. How would anyone come out with complaints now? This is an act of fear-mongering and blatant suppression of people’s voice.”

Interestingly, ministers and MLAs in Assam have also seen commenting on the issue where they vehemently reject the allegations made by Das. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Is it a James Bond film? There are no anomalies.”

On the other hand, the police versions, including those from high profile officials, said that Das was given ample time and scope to prove his allegations. “But he could not bring any substantial evidence in support of his allegations. The persons he named in his statement were also questioned, but from them nothing came out as well,” said one senior police official in Guwahati.

DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta also hummed the same tone. In a media byte, he said, “Victor represented the matter very wrongly.” Mahanta was also in focus regarding his earlier comment where he said that if anyone is found to be involved in tempering the exam by any means, they will be beaten badly.

Senior advocates of the Gauhati High court have also raised serious apprehensions of the police act, especially on the sections that have been imposed on a whistleblower. Krishna Gogoi, an advocate at Gauhati High Court, said in a statement, “Victor only raised an issue and came out with some allegations. How can a complainant be arrested in such a manner with those sections imposed? The question is who filed the FIR against him? Was there anyone who filed the FIR?” Gogoi also apprehended whether the CRPC norms are being properly followed.

Santanu Borthakur, an eminent lawyer of Assam, said, “Assam police is acting like jokers. The 153A is imposed when a person’s statement can create division between two groups or communities. How can Victor’s sayings have fomented enmity and conflicts between two communities? If this remains as a precedence, then it will be dangerous for democracy. How would people come out to give complaints to police hereafter?”

Police raided Das’s house at Dadara yesterday and seized his laptop.

Das’s arrest and his being in custody for seven days raised more questions and apprehensions in Assam. However, with this also, the issue of corruption and money being involved in the recruitment process through ADRE could not have been suppressed.

Even after Das’s arrest, there are a few students who came out with the same allegations. Recently, Jaya Kalita of Rangia (Kamrup district) also shared her similar experiences earlier, where she pointed to the MLA of her constituency, Bhabesh Kalita. Kalita is the president of Assam BJP. Reports said that the state BJP president has even filed a case against Jaya Kalita, claiming her allegations to be false.

In what direction the allegations and counter allegations will move can only be seen in future. The fate of the aspirants participating in the ADRE is also a matter to be watched. However, the much-hyped clean recruitment process of the ADRE has been challenged by some youngsters, which has visibly irked the government.

Local sources in Khost province report that the Taliban have arrested Marjan Hasand, one of the civil activists in this province.

According to sources, he was arrested by the Taliban intelligence members on Thursday this week.

So far, the motive behind Hasand’s arrest is not clear, and Taliban members have not provided details on his arrest.

A source however said that this civil activist praised the reopening of girls’ schools in Paktia province the previous day on his Facebook page and asked the people of Khost province to open the doors of girls’ schools. The source said this might be the motive behind his detention.

Hasand was reportedly involved in the media in the former government and after the beginning of Taliban rule, he turned to freelance work.

Scuffles between protesters and police broke out in the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent after a court upheld the sentences of three activists who were convicted for taking part in mass anti-government demonstrations in January.

Angry relatives and supporters of Qairat Sultanbek, Lazzat Dosmambetova, and Zhanmurat Ashtaev, ran after the judge as he quickly left the courtroom following his verdict on September 8 before bailiffs and police officers intervened, leading to a brawl.

The melee was pushed out of the court building where dozens more activists joined in scuffles with the police.

In mid-July, the Al-Farabi district court sentenced Sultanbek, 48, and Dosmambetova, 51, to 3 years and seven months in prison each, while Ashtaev, 44, was handed 3 years and one month in prison. All were convicted of taking part in mass disorders, a charge all three have rejected.

The protesters demanded that the judge or a prosecutor explain why the activists' sentences were upheld, insisting that they were innocent.

Police attempted to detain some of the protesters, but failed to so as the activists' supporters and relatives interfered.

