On 16 November, Saïkou Yaya Diallo, the legal coordinator of the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), was sentenced by Dixinn Court to one year imprisonment with five months suspended on fabricated ‘assault, violence, threats and public insults’ charges.
He must be immediately and unconditionally released as his conviction stems from his peaceful protesting against President Alpha Condé’s running for a third term in office.
Responding to news that Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish specialist in emergency medicine, has been transferred to solitary confinement in Evin prison and told by the prosecution authorities that his death sentence will be carried out imminently, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Diana Eltahawy, said:
“We were horrified to learn that the authorities have instructed the office in charge of implementing sentences to transfer Ahmadreza Djalali to solitary confinement and implement his death sentence no later than a week from 24 November.
“It is appalling that despite repeated calls from UN human rights experts to quash Ahmadreza Djalali’s death sentence and release him, the Iranian authorities have instead decided to push for this irreversible injustice. They must immediately halt any plans to execute Ahmadreza Djalali and end their shocking assault on his right to life.
On 31 October 2020, the pre-trial detention of human rights researcher Ibrahim Ezz el-Din was renewed for 45 days. His health has been deteriorating since his arrest on 11 June 2019 and his 167 days of enforced disappearance. Ibrahim’s poor health puts him at increased risk of the effects of COVID-19 that has reportedly been spreading in Egypt’s notoriously overcrowded and unhygienic prisons.
To mark the one-year anniversary of a deadly crackdown on nationwide anti-establishment protests in Iran, ARTICLE19, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are hosting an online expert panel on Tuesday 17 November 2020. The event will shed light on the litany of serious human rights violations committed by Iran’s security forces and discuss the international mechanisms urgently needed to hold those responsible to account.
The nationwide November 2019 protests were met with a brutal campaign of mass repression - facilitated by a near total Internet shutdown - with hundreds of protestors and bystanders unlawfully killed and many more injured and thousands arbitrarily arrested. To this date, no independent, impartial and transparent investigation into these serious human rights violations has been carried out by the Iranian authorities. Those responsible continue to enjoy absolute impunity while victims, survivors and the society as a whole are denied truth and justice.
On 17 November, Agnes Callamard, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, will join experts from ARTICLE19, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to examine the human rights violations committed during and in the aftermath of the November 2019 protests, including the violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of person, freedom of peaceful assembly and expression. The event aims at expanding the discussion on how Iran can be held to account through the UN mechanisms.
For further details attached and copied below please find a joint statement by Amnesty International, ARTICLE 19 and Human Rights Watch about this upcoming panel event titled “Victims of Iran’s November 2019 Bloodshed Denied Justice: Pathways to Accountability”. This is also available on the Amnesty International website at the following link:
Amnesty International welcomes the temporary release of unjustly jailed human rights lawyer and women human rights defender Nasrin Sotoudeh from prison in Iran. She should never have been imprisoned for defending human rights.
Qom Indigenous leader Bernarda Pesoa was physically assaulted on her community lands in Benjamín Aceval municipality, Paraguay, on 27 October by a group of approximately 9 women and men after she opposed development of a eucalyptus plantation in the community’s territory.
The communities have not been properly consulted by the project developers to ensure their free, prior and informed consent. State authorities must urgently investigate the attack against Bernarda and provide her with protection.