Donald Trump, the buddy of Putin, Erdogan, Sisi and Duterte, now calls Venezuela a “dictatorship” and slaps sanctions on President Nicolás Maduro. All this proves is that Maduro is more useful to Trump as an external demon. Can we oppose Maduro’s power-grab without legitimizing Trump’s hypocrisy?
An Egyptian criminal court sentenced 43 men to life in prison for charges of vandalism, rioting and attacking authorities during the uprising that led to the downfall of long-ruling dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Ten other protesters were handed down lesser sentences of five or 10 years, Mubarak, acquitted on retrial of ordering the killing of protesters during the 2011 demonstrations, was meanwhile released from prison earlier this year.
Cambodia's National Assembly passed a bill prohibiting political parties from being affiliated with convicted criminals—clearly aimed at weakening the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, whose leader Sam Rainsy was sentenced to two years on "defamation" charges. The CNRP is building support among peasants angered by land-grabbing, and several peasant leaders also face politically motivated charges for opposing land-grabs by agribusiness interests.
A Turkish court 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."
One year after Rodrigo Duterte took office on a pledge to expunge the "virulent social disease" of drug abuse, the civilian death toll in his crackdown may be as high as 8,000. Among the upwards of 80,000 arrested under Duterte's rule are some, including opposition politicians, who have been clearly framed for speaking out against him. And in the restive southern island of Mindanao, he has made good on his threats to instate martial law.
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.
Protests are emerging in the Philippines against ultra-hardline President Rodrigo Duterte's declaration of martial law in the southern island of Mindanao.
Duterte's declaration of martial law in Mindanao is ostensibly in response to an ISIS-linked terrorist group, but will give security forces a still freer hand in his murderous "war on drugs."
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.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus reports that the human rights situation in the ex-Soviet republic has dramatically deteriorated since the repression of a new round of protests.
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.