Meanwhile, police inside the court's building detained Ashtaev's four brothers and took them away to a police station.

Afterward relatives of the activists gathered in front of the court building with headbands saying "Hunger Strike." They said that they will remain at the site until their demands for the release of the activists are met.

Unprecedented mass anti-government protests rocked the Central Asian nation in early January. The peaceful protests turned violent, leaving at least 238 people, including 19 police officers, dead.

Authorities in Shymkent say 20 individuals died and 207 were injured in the city during the unrest, which was initally sparked by a fuel-price hike and then quickly turned into broader anti-government protests.

Last week, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev said a mass amnesty will be declared soon for all individuals involved in the unrest and its aftermath, including law enforcement officers. Many relatives of those killed and arrested during and after the unrest viewed the clemency idea as a move to evade investigations of the deadly January developments.

Vietnamese police in Dak Lak Province on September 8 arrested Dang Dang Phuoc, a music teacher, on charges of “making, storing, and distributing information, documents, products against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
Phuoc’s last online post on his social media was about the recent arrest of Bui Tuan Lam, the noodle vendor. According to a friend, he was arrested while doing morning exercises near his house and wished to remain anonymous due to security concerns.
Phuoc, 59, worked at Dak Lak Provincial Musical College. He was also an online commentator who frequently shared his critical opinions of Vietnam’s human rights violations, corruption, and social injustice. His personal Facebook account has more than 6,000 followers.
The Dak Lak Police claimed that Dang Dang Phuoc had used his Facebook account to write and publish content that “contains distorted propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” It added that the local authorities “had informed and educated Phuoc to halt the illegal activities but he refused to comply and even advanced such activism.”

Local sources in Jawzjan report the arrest of two freelance journalists and a couple by Taliban intelligence.

Local sources told Hasht-e Subh that Shuja Zaki and Obaid, two freelancers, were arrested on Thursday (September 8th) at a Taliban checkpoint while returning from Jawzjan districts to the center of the province and were taken to an unknown location.

Before their trip to Jawzjan, these two freelance journalists had announced on their Facebook pages about their trip to the Faizabad district of Jawzjan and preparing a report on the recent fires in this district.

Meanwhile, other sources in Jawzjan say that these two journalists were working for a YouTube channel and were arrested at night by Taliban intelligence with a couple from a hotel in Shaberghan city, the center of Jawzjan.

The identity of the arrested couple is not yet known. The Taliban have not yet said anything about the news.

The intelligence of the Taliban in Paktia previously detained 8 journalists for several hours on Saturday and interrogated them for covering the protest of schoolgirls.

The junta recently filed an additional charge for treason against Wai Moe Naing—a Monywa-based protest leader already serving 10 years in prison—which is expected to be accompanied by a death sentence if he is convicted.

His mother, Moe Sandar Kyu, said that the allegations that he violated Section 122 of the Penal Code were handed down on September 8.

Wai Moe Naing was already found guilty in a military court of five counts of incitement.

Among the 26-year-old’s many outstanding charges—totalling 28 years in prison if convicted—are allegations that he had ties to an “unlawful association” in violation of Section 17(1) of the Penal Code and that he committed other treasonous acts that violate Section 124.

The charges are concerning Wai Moe Naing’s affiliation with the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a group of elected MPs ousted in the February 2021 coup and challenging the junta’s claims of legitimacy.

His mother explained that these may now be dropped to make way for the recent, more serious charge.

“Because they added the Section 122 charge, which includes both of the former charges, he will no longer be facing the other charges,” she explained, adding that his hearing for the new treason case is scheduled for September 22.

“Lawyers from Monywa do not want to take on his case anymore, so we have had to hire lawyers from Mandalay. But one of them was arrested and one was forced into hiding,” Moe Sandar Kyu explained. “Because we can’t ensure the lawyers’ security, we will no longer be hiring any more of them.”

