On July 25 2020, human rights defender Azimjan Askarov died in Kyrgyzstan at penal colony №47 where he had been transferred a day before for medical examination.
On 22 July 2020, Azimjan Askarov’s lawyer Valeryan Vakhitov visited the human rights defender in prison and reported that his health had deteriorated significantly.
Update: on 7 August 2019, human rights defender Guo Feixiong was released, at the end of his six-year prison sentence.
Guo, the 2015 winner of the Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, served a six year prison sentence for “gathering crowds to disturb social order” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
On the evening of 16 March 2021, woman human rights defender Atena Daemi was transferred from Evin Prison to Lakan Prison in Rasht, northern Iran. She had been serving her sentence in the women's ward of Evin Prison since December 2016, during which time she was not granted any leave of absence. No explanation for the transfer was given.
On 25 February 2021, the Supreme Court in Iran rejected the request for a retrial of woman human rights defender Atena Daemi.
On 5 February 2024, father of woman human rights defender and journalist Iryna Danylovych, Bronislav Danylovych, reported that she continued to suffer from severe headaches and migraines, and ear pains resulting from prolonged ear infection. Despite her health conditions, Iryna can’t access medication in the Penal Colony #7 in Zelenokumsk in the Stavropol Region of Russia.
On 15 August 2023, human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja was denied a prearranged video call with his daughter days after he was rushed to the intensive care unit where doctors declared his life was in danger. Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja is in imminent danger of losing his life sincehe has started a water-only hunger strike on 9 August 2023 in protest against his continued imprisonment and denial of access to adequate medical treatment.
On the 7th anniversary of the peaceful popular movement of the Bahraini people which started on 14 February 2011, the NGOs called on the international community to help free human rights defenders in Bahrain, some of whom are jailed for life, and to stop the persecution of journalists simply for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly. On 05 February 2018, Abdulhadi's wife Khadija Al-Mousawi tweeted that she visited her husband who has been targeted and abused in Jaw prison and has been taken to hospital in shackles.
On 23 July 2016, 78 year old human rights defender Mr Mi Chongbiao and his 68 year old wife, Ms Li Kezhen, were reportedly assaulted by officers from the national security bureau in Guiyang, Guizhou province. The couple have been arbitrarily detained for over four years in a number of different locations under the control and surveillance of the Guiyang City police, the Public Security Bureau and hired security guards.
On 13 June 2017, Manikganj Judge, Mahbubur Rahman, filed a case under section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act against human rights defender, Golam Mujtaba Dhruba, for an article he published on 11 June 2017. The article reported on an argument which took place between court employees and a local family after a truck, rented by Judge Mahbubur in order to move his belongings, obstructed the road and prevented the family from driving their sick child to hospital.
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.
On Friday 11 March 2022, Raif Badawi was released from prison after serving a ten-year sentence. A ten-year travel ban is still being upheld against the human rights defender.
On 21 September 2019, human rights defender Raif Badawi ended his hunger strike after receiving a visit from the Saudi Human Rights Commission.
On 17 September 2019, human rights defender Raif Badawi began an open-ended hunger strike over the intensifying mistreatment and worsening detention conditions he is facing. Most recently, prison officials confiscated his books and important medicine.
On 10 May 2023, human rights defenders Oumar Sylla, Ibrahima Diallo and Mamadou Billo Bah were released and freed on all charges. They were arbitrarily arrested without a trial, never receiving a hearing. Originally, the authorities wanted to make their release conditional upon the human rights defenders’ commitment to cease their activism. However, the three leaders and human rights defenders refused the terms of this offer.
On 10 May 2023, human rights defenders Oumar Sylla, Ibrahima Diallo and Mamadou Billo Bah were released and freed on all charges. They were arbitrarily arrested without a trial, never receiving a hearing. Originally, the authorities wanted to make their release conditional upon the human rights defenders’ commitment to cease their activism. However, the three leaders and human rights defenders refused the terms of this offer.
On 10 May 2023, human rights defenders Oumar Sylla, Ibrahima Diallo and Mamadou Billo Bah were released and freed on all charges. They were arbitrarily arrested without a trial, never receiving a hearing. Originally, the authorities wanted to make their release conditional upon the human rights defenders’ commitment to cease their activism. However, the three leaders and human rights defenders refused the terms of this offer.
