A Turkish courtĀ ordered that six human rights activists, including Amnesty International’s Turkey director Idil Eser, remain in custody pending trial for allegedly aiding an armed terrorist group. Amnesty issued a statement rejecting the “bizarre accusations” and charging the Turkish state with a “politically motivated witch-hunt.”
Amnesty International condemned Bahrain's sentencing of human rights defender Nabeel Rajab to two years in prison—for the crime of protesting on his Twitter account the harsh conditions in Bahrain's prisons. Rajab has served time for illegal tweeting before, and still awaits sentencing on other similar charges. Amnesty condemned the conviction as a "flagrant violation of human rights."
London's High Court of Justice ruled that the UK can continue to export arms to Saudi Arabia, rejecting a case asserting that the weapons have been used in the commission of war crimes in Yemen. A substantial portion of the court's reasoning is contained in a "closed judgment" document only available to the government's legal team and a security-cleared "special advocate" for the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).
Civil resistance is mounting to the consolidating dictatorship in Turkey, with thousands marching cross-country from Ankara to Istanbul and protests emerging to Erdogan's power-grab.
Turkish government claims that Kurdish rebels in the country's east are profiting from the hashish trade point to an integrated counter-insurgency and drug enforcement campaign.
Human Rights Watch accused the United Arab Emirates of operating secret facilities in Yemen, where detainees have been "forcibly disappeared, tortured, and abused."
Following rare public protests in defiance of harsh security measures, Egypt's Constitutional Court temporarily blocked the transfer of two disputed Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.
Qatar's diplomatic isolation by the other Gulf states, accused of supporting terrorism in the region, heightens contradictions for the Pentagon's use of the critical al-Udeid Air Base.
Amid an alarming and fast-spreading cholera outbreak in Yemen, Saudi warplanes struck a hospital in Sa'ada governorate, killing several patients and demolishing the building.
The UN Human Rights Commissioner called on Bahrain to investigate the deaths of several protesters during a security operation against supporters of a persecuted Shi'ite cleric.
A court in Bahrain dissolved the main opposition political party, an act Amnesty International said is a step toward the "total suppression of human rights" in the Persian Gulf monarchy.
Amid jeers and demands for the death penalty from government supporters, a trial opened for over 200 Turkish ex-officials accused in last year's attempted coup.
