Tag: police state

North Africa
Tunis

Tunisia: president dissolves Supreme Judicial Council

Tunisian President Kais Saied officially dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council, sending police to seal the chamber where the body meets. The Council’s head, Youssef Bouzakher, called the dissolution “illegal,” and said it is aimed at bringing Tunisia’s jurists under control of the executive. Established in 2016, the CouncilĀ is a constitutional body entrusted with ensuring the independence of the judiciary, responsible for appointing judges and taking disciplinary action. Bouzakher said the Council intends to continue working in defiance of the president’s announcement. The move is a further consolidation ofĀ Saied’s power following his “self-coup” last year, in which Tunisia’s parliament was suspended. (Photo:Ā XLR Media viaĀ Twitter)

Central Asia
Zhanaozen

Arbitrary arrests continue in Kazakhstan

Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged that during and since last month’s popular uprising in Kazakhstan, security forces have arbitrarily detained protestors, tortured some detainees, and interfered with their access to lawyers. The nationwide protests, which began over of a rise in energy prices, turned bloody after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his armed forces to “shoot and kill without warning,” leading to the deaths of at least 227 people. HRW says it has received dozens of credible accounts of arbitrary detentions, with some of those arrested being beaten with batons or given electric shocks. Media have reported at least two cases of deaths in custody in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, apparently as a result of police mistreatment, and one such case in Kyzylorda. Authorities say some 10,000 people have been detained across the country, and 898 are facing criminal charges, including for “terrorism.”Ā (Photo: San Francisco protest following 2011 Zhanaozen massacre in Kazakhstan, by Amineshaker/Wikipedia via The Ecologist)

Europe
anti-war

Glimmers of anti-war dissent in Russia

More than 100 Russian writers, activists and academics have signed a petition in protest of the war drive on Ukraine, which was published on the independent news site Echo of Moscow. The “Declaration by supporters of peace against the Party of War in the Russian government” charges: “The citizens of Russia are…becoming prisoners of criminal adventurism.” It hasĀ especially harsh words for Russia’s state media: “On state TV there is only one point of view, and that is the point of view of the supporters of war… [A]ggression pours out, and hate towards Ukraine, America, and Western countries… [W]ar is treated as an acceptable and inevitable development of events.” Some signatories have been officially designated as “foreign agents” by the Russian government, limiting their right to political activity. (Photo: Sign reads “Putin, hands off Ukraine!” Moscow, March 2014. Via RS21)

Greater Middle East
UAE

UAE ‘cybercrime’ law restricts free speech: civil society

A coalition of human rights and civil society organizations published a joint statement protesting the United Arab Emirates’ new cybercrime law, saying it “severely threatens and unduly restricts the right to freedom of expression (both online and offline) and the rights to freedom of association and of peaceful assembly.” The letter says that the language of the statute creates ambiguity prone to misuse, especially regarding issues related to “national security,” which provide the authorities with “excessive discretion to impose lengthy prison sentences” for political dissent. The wording of these provisions is so broad that they can be used to target journalists, whistle-blowers, activists, and peaceful critics of the government. The letter notes that the law stipulates no maximum prison sentence for acts that “harm the State’s interests,” which violates Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (Photo: Pixabay)

Iran
Baktash Abtin

Iran: political prisoners on hunger strike

Six political prisoners began a hunger strike at Tehran’s notorious Evin PrisonĀ after poet and filmmaker Baktash Abtin died of COVID-19 at the facility. Abtin, who expired after being put into an induced coma during temporary transfer to a hospital, had been serving a five-year sentence on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.” Ardeshir Zarezadeh, director of the Toronto-based International Centre for Human Rights (ICHR), said in a statement: “The government of Iran must immediately and unconditionally release the political prisoners, and prisoners of conscience, specially due to the serious concern over the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Iran’s overcrowded jails.ā€ Abtin was the second known political prisoner to die in Iran in the first week of 2022. On New Years Day, writer Kian Adelpour died at Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz province after going on hunger strike a week earlier to protest being imprisoned without a fair trial. (Photo: Center for Human Rights in Iran)

