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By admin On March 11, 2010No Comments
Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli have been sentenced to two and two and a half years respectively after they posted a video critical of the government on YouTube.
Amnesty International has accused the Azerbaijani government of stifling dissent after a court turned down an appeal by two bloggers against their conviction on fabricated charges of “hooliganism”.
A Baku court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli who were sentenced to two and two and a half years respectively after they posted a video critical of the government on YouTube. Amnesty International said it believes their trial was unfair and that the two are prisoners of conscience.
“Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli have fallen victim to the increasingly repressive measures taken by the Azerbaijani authorities to crackdown on critics of the government,” said Andrea Huber, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Programme Director at Amnesty International.
“They were convicted on fabricated charges in a trial falling short of international standards for fairness solely because they were expressing their views.”
In none of the seven appeal hearings were the two key witnesses called to give evidence. The appeal court upheld the original court decision to reject evidence without explanation, including photographs of the bloggers’ injuries and video footage of the incident.
The bloggers were arrested on 8 July 2009 after they were attacked by two unknown men and were accused of “hooliganism”.
The two activists have used online networking tools, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, to spread information about society and politics in Azerbaijan.
Emin Milli is the co-founder of an online community that discusses politics called Alumni Network, while Adnan Hajizade is a co-ordinator of the youth movement known as OL!, which advocates non-violence and tolerance.
A week before their arrest a video produced by Adnan Hajizade had been posted on video sharing channel YouTube.
The video is of a spoof press conference delivered by a donkey and was posted in the wake of a news story about how the Azerbaijani government had allegedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars importing donkeys from Germany, in a deal that may have masked corruption or theft of public funds.
The video questions the purchase of the donkeys, the introduction of restrictive legislation for NGOs and the low priority the government attributes to human rights.
“Independent journalists and activists continue to face harassment and imprisonment in Azerbaijan despite the country’s international obligations to uphold the right to freedom of expression,” Andrea Huber said.
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By admin On March 11, 2010
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(New York) – The Afghan government should urgently act to repeal a law that provides an amnesty to perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said today.
The law was published unannounced in the official gazette, bringing it into force, despite repeated promises by President Hamid Karzai that he would not allow the law to go into effect.
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By admin On March 11, 2010
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(New York) – Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign relations chief, should raise human rights concerns with Syrian officials during her visit next week and seek specific commitments to improve their record, Human Rights Watch said today.
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By admin On March 11, 2010
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A new law bars all political prisoners, including detained Nobel Peace-prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, from belonging to a political party.
Amnesty International has urged Myanmar to overturn a new law that bars all political prisoners, including detained Nobel Peace-prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, from belonging to a political party before upcoming national elections.
“There are at least 2,200 political prisoners in Myanmar, most of whom are in prison simply because they tried to exercise their rights peacefully,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher
“Instead of passing laws that strip away more of their rights, the Myanmar authorities should immediately release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and remove restrictions on their political activity.”
Aung San Suu Kyi was already blocked from running in the elections by the 2008 constitution, which ruled that marriage to a foreign national would exclude candidates from running.
“Amnesty International is greatly concerned that activists are going to come under increased repression in the lead up to the elections,” said Benjamin Zawacki. “The Myanmar authorities seem determined to stamp out any political challenge to their rule.”
In a recent report, Repression of ethnic minority activists in Myanmar, Amnesty International documented the government’s systematic efforts to silence activists from the country’s large ethnic minority population. The report warned the election may lead to an even harder crackdown against activists.
By admin On March 11, 2010
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(New York) – Saudi Arabia’s Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecutions should immediately drop "cybercrimes" charges against Nasir al-Subai’i for writing about his bureaucratic ordeal as he tried to get the government to pay for his brother’s medical care, Human Rights Watch said today.
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By admin On March 11, 2010
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(New York) – The Azerbaijani government should release two bloggers who have been detained since July 2009 as the result of a staged fight designed to frame them, Human Rights Watch said today. The bloggers, Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, lost their appeal against their conviction today.
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By admin On March 10, 2010
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Prime Minister Robert Fico has announced a proposal to take the children from the settlements where they live and place them in boarding schools.
Amnesty International has warned that establishing boarding schools for Romani children “and gradually detach[ing] them from the way of living they currently experience in the settlements” is discriminatory and a blatant attack on the Roma way of living.
The Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Monday that the government proposes a system, in which Romani children will be taken from settlements and be placed in boarding schools.