On 12 April 2021, Golrokh Iraee was informed that Branch 26 of Tehran Revolutionary Court had sentenced her in absentia to an additional year in prison, a two-year travel ban, and a two-year ban on participating in political parties and groups.
On the evening of 24 January 2021, the woman human rights defender Golrokh Iraee was transferred from Qarchak prison in Varamin, the southern neighbourhood of Tehran, to Amol prison in north Iran.
On 19 July 2023, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi granted a presidential pardon to the detained human rights defenders Mohamed El-Baqer and Patrick George Zaki. This decision came one day after Patrick George Zaki was sentenced to three years in prison, and both human rights defenders were subsequently released on 20 July 2023. At the time of his release, Mohamed El-Baqer had spent almost four years in prison, while Patrick George Zaki was previously detained for 22 months.
On 1 March 2023, prominent human rights defender Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja informed his family of gross ill-treatment by prison guards in relation to serious health complications that he is experiencing.
Front Line Defender welcomes the release of the human rights defender John Cerna, who was released in a group of 222 political prisoners and human rights defenders deported from Nicaragua to the United States of America.
On 24 June 2022, two years and seven months after his arbitrary detention, human rights defender Fredy García Ramírez was released after the Unitary Trial Court of Huatulco, of the Judicial Power of the State of Oaxaca acquitted him on the grounds that there was no evidence to support the accusation against him.
On 10 July 2020, imprisoned human rights defender Fredy García was severely beaten and threatened by a group of prison guards in Tanivet prison in Tlacolula, Oaxaca.
On 20 December 2021, the New Cairo Emergency State Security Misdemeanour Court sentenced human rights defenders Mohamed El-Baqer and Mohamed Ibrahim to four years in prison.
Human rights defender Mohamed Ibrahim continues to suffer from arbitrary measures in prison since March 2020, which have had severe impact on his mental and physical well-being and led him recently to attempt to commit suicide in Tora Maximum-Security Prison 2. He has been detained in this prison since August 2020.
On 17 July, the Public Prosecution Office ordered the release of Esraa Abdel Fattah on bail after spending almost 22 months in pre-trial detention.
On 7 April 2021, the State Public Prosecution renewed the detention of Esraa Abdel Fattah for an additional 45 days. The woman human rights defender has been held in pre-trial detention since 12 October 2019, on charges of 'joining an illegal organisation', 'defamation and the spread of false news' and 'misuse of social media’.
On 5 May 2021, human rights defender Johan Sebastián Moreno Castro was released from the Immediate Reaction Unit (URI) of the Attorney General's Office in Bucaramanga after being arbitrarily detained and ill-treated by police officers for more than 10 hours. The defender’s detention occurred in the context of the ongoing national strike against a tax reform promoted by the government of President Iván Duque and against police brutality in Colombia.
On 8 April 2021 the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal submission by the Public Prosecution against the Criminal Court’s decision to refrain from pronouncing punishment in relation to the charges of ‘misuse of the phone’ and ‘demonstration’ against human rights defenders Abdullah Al-Fadhli and Abdulhakim Al-Fadhli. The Court rejected the appeal as it had been submitted after the time period for appeal had lapsed.
On 8 April 2021 the Court of Cassation rejected the appeal submission by the Public Prosecution against the Criminal Court’s decision to refrain from pronouncing punishment in relation to the charges of ‘misuse of the phone’ and ‘demonstration’ against human rights defenders Abdullah Al-Fadhli and Abdulhakim Al-Fadhli. The Court rejected the appeal as it had been submitted after the time period for appeal had lapsed.
On 24 April 2020, human rights defender Abdullah Al-Hamid passed away in hospital after being in a coma for 15 days.
On 9 April 2020, human rights defender Abdullah Al-Hamid suffered a stroke whilst detained in Al-Ha’ir maximum security prison in Riyadh. He is currently in a coma and has been hospitalised.
On 26 July 2019, the General Assembly of the Constitutional Court examined the individual applications of ten Academics for Peace, including Füsun Üstel, who have been sentenced to prison on charges of "propagandising for a terrorist organisation" for having signed the declaration entitled "We will not be a party to this crime". The Court ruled that the conviction of Academics for Peace violates their freedom of expression.