The Caribbean
11J

Cuba: prisoners on hunger strike as mass trials begin

Reports from opposition activists in Cuba indicate that trials are opening in several cities for some 60 who were arrested during last year’s protest wave that began July 11, now popularly known as “11J.” The defendants are said to include at least five minors as young as 16. Those facing charges of “sedition” could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. More than 620 detainees are ultimately to stand trial over the 11J protests. Ten prisoners in Holguin who were already convicted and face high sentences are reported to have started a hunger strike. Sentences in their cases are expected next month. Trials are also said to be underway in Santa Clara, Mayabeque and Havana. (Photo: Havana Times)

Greater Middle East
ANHRI

Egypt: rights group closes under regime pressure

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), one of Egypt’s last independent human rights organizations, officially closed, citing government pressure.Ā In its statement, ANHRI described political repression and expansion of arrests against human rights defenders, journalists and political activists as reasons for the organization’s closure. The statement was accompanied by a list of attacks that ANHRI members have suffered over recent years, including violent physical assaults and illegal summonses. The group charged that in today’s Egypt there is an “absence of the bare minimum of the rule of law and respect for human rights.”Ā (Image: Facebook via AlBawaba)

Europe
Pussy_Riot

Russia designates Pussy Riot members ‘foreign agents’

In the latest escalation of its crackdown on opposition, RussiaĀ designated a disparate group of activists, satirists, and others as “foreign agents.” A statement released by the Ministry of Justice listed the high-profile figures as designated “foreign agents,” a controversial term with Cold War-era implications of espionage that carries burdensome reporting responsibilities and exposes designees to hefty fines. Among those named were Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Veronika Nikulshina of the activist group Pussy Riot. (Photo: Wikipedia)

Europe
Memorial

European rights court intervenes against Russia

Exercising a form of injunction reserved for exceptionally serious cases, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) instructed Russia to halt judicial orders to shutter Memorial International and its subsidiary organization, the Memorial Human Rights Center. The move follows two high-profile decisions by the Russian courts to dissolve the respected non-governmental organizations that were created to shed light on the victims of historical and contemporary political repression in the country. (Photo via Critical Mass)

North Africa
tunisia

Tunisia: political crisis deepens

Tunisia’s former president Moncef Marzouki was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison, convicted of “undermining the external security of the State.”Ā The charge is evidently a reference to his calls on social mediaĀ for protest against current President KaĆÆs Saied, and for an end to French support of Saied’s regime. Marzouki callsĀ Saied a “dictator,” and accuses him of having conducted a coup when heĀ suspended parliament and fired the prime minister amid a wave of national unrestĀ in July. (Image: Pixabay)

The Andes
ESMAD

UN urges reform of Colombia National Police

The UNĀ human rights office says a “profound change” is needed in how Colombia’s National Police force, run by the Defense Ministry, handles protests, after concluding that law enforcement agents were responsible for at least 28 deaths during anti-government demonstrations earlier this year. AĀ report by the UN body’s Colombia representative said the response to the widespread protestsĀ involved “unnecessary or disproportionate force.” Aside from murder, police forces were accused of arbitrary detentions and sexual violence against civilians. The unrest began in reaction to a tax reform billā€”that was later ditchedā€”but was fuelled by anger over broader economic and social inequalities. Amnesty International recently reported that the number of eye injuries (more than 100) sustained by protesters was an “indication of intentionality” by the police force.Ā (Photo: WikiMedia)

East Asia
Tiananmen

‘Great Leap Backward’ for press freedom in China

Reporters Without BordersĀ issued a new report, The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China, revealing the extent of the regime’s campaign of repression against the right to information. At least 127 journalists (professional and non-professional) are currently detained by the regime. SimplyĀ reporting onĀ a “sensitive” topic or publishing censored information can result in years of detention.Ā The report especially examines the deterioration of press freedom in Hong Kong, which was once a world model but hasĀ now seen an increasing number of journalists arrested and prosecuted in the name of “national security.” (Photo: chinaworker.info)