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Category: Human rights/civil liberties

Bellingcat chief forced to leave Vienna following security threats

Bellingcat chief forced to leave Vienna following security threats

The Moscow Times reports: Bulgarian investigative journalist and director of the Bellingcat investigative reporting group Christo Grozev is being forced to relocate from Austria, his home of nearly 20 years, due to the alleged threat posed to him by the Russian security services, the Viennese daily Falter reported on Wednesday. “I suspect that there are more Russian agents, informers and henchmen in the city than police officers,” Grozev told Falter. The journalist was reportedly forced to cancel his planned return…

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Louisiana routinely overdetains inmates (sometimes called ‘slaves’), violating Constitution, U.S. says

Louisiana routinely overdetains inmates (sometimes called ‘slaves’), violating Constitution, U.S. says

The Washington Post reports: Louisiana correction authorities routinely confine thousands of inmates beyond their release dates each year, in violation of the Constitution and wasting taxpayer funds, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday. Overdetention is not unheard of in other states, nor in federal facilities, but the scale of Louisana’s actions — which the Justice Department attributed to state authorities being “deliberately indifferent” to “systemic” shortcomings — is significant. (If Louisiana were a country, it would have world’s most incarcerated…

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Mike Pompeo dismisses murder of Jamal Khashoggi by saying such crimes are ‘routine’ in Middle East

Mike Pompeo dismisses murder of Jamal Khashoggi by saying such crimes are ‘routine’ in Middle East

In response to comments reportedly made by Mike Pompeo in his new memoir, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) issued the following statement: “Pompeo’s crass and craven comments appearing to justify Jamal Khashoggi’s murder by disparaging his political views and falsely associating them with terrorism mirror the same justifications Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and other tyrants use to excuse their crimes,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN. “It is despicable that a senior American official is suggesting…

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Saudi prosecutors seek death penalty for academic over social media use

Saudi prosecutors seek death penalty for academic over social media use

The Guardian reports: A prominent pro-reform law professor in Saudi Arabia is facing the death penalty for alleged crimes including having a Twitter account and using WhatsApp to share news considered “hostile” to the kingdom, according to court documents seen by the Guardian. The arrest of Awad Al-Qarni, 65, in September 2017 represented the start of a crackdown against dissent by the then newly named crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Details of the charges brought against Al-Qarni have now been…

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Iran says face recognition will identify women breaking hijab laws

Iran says face recognition will identify women breaking hijab laws

Wired reports: Last month, a young woman went to work at Sarzamineh Shadi, or Land of Happiness, an indoor amusement park east of Iran’s capital, Tehran. After a photo of her without a hijab circulated on social media, the amusement park was closed, according to multiple accounts in Iranian media. Prosecutors in Tehran have reportedly opened an investigation. Shuttering a business to force compliance with Iran’s strict laws for women’s dress is a familiar tactic to Shaparak Shajarizadeh. She stopped…

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Nearly 200 countries approve a biodiversity accord enshrining human rights and the ‘rights of nature’

Nearly 200 countries approve a biodiversity accord enshrining human rights and the ‘rights of nature’

Inside Climate News reports: Nearly 200 countries have signed off on an agreement that embeds the promotion of human rights and the “rights of nature” into a plan to protect and restore biodiversity through 2030. The 14-page document, while nonbinding, was adopted on Dec. 19, 2022 at COP15, a 12-day conference convened in Montreal under the auspices of the U.N. Convention of Biological Diversity. It is the first international agreement to give credence to a growing movement that recognizes that…

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The Kurdish roots of a global slogan

The Kurdish roots of a global slogan

Shukriya Bradost writes: If I had been killed, would I have had the same impact on the Iranian people as what we have witnessed since the killing in September of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina-Mahsa Amini? Definitely not. The use of heavy military weaponry to crack down on protests in Kurdish cities in Iran, which has shocked the world and led to mass killings and arrests of Kurds during the current uprising, is nothing new for Kurds. What is new…

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Afghanistan’s Taliban ban all education for girls

Afghanistan’s Taliban ban all education for girls

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Taliban banned girls from attending elementary school, effectively instituting a total ban on the education of girls and women and dealing one of the most dramatic blows yet to women’s freedoms since seizing power last year. In a gathering in Kabul with private-school directors, clerics and community representatives, Taliban officials on Wednesday also barred female staff, including teachers, from working in schools, closing off one of the few professions that had remained open to…

