On 19 April 2013 a new hearing in the trial of human rights defender Ms Faiziniso Vokhidova was held in the Economic Court in the city of Dushanbe. The human rights defender is facing a lawsuit for slander in relation to an interview she gave about a car accident involving the private company Tochiron, which is reportedly linked to members of the President's family. At the hearing, the parties reiterated their positions but no new evidence was presented. The next hearing is scheduled to take place on 24 April 2013.
On 14 April 2013, two prominent human rights lawyers, Professor Mohamed Mahmoud Afrah and Mr Abdikarin Hussein Gorod, were killed when Al-Shabaab adherents in army uniform stormed Banadir Regional Court, Somalia's main court complex, in Mogadishu.
On 3 April 2013 human rights defender Mr Wang Quanzhang was detained after a hearing at Jingjiang City People's Court in Jiangsu province. He was subsequently placed in judicial custody for ten days for 'disrupting court order'.
On 6 February 2013 Vietnamese human rights defender Le Cong Dinh was released from prison after serving 3 years of a 5 year sentence on charges of “attempting to overthrow the state”.
On 12 January 2013 the family of imprisoned human rights defender Mr Gao Zhisheng were permitted a visit to see him ten months after an initial visit on 24 March 2012. Reports of this recent visit only came to light on 18 January 2013. Gao Zhisheng's US-based wife, Ms Geng He, told Radio Free Asia that her father and brother in law saw Gao Zhisheng for 30 minutes on 12 January but were forbidden from asking any “sensitive” questions, including what conditions in prison were like.
The destruction of a human rights monument in Mendoza is seen by local human rights lawyers as the latest in a series of threats and defamations against them.
On 23 October 2012, human rights defender Dr Diego Jorge Lavado filed a complaint in relation to the appearance of a number of posters in the streets around the Court of Mendoza.
On 19 May 2012, lawyer and HRD Mr Chen Guangcheng, along with his wife and two children, arrived in New York nearly a month after his escape from nineteen months of strict and unlawful house arrest in Dongshigu Village,Linyi City in late April 2012.
Sudanese journalist Mr Faisal Mohamed Salih was arrested and detained on 8 May 2012 and Sudanese lawyer Ms Nagla Mohamed has been suffering from ongoing harassment and intimidation since 21 April 2012.
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