 RFE/RL Watchdog September 18, 2009 A blog of human rights, media freedom, and democracy developments from RFE/RL's broadcast region.For more, please visit and bookmark Watchdog . |
 Belarusian Police Disperse Rally, Arrest Dozens The rally was held to mark the 10th anniversary of the disappearance of politician Viktar Hanchar and businessman Anatol Krasovsky, whose whereabouts are still unknown. More Ten years ago, under mysterious circumstances, politician Viktar Hanchar and businessman Anatol Krasouski went missing in Minsk. Two other men, former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka and cameraman Dzmitry Zavadski, also disappeared. None of the men have ever been found. There is widespread suspicion within Belarus that the security services connected to Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka were connected to the disappearances. More  CPJ Releases Major Report On Unsolved Killings Of Journalists In Russia "It is a sad irony: While the world celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia itself is relapsing to some of its Soviet ways. In fact, for journalists, Russia is a more dangerous place now than it was during the Cold War..." So begins a special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists called "Anatomy of Injustice: The Unsolved Killings of Journalists in Russia." More  Grandchildren Of Dissident Iranian Ayatollah Arrested Three grandchildren of Iranian dissident Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri have been arrested in the Islamic holy city of Qom, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. More  Afghan Man Wins Temporary Deportation Reprieve Hussain Muradi, the ex-Muslim Afghan who we wrote about on Watchdog yesterday, has been released from detention and allowed to stay in Britain temporarily, according to his lawyer’s blog. More  Protesters Demand Fair Trial For Jailed Kazakh Rights Activist Protesters held a rally at Kazakhstan's Embassy in Moscow on September 14 in support of jailed Kazakh rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More  Minsk Officials Reject NGO Request For Demonstration Minsk city authorities have rejected a request by the Right Alliance to hold a public gathering, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports. More  Young Iranian Says He Was Raped In Prison, Pressured To Stay Silent A well-known Iranian filmmaker, Reza Allamezadeh, has posted on his website a video of a young Iranian man, Ebrahim Sharifi, who says he was raped in prison in Iran after being arrested in the postelection crackdown. More An Afghan man who is seeking asylum in the United Kingdom was transferred to the Dover Removal Center for deportation on the morning of September 13, though he was later told that his deportation was not certain, according to the British Humanist Association (BHA). More Vyasna alleges that police failed to respect protesters' rights when they acted against dozens of the activists on September 9. More At one of its public gatherings, the nongovernmental organization Committee for Human Rights issued the slogan: "Nobody Gives You Liberty, You Have to Take It!" More Viktor Kovtunovsky staged a public action on September 9 in support of the director of the nongovernmental group Kazakh Bureau for Human Rights, Yevgeny Zhovtis. More  Rights Watchdog Condemns Death Of Afghan Journalist Reza Moeini, head of RSF's Afghan/Iran Department, told RFE/RL's Rado Free Afghanistan that "the conditions in which [Sultan Mohammad] Munadi was killed has raised so many questions for us." More Activist Yevgeny Zhovtis, the director of the Kazakh nongovernmental organization Bureau on Human Rights, was sentenced last week to four years in jail for his alleged role in a fatal traffic accident. More  OSCE Media Envoy Optimistic About Azeri Bloggers' Release Miklos Haraszti, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) representative on media freedom, says he is optimistic about the release of jailed bloggers Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports. More  Neda's Fiancé Released From Tehran Prison, Amnesty Reports Caspian Makan, the fiance of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman shot and killed during postelection unrest in June, has reportedly been released on bail from Tehran's Evin prison. More  OSCE Media Representative Presents Book In Azerbaijan Miklos Haraszti, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) representative on media freedom, said during a visit to Baku that he hopes the criminalization of journalists' errors will come to an end in Azerbaijan, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reports. More Unknown assailants have attacked the editor in chief of the online "Novy Fokus" news resource, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports. More  Karrubi's Son Says Tehran Raid An Attempt To Intimidate The son of reformist Iranian cleric and former presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi, whose Tehran office was closed today by authorities, says that the move is an attempt to pressure his father into not reporting abuse of postelection detainees, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. More  Former Death-Row Student Flees After Afghan Pardon Twenty-four-year-old Sayed Pervez Kambakhsh was condemned in a hasty northern Afghan trial in January 2008 to die in connection with his purported distribution of an article on women's rights under Islam. Kambakhsh and his relatives have said the case was the result of a vendetta by a local warlord. More Neda's Fiance At Risk Of Torture In Tehran Prison, Amnesty Says Amnesty International says Caspian Makan, the fiance of Neda Agha Soltan, the young Iranian woman whose death was caught on video during the recent protests in Iran, has been held in detention since June 26after he made a statement linking her murder to the pro-government Basij militia. More  Prominent Rights Groups Appeal To Azerbaijan Over Blogger Case Three prominent human rights and media freedom groups have written an open letter to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev regarding the case of two bloggers currently on trial for hooliganism. More  Trial Of Azerbaijani Bloggers Opens In Baku The trial of two Azerbaijani bloggers arrested on charges of hooliganism has begun in Baku in a case that rights groups say is an attempt by authorities to stifle dissent. More  Why They Flee The North Caucasus The reasons why young people from the North Caucasus seek asylum in Europe are well-known -- abductions and disappearances; persecution on religious and political grounds; and even extrajudicial killings. Journalists, human rights activists, and young people who profess allegiance to branches of Islam outside the mainstream are most frequently subject to such persecution. More  Kazakh Activist Sentenced To Four Years In Jail A court in Kazakhstan has sentenced a prominent human rights activist to four years in jail for manslaughter, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More |