She will be testifying on her son’s behalf for another Section 505 charge on September 20, a case brought forward after Wai Moe Naing led an April 2021 motorcycle rally in his Sagaing Region hometown.

Wai Moe Naing was arrested during this protest after being hit by a car driven by junta personnel. The day after he was captured, the regime published a photo of Wai Moe Naing in custody with a bruised eye and swollen face, prompting fears that he had been tortured.

He was chair of the Monywa University Student Union from 2014 to 2015, and is also a member of Monywa’s General Strike Committee and the Sagaing Regional Youth Committee.

The junta has sentenced 126 prisoners to death since the coup, and executed four men in July of this year. Among them were 88-generation protest leader Ko Jimmy and former National League for Democracy parliamentarian and beloved musician Phyo Zayar Thaw.

“Freedom for Vietnam!” shouted noodle peddler and activist Bui Tuan Lam, as police dragged him away for “insulting” the country’s leaders.

The arresting officers first covered his mouth with their hands in an effort to silence him. Then they pushed him into a car “and gagged him with a dirty towel that I use to wipe up the noodle tables,” said Le Than Lam, Bui Tuan Lam’s wife who described to RFA’s Vietnamese Service the scene of her husband’s Wednesday arrest at their home and restaurant in Danang, in the country’s central region.

Bui Tuan Lam had achieved some notoriety last year when he appeared in a video that went viral showing him imitating the Turkish chef known as Salt Bae.

The video was widely seen as a mockery of a senior Vietnamese government official who was caught on film being hand fed one of Salt Bae’s gold-encrusted steaks — by the chef himself — at a cost of 1,450 pounds (U.S. $1,975). Critics wondered how the official could afford the extravagant meal on a monthly salary of $660.

Bui Tuan Lam, who called himself “Onion Leaf Bae” in the video, was charged for violating Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code, which prohibits “creating, storing, and disseminating materials and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” state media reported.

Prior to his arrest, hundreds of officers surrounded the family home and demanded entry, Le Thanh Lam told RFA.

“It happened at about 7 p.m. when all of our family members were at home. At first, they pulled at the door trying to gain entry. We said that they had to show us a search warrant,” she said.

“They said they would carry out a search first and provide us with the warrant later, but we refused to let them in. They assaulted Lam’s younger brothers, Minh and Tuan, grabbing their necks, arms and legs, then arrested them both and escorted them to the police station,” she said.

After searching the house, the police confiscated three T-shirts printed with the message, “Human rights should be respected in Vietnam,” said Le Thanh Lam.

The officers also destroyed three security cameras but did not acknowledge doing so in the summary of their search, she said.

During the search, her husband began to peacefully defy the police.

“They did not allow him to talk with others. They took him inside but he shouted loudly ‘Freedom for Vietnam!’ and sang songs” in protest, she said.

After the search they dragged him away as he continued to shout. So they shoved him into the car and gagged him, Le Thanh Lam said.

Bui Tuan Lam’s mockery of a government official should not be considered a crime, Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at New York-based Human Rights Watch told RFA.

“Vietnamese authorities regularly define any comment they don’t like as ‘propaganda against the state’, making Vietnam one of the most thin-skinned governments in the region when it comes to public criticism," Robertson said.

"In this case, they are locking up a street-side noodle seller who had the audacity to ridicule the minister of public security for buying a U.S. $2,000 steak on an overseas trip."

Mockery is a legitimate form of expression, Robertson said.

"Vietnam should abolish the rights-abusing Article 117 of the Penal Code, and immediately free Bui Tuan Lam and others locked up for simply expressing views the communist party dislikes,” he said.

Authorities on Thursday used the same article to justify the arrest of music lecturer Dang Dang Phuoc of Dak Lak Province, south of Danang, who discussed Bui Than Lam’s arrest on Facebook.

“Phuoc was arrested at around 6 a.m. while doing morning exercises near his home. The police took him to his home and searched his house,” a close friend of Phuoc, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA.