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Iran uses rape to enforce women’s modesty

Iran uses rape to enforce women’s modesty

Nicholas Kristof writes: One gauge of the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime is that there are credible reports that it is enforcing its supposedly strict moral code by arresting women and girls accused of advocating immodesty, and then sexually assaulting them. In a searing report about the rape of protesters by security forces, CNN recounted how a 20-year-old woman was arrested for supposedly leading protests and later was brought by the police to a hospital in Karaj, shaking violently, head…

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Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti arrested after criticism of death penalty

Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti arrested after criticism of death penalty

The Guardian reports: Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s most famous actors, has been detained by security forces in Tehran days after she criticised the state’s use of the death penalty against protesters. She had previously posted a picture of herself on her Instagram page in which she was not wearing the hijab and holding a piece of paper reading “women, life, freedom” – the slogan that has come to encapsulate the fight against the current Iranian regime. Alidoosti is regarded…

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Iranian soccer player sentenced to death after protesting against the death of Mahsa Amini

Iranian soccer player sentenced to death after protesting against the death of Mahsa Amini

Insider reports: An Iranian professional soccer player has been sentenced to death after protesting against the death of Mahsa Amini, according to Iran Wire. Amir Nasr-Azadani, 26, was arrested in November in relation to the killing of a police colonel and two volunteer militia members. He has been accused of “waging war against God” and will be hanged, according to Iran Wire. FIFPRO, the international soccer players union, said in a statement on Monday that it was “shocked and sickened”…

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Iran carries out second execution linked to nationwide protests

Iran carries out second execution linked to nationwide protests

The Guardian reports: Iran has publicly hanged a man accused of killing two members of the security forces in its second use of capital punishment against anti-government protesters. Majidreza Rahnavard’s family were woken early on Monday morning to be informed that he had been executed and that his body had been buried in a lot in the local cemetery. Rahnavard, a 23-year-old wrestler, had been sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad for allegedly killing two…

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Grant Wahl just died in a region whose rulers routinely murder those who dare speak truth to power

Grant Wahl just died in a region whose rulers routinely murder those who dare speak truth to power

The reason why ppl are suspecting Qatar of foul play in Grant Wahl’s death is because Sharia countries have a track record of chopping up journalists in embassies, beating girls to death over hijab, executing gay ppl and atheists, etc etc. You made this bed. #SorryNotSorry. — Yasmine Mohammed 🦋 ياسمين محمد (@YasMohammedxx) December 10, 2022 NPR reports: Wahl had been critical of FIFA and Qatar during the tournament. In an interview with NPR, Eric Wahl said his brother didn’t…

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Iran hit with sanctions over first protester execution

Iran hit with sanctions over first protester execution

AFP reports: Iran was slapped with new sanctions Friday and activists called for fresh protests after the Islamic republic carried out its first execution over demonstrations that have shaken the regime for nearly three months. Mohsen Shekari, 23, was hanged Thursday after being convicted of “moharebeh” — or “enmity against God” — after what rights groups denounced as a show trial. The judiciary said Shekari was arrested after blocking a Tehran street and wounding a member of the Basij, a…

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Execution of Mohsen Shekari raises fear of ‘mass execution of protesters’ in Iran

Execution of Mohsen Shekari raises fear of ‘mass execution of protesters’ in Iran

BBC News reports: Iran has announced the first execution of a protester convicted over the recent anti-government unrest. Mohsen Shekari was hanged on Thursday morning after being found guilty by a Revolutionary Court of “moharebeh” (enmity against God), state media said. He was accused of being a “rioter” who blocked a main road in Tehran in September and wounded a member of a paramilitary force with a machete. An activist said he was convicted after a “show trial without any…

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Iranian protesters call for three-day strike as pressure on regime builds

Iranian protesters call for three-day strike as pressure on regime builds

The Guardian reports: Protesters in Iran have called for a three-day strike this week amid conflicting reports that the nation’s “morality police” had been shut down, and as the US said the leadership in Tehran had locked itself into a “vicious cycle” that had cut it off from its own people and the international community. The call steps up pressure on Iranian authorities after the attorney general said this weekend that the morality police – whose detention of a young…

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