“The idea that Romani children have to be removed from their families and put into boarding schools, when they could be educated in normal schools near their homes, is clearly against the best interests of the child. Uprooting them from their surroundings and removing them from their families, is an attack on their identity,” said Halya Gowan, director of Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia programme.
The fact that some Romani families living in settlements – as other families in Slovakia – experience challenges to supporting the education of children because of poverty, language barriers and other factors, highlights the need for government to provide support and assistance to all to overcome such barriers.
“Isolated from the outside world, Romani children will find it more difficult to fully participate in Slovak society. The government’s proposal will perpetuate the segregation they experience now. In fact it will make it official,” Halya Gowan said.
“The government’s proposal is completely out of tune with developments in the European Union. If adopted, it will be in absolute contravention of both Slovak law and international human rights standards on non-discrimination by which Slovakia is bound.”
Amnesty International has previously voiced serious concerns about the discrimination and segregation Romani children experience in Slovak schools, including through their placement in special schools and classes for pupils with mental disabilities.
“Rather than establishing another parallel system of separate education for children based on their ethnicity, it is necessary that the Slovak government focus its efforts towards ensuring that mainstream schools include all children regardless of the social background, language or other abilities,” Halya Gowan said.
Amnesty International has called on the Slovak government to address the core of the problem – persisting segregation of Romani children in education which should be overcome by reforms to the education system to ensure truly inclusive education for all children.
The organization said that the government must provide appropriate support to families and pupils who need it, so that they can effectively participate and develop to their fullest potential within mainstream elementary schools.
This work is part of Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity campaign which aims to end the human rights violations that drive and deepen global poverty. The campaign will mobilise people all over the world to demand that governments, corporations and others who have power listen to the voices of those living in poverty and recognise and protect their rights. For more information visit the Demand Dignity website.
By admin On March 10, 2010
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(New York) – More than one hundred leading China scholars, writers, and human rights advocates from around the world are today releasing a letter to China’s National People’s Congress that calls for the immediate and unconditional release of imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo.
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By admin On March 10, 2010
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Ahmed Mostafa was facing jail after he after he published a post alleging nepotism within the armed forces.
Amnesty International has welcomed the release of an Egyptian blogger, who was facing jail after he published a post alleging nepotism within the armed forces.
The organization said it remains concerned that the release of Ahmed Mostafa was conditional on him agreeing to apologise and on removing the March 2009 posting from his Matha Assabaka ya Watan (What happened to you, oh nation?) blog.
He was due to appear before a military tribunal for a second time on Sunday 7 March and could have faced up to nine and a half years in prison.
The first Egyptian blogger to face a military trial for his alleged activities, Mostafa published, following his release, a post on his blog, advising other bloggers to check information before posting it.
According to Mostafa’s lawyers the military tribunal have not given reasons for the release and the authorities have kept the case on file, meaning it could be revived in the future.
An engineering student at the university of Kafr El Sheikh, Mostafa was accused of publishing military secrets online, publishing false information about the army and of insulting officers involved in the recruitment process at the military academy.
The post recounted the story of a student who had allegedly been forced to resign from a military academy in order to leave room for another applicant amid accusations of nepotism.
According to lawyers from the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Ahmed Mostafa was first arrested by military intelligence officers on February 17 and was questioned about his blog.
He first appeared before a military tribunal on Monday 1 March although lawyers representing him from the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and the Association for the Freedom of Thought and Expression told Amnesty International that they only received his case file from the authorities on Tuesday 2 March.
Amnesty International considered Mostafa to be a prisoner of conscience and had called for his release.
Other Egyptian bloggers have been prosecuted for their writing.
Karim Amer, an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in February 2007 for criticizing President Hosni Mubarak and Egypt’s al-Azhar religious authorities on his blog.
Hani Nazeer, another prisoner of conscience, has been held in administrative detention since October 2008 for posting on his blog the cover of a book deemed insulting to Muslims.
By admin On March 10, 2010
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(New York) – The Uzbek authorities should thoroughly investigate and prosecute the men who violently attacked Dmitrii Tikhonov, a human rights activist and member of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch said today.
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By admin On March 10, 2010
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(New York) – Philippine authorities should act swiftly to protect eyewitnesses to the November 2009 massacre of at least 57 people in Maguindanao province on Mindanao, and to protect their families as well, Human Rights Watch said today.
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