May 21, 2013

AFP: Vietnam cuts jail term of French-Vietnamese blogger

(AFP) HANOI — A Vietnamese court on Tuesday halved the jail sentence of a French-Vietnamese blogger whose release has been sought by Paris and the European Union, his lawyer said. Pham Minh Hoang, who has dual nationality, will be freed on January 13 after serving a 17-month sentence for attempted subversion but will still have to serve three years' house arrest, lawyer Tran Vu Hai told  … continue reading >>

Iranian Physician Released From Prison

freeiraniandocs_thumb

Arash Alaei, a pioneering HIV and AIDS doctor, has been released from an Iranian prison, his family said Sunday Aug. 28. Both he and his brother, Kamiar Alaei, who is also a doctor, were arrested in 2008. They were charged with "communication with an enemy government" and for trying to "overthrow the government," according to Kamiar.  … continue reading >>

Chinese Dissident Released from Prison

Hu Jia in April 2010

Hu Jia, a prominent Chinese dissident whose activism on behalf of the environment and AIDS sufferers landed him in prison for the last three and a half years, was released in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, June 18,  and returned to his home in Beijing. CCS has been advocating for his release, supporting his family''s request for medical parole, in view of Hu Jia's serious liver ailment.  … continue reading >>

Professor Released from Iranian Prison

CCS also welcomed the release of Professor Emadeddin Baghi, who was released after serving two concurrent one-year jail sentences for "propaganda against the state”. One related to his founding of the Association to Defend Prisoners' Rights and the other to an interview broadcast by the BBC  together with the late government critic Grand Ayatollah Hosseinali-Monatazeri.  … continue reading >>

Belarusian Professor sentenced to probation

Alexandr Feduta

Aleksandr Feduta, a EHU (European Humanities University) lecturer and journalist, was arrested with hundreds of other opposition activists, including 11 EHU students, in the aftermath of the contested Belarusian presidential election on 19 December 2010.  … continue reading >>

Acquitted Colombian professor to resume teaching

Miguel Angel Beltran

Miguel Ángel Beltrán Villegas, the Colombian professor who was arrested in Mexico in 2009 and acquitted on Friday of accusations of being a member of the FARC, announced Wednesday he will resume teaching. A city judge decided Friday that Beltrán would be allowed to go free, "given the inconsistencies (of the evidence),"  … continue reading >>

Good News for Dr. Binayak Sen

The Supreme Court of India granted bail in April, 2011 to Dr. Binayak Sen, observing that no case of sedition was made out against the human rights activist, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court in Chhattisgarh State. CCS had advocated on behalf of Dr. Sen, who had set up clinics for impoverished and minority people in his province.  … continue reading >>

Igor Sutyagin Released

Igor Sutyagin

We welcomed the release of Dr. Igor Sutyagin, the Russian academic, who served more than a decade in prison in Siberia on espionage charges that we protested starting in 2001 as unfounded. Sutyagin was an arms control researcher for a British company to which he provided published and openly available information.  … continue reading >>

Cuban Dissident Released

Darsi Ferrer, the director of the Juan Bruno Zayas Health and Human Rights Centre, was convicted on 22 June on spurious charges of receiving illegally obtained goods and "violence or intimidation against a state official" and sentenced to one year's imprisonment and three months' "correctional work" outside the prison. As he had already been imprisoned for almost a year he was immediately  … continue reading >>

Thai professor released

Professor Suthachai Yimprasert, assistant professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, who was arrested on May 24, sent to a provincial army camp, and went on a hunger strike, was released on May 31 in Bangkok, according to Thai sources, before we had a chance to write on his behalf.  … continue reading >>