EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Cartoonist in Detention Without Charge - URGENT ACTION

Amnesty International, USA, Feb 12, 2018.

On 16 February, Equatorial Guinean cartoonist and activist Ramón Esono Ebalé will have spent five months in pre-trial detention. He was arrested and detained in the capital of the country, Malabo, on 16 September 2017 and questioned over his cartoons that criticised Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang and his government. The cartoons were shared on the internet. 

He was informed that he had formally been charged with counterfeiting money on 7 December 2017, after having already spent three months in detention without charge. Ramón has denied the allegations against him and insists that he is innocent.

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CAMBODIA: Health Concerns for Detained Politician - URGENT ACTION

Amnesty International, USA, Feb 5, 2018.

Kem Sokha, president of the dissolved main opposition party, was denied bail on appeal on 1 February, despite his seriously deteriorating health. Held in isolated pre-trial detention since his arrest on 3 September 2017, he faces up to 30 years imprisonment if convicted of politically motivated charges of treason.

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IRAN: Kurdish Prisoner Sentenced to Death - URGENT ACTION

Amnesty International, USA, Feb. 5, 2018.

Ramin Hossein Panahi, a 22-year-old man from Iran’s Kurdish minority, started a hunger strike on 27 January after he learned that he had been sentenced to death in connection with his membership of the armed Kurdish opposition group Komala. On 31 January, a Ministry of Intelligence official visited him in prison and said that his death sentence would be commuted to imprisonment if he agreed to make televised “confessions” denouncing Kurdish opposition groups as “terrorists”. When he refused, the intelligence official apparently became enraged and said that he would pay with his life for his “stubbornness”. Ramin Hossein Panahi was then transferred to solitary confinement where he now remains. There are fears about his health as he suffers from persistent headaches and a kidney infection, possibly resulting from torture. Following his arrest on 23 June 2017, he was forcibly disappeared for four months. 

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IRAN: Young Human Rights Defenders Arrested - NEWS

Amnesty International, Feb. 2, 2018

Responding to reports that at least six young human rights defenders, including Shima Babaei and her husband Dariush Zand, Saeed Eghbali, Leila Faraji, Mahmoud Masoumi and Behnam Mousivand have been detained in coordinated arrests across Iran on 1 February, Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International said:

“These human rights defenders must be released immediately and unconditionally – they have committed no crime and have been arrested purely because of their human rights work. We are extremely concerned that these individuals are now at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.

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BELARUS: Two Sentenced to Death - URGENT ACTION

Amnesty International, USA, Feb. 2, 2018

On 20 January, Minsk City Court sentenced Viachaslau Sukharko and Aliaksandr Zhylnikau to death. In March 2017, the two men were found guilty of murdering three people in December 2015 and were sentenced to life imprisonment. In July 2017,... the Supreme Court sent their case back to the lower court for a retrial, which resulted in them being sentenced to death. 

Despite mounting domestic and international pressure, Belarus remains the only country in Europe and Central Asia which continues to apply the death penalty. In addition to Viachaslau Sukharko and Aliaksandr Zhylnikau, five other men are believed to be on death row in Belarus.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception, as a violation of the right to life, as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

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TURKEY: Taner Kilic Re-Arrested - EMAIL ACTION

Amnesty International, USA, Feb 1, 2018

Yesterday, we shared that our dear Amnesty Turkey colleague Taner Kilic had finally been granted release on bail after 8 gruelling months in jail.

In a devastating flip flop for Taner; while his family excitedly waited for him to walk out of prison and into their arms, he was re-arrested and taken back into custody. The authorities are taking him to a court in Izmir today.

We're stunned and outraged. This is a cruel and unacceptable turn of events for Taner and his loved ones.

Right now, we need to come together to show our strength and unwavering solidarity for Taner and all human rights defenders.

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IRAN: Challenging 39 Years of Repression - ARTICLE

Iran Human Rights, January 30, 2018

About one month after a girl showed her civil disobedience by removing her scarf at Tehran’s Revolution Street, several women have in recent days replicated her action to show their protest against the compulsory hijab (Pictures).

According to unconfirmed reports, several of these women have been arrested. Iran Human Rights (IHR) calls on the world community to show its solidarity with Iranian women's struggle against forced hijab. 

IHR spokesman Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said, “By showing solidarity, the world community can prevent Iranian authorities from using violence and detention against women who fight for their dignity and show civil disobedience in the most peaceful way.”

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