“Ha, Phuoc’s wife, rang me at 6:10 a.m. and told me about the arrest. I came right away. The police searched the house for many hours.” Phuoc’s friend said.

RFA contacted the Dak Lak Provincial Police to verify Phuoc’s arrest but the police officer who answered refused to provide information over the phone.

“Since 2019, Dang Dang Phuoc has taken advantage of the Facebook platform to compile and publish many stories and video clips with distorted content against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” state media quoted Dak Lak police as saying.

Phuoc, 59, is a music lecturer at Dak Lak Education College who has about 6,000 followers on his Facebook page, where he often discusses social issues.

His most recent post criticized the Danang police for their actions during Wednesday’s arrest of Bui Tuan Lam.

Two days after the Income Tax Department carried out “surveys” at their premises, global non-profit organisation Oxfam India and the Independent And Public-Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF) that funds a range of digital media entities said I-T personnel confiscated phones of their team members for cloning to retrieve data.

In a statement Friday, Oxfam India said: “The Income Tax (I-T) department officials conducted an Income Tax ‘survey’ at the Oxfam India Delhi office from the 7th September 2022 noon to early hours of 9th September. During these 35 plus hours of non-stop survey, the Oxfam India team members were not allowed to leave the premises; the internet was shut down and all the mobile phones were confiscated.”

“The Income Tax survey team took away hundreds of pages of data pertaining to finances and programs of Oxfam India. They also took all the data by cloning the Oxfam India server and the private mobile phones of the Senior leadership team and the Finance lead,” it said.

“While the team conducting the survey was polite and professional, the process of a survey with such sweeping powers and broad ambit resulted in disappointing Oxfam India, an organisation that has been law-abiding and community centric,” it said, stating that Oxfam India was compliant with all local laws including the Income Tax Act and Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).

The IPSMF said it received “no foreign funds at any stage”.

In a statement, T N Ninan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the IPSMF, said: “A team of income tax officials came for a “survey” to the Bengaluru office of the Foundation on Wednesday, September 7. They stayed till 4.30 this morning, going through the papers and records of the Foundation and asking questions. The Foundation’s staff were cooperative and answered all questions put to them on a wide range of matters. The officials took statements from three senior staff members.”

“All laptops and mobile phones were taken for cloning data in them and returned last night. All staff other than the CEO, Sunil Rajshekhar, were allowed to go home at various stages in the evening/night of September 7, and asked to return the following morning for further questioning. The CEO slept in the office for a few hours on the intervening night of September 7-8. The Board of Trustees compliments the staff on their good cheer and fortitude through the extended proceedings. The IT officials were courteous during their survey work,” he said.

“The Foundation believes that its affairs are entirely in order. Some media reporting on the IT survey has linked it to foreign funding and the funding of political parties. We wish to make it clear that the Foundation has received no foreign funds at any stage, and has funded only media entities. The Foundation believes in its mission of supporting independent and public-spirited media, and intends to continue its work,” Ninan said.

Think tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR), also subjected to an I-T “survey” Wednesday, too put out a statement Friday. “We hold ourselves to the highest standards of compliance and are confident that we have done nothing wrong. We are committed to working with the authorities to address any questions they might have,” CPR President and Chief Executive Yamini Aiyar said.

The statement said that as one of the 24 research institutes of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research network, “CPR has all requisite approvals and sanctions, and is authorised by the government as a recipient under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act”.

“We have extended full cooperation to the department during the survey, and will continue to do so in the future,” Aiyar said.

Actress Damitha Abeyratne was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division on Wednesday (7) evening at Diyatha Uyana in Battaramulla.

Sri Lanka Police said that she was arrested for unlawfully entering the President's Office during the recent protests in July 2022.

Police added that she will be handed over to the Fort Police for further investigations.

Actress Damitha Abeyratne is expected to be produced in court on Thursday (8).