Criminal trials have started against many of the organizations included in peaceful protests in 2011. Included are the leaders of associations of medical, engineering and architects. According to Amnesty International, the indictment charging these defendants does not contain any evidence of participation in or incitement to violence or any other criminal activity. CCS wrote to urge dismissal of ... Continue Reading>>
Our Work
Uyghur Linguist’s Whereabouts Unknown Since Arrest for Attempt to Teach Language
Abduweli Ayup, an Uyghur linguist and graduate of University of Kansas, hoped to open a kindergarten to promote education in Uyghurs native language. When he and his associates attempted to raise funds for this venture, they were arrested for "illegally fundraising." Relatives of Ayup have no information as to his whereabouts, even though they heard reports that he is in poor health in jail and ... Continue Reading>>
CCS Calls for Immediate Investigation of Assassination of Counsel in Blasphemy Case
After repeated threats called to the attention of Pakistani authorities, attorney and human rights advocate Rashid Rehman was assassinated on May 7, 2014. Rehman was defense counsel for Junaid Hafeez, an adjunct lecturer at the Bahuddin Zakariya University, who had been detained on blasphemy charges for over a year. CCS called for immediate investigation of the unknown assailants and further ... Continue Reading>>
Criminal, Legal, and Administrative Restrictions Aim At Limiting Turkish Doctors in Aiding Injured Protesters
CCS joins international outcry at measures instituted in Turkey against doctors who set up emergency medical facilities to treat protesters injured during demonstrations last summer. Criminal prosecutions started in May, 2014, call for long jail sentences. Legislation and administrative measures punish emergency care taken without government oversight last summer, putting professionals in conflict ... Continue Reading>>
Revocation of Degree Four Years Later Leads to Protest by Vietnamese Academics
Hanoi National University of Education awarded Do Thi Thoan a Masters Degree in 2010, after it received the highest possible evaluation. In 2014, another committee revoked the degree without explanation to Ms. Thoan. Her research adviser was fired. Suspecting politics, almost 300 Vietnamese academics, in Vietnam and abroad, protested the lack of due process in revoking the degree. CCS joined in ... Continue Reading>>
CCS Regrets the Death of Andrew Sessler,
Advisory Board Member and