Human rights defender Guo Feixiong (郭飞雄) (real name: Yang Maodong 杨茂东) has been on hunger strike in prison and his health has severely deteriorated. When his family visited him in early September at the Sihui Prison in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, the human rights defender looked severely emaciated, extremely pale, and weighed around 40kg, down significantly from his normal weight of approximately 70kg.
Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the deportation of Chinese human rights lawyer Lu Siwei back to China by the Lao authorities, who detained the human rights defender on 28 July 2023 while he was about to board a train to Thailand for his onward journey to the United States to reunite with his wife and child.
On 21 October 2023, woman human rights defender Chen Jianfang left prison and returned home after completing a 4.5 year sentence.
On 12 September 2023, the Supreme Court rejected a cassation complaint on the judgement against the investigative journalist Bolot Temirov. Earlier on 23 November 2022, the Bishkek City Court found Bolot Temirov guilty of document fraud and ruled to expel the journalist from the country and to deport him to Russia. The decision of the Bishkek City Court therefore remains in force.
On 30 August, the Investigative Judge authorised by the Cairo Court of Appeal to investigate case no.173 of 2011 (known as the foreign funding case) has decided to drop the case against human rights defenders Azza Soliman, Negad El Borei, Magdi Abdel Hameed and Hossameldin Ali and their human rights NGOs.
On 21 November 2023, Nasim Soltanbeygi began her prison sentence of three years and seven months in Evin prison on the charge of “gathering and colluding against the national security” and eight months in prison on the charge of “propaganda against the state”, both of which were issued by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court. The verdict also comprises a two-year travel ban and a two-year ban on membership of political or social groups.
On 20 February 2024, human rights lawyer Tang Jitian’s daughter passed away in Japan, after battling complications triggered by tuberculosis for almost three years since she first fell ill in April 2021.
On 2 June 2021, border control authorities at the Fuzhou airport prevented Beijing-based human rights lawyer Tang Jitian from boarding a flight to Japan to see his ill daughter. The authorities told the human rights defender that the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau has imposed an exit ban on him because his travel abroad “may endanger national security”.
On 21 April 2024, campesino social leader and human rights defender Narciso Beleño was shot dead while entering his house in the town of Santa Rosa, in the region of Bolívar, Colombia.
On 23 February 2024, the social leader and human rights defender Ludivia Galindez was shot dead by a group of unidentified armed men while she was in her house in the town of Florencia, Caquetá.
On 27 March 2024, the Human Rights Defence Center “Memorial” (HRDC “Memorial”) reported that human rights defender Oleg Orlov has been systemically subjected to inhumane treatment throughout the process leading to the appeal hearing. He is currently awaiting his hearing in the Remand Detention Center “Vodnik”, in Moscow.
On 26 December 2023, the Council of the Tyumen Regional Bar Association scheduled a disciplinary hearing against human rights defender and lawyer Aleksey Ladin which is due to take place on 24 January 2024.
On 27 October 2023, human rights defender and lawyer Aleksey Ladin was released after completing 14 days of administrative arrest in the detention centre in Simferopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.
On 22 February 2024 Russian de-facto law enforcement officers in occupied Crimea raided the premises of the house of the woman human rights defender and journalist Lutfiye Zudieva in the city of Dzhankoi. After the raid, the law enforcement officials brought the woman human rights defender in for questioning at the Center for Combating Extremism in Simferopol. The authorities are accusing her of “abuse of freedom of mass information,” a crime, envisioned by Part 9, Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.
On 31 August 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on the case Estemirova v. Russia concerning the murder of prominent woman human rights defender Natalia Estemirova on 15 July 2009. The Court ruled that Russia failed to investigate the murder of Natalia Estemirova properly, yet did not find that the Russian authorities are directly responsible for her kidnapping and killing.
On 2 April 2024, indigenous human rights defender Surju Tekam was arrested following a raid on his home by security forces in Chhattisgarh state, India. He is held under the regressive Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Arms Act and has been denied bail by the National Investigation Agency Court in Bilaspur. Surju Tekam's arrest stems from his vocal advocacy on behalf of peaceful local movements against increasing human rights violations, forcible land acquisition for corporate interests, and militarization in the state.
On 9 February 2024, human rights defender Chris Owalla was brutally attacked by a group of more than seven armed individuals in Bondo Sub-County located in the Siaya County, as he was leaving the funeral of local journalist Dickens Ochieng Wasongain. The attack is believed to be a reprisal for Chris Owalla’s filing of several legal complaints before the High Court of Kenya against the County Government of Siaya on mismanagement of public funds.
On 27 November 2023, Pakistan police, accompanied by plainclothes police officers, raided the home of woman human rights defender Hooran Baloch in Quetta, Balochistan. Police forcibly entered the premises where they threatened and filmed Hooran Baloch and her family without consent. At the end of the two hour raid, police arrested Hooran Baloch’s brother-in-law, Ali Nawaz, who was released after being detained for two hours at the Sattellite Town police station in Quetta.
On 26 October 2023, women human rights defender Bahjaa Abdelaa Abdelaa was shot and killed at a funeral in Nyala, South Darfur.
Following the decision of the Investigative Judge, authorised by the Cairo Court of Appeal to investigate case no.173 of 2011 to drop the case against Azza Soliman and other human rights defenders, the woman human rights defender submitted an appeal to the President of the Cairo Court of Appeal to remove her name from the travel ban and asset freeze lists. However, the appeal was examined by a terrorism circuit at the Cairo Criminal Court on Sunday 10 October 2021, during which the court decided to postpone her hearing until 7 November 2021.
On 9 April 2024, the Pervomaisky District Court in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, released human rights defenders and journalists Tynystan Asypbek, Joodar Buzumov, Saipidin Sultanaliev, and Maksat Tazhibek uulu under house arrest.
On 9 April 2024, the Pervomaisky District Court in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, released human rights defenders and journalists Tynystan Asypbek, Joodar Buzumov, Saipidin Sultanaliev, and Maksat Tazhibek uulu under house arrest.
On 12 October 2023, Istanbul 26th Heavy Criminal Court will proceed with the hearing of the case of 23 individuals, including at least eighteen human rights defenders who are members of Göç İzleme Derneği (GÖÇİZDER).
On 16 October 2023, Basmanny District Court of the city of Moscow extended the pre-trial detention of human rights defender Grigory Melkonyants for three months, until 17 January 2024.On 17 August 2023, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened two separate criminal cases against members of the Moscow-based election monitoring human rights movement Golos, human rights defenders Grigory Melkonyants and Natalia Guseva<
The Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca (ACIN) has reported a new series of armed attacks and threats in Nasa indigenous territory in the department of Cauca. During the last weeks of January 2022, armed attacks by alleged outlawed groups have caused the death of three human rights defenders and kiwe thegnas (indigenous guards), Breiner David Cucuñame López, Guillermo Chicame Ipia and José Albeiro Camayo Güetio, in the Nasa Las Delicias indigenous reservation in the municipality of Buenos Aires.
On 30 August, the Investigative Judge authorised by the Cairo Court of Appeal to investigate case no.173 of 2011 (known as the foreign funding case) has decided to drop the case against human rights defenders Azza Soliman, Negad El Borei, Magdi Abdel Hameed and Hossameldin Ali and their human rights NGOs.
On 30 August, the Investigative Judge authorised by the Cairo Court of Appeal to investigate case no.173 of 2011 (known as the foreign funding case) has decided to drop the case against human rights defenders Azza Soliman, Negad El Borei, Magdi Abdel Hameed and Hossameldin Ali and their human rights NGOs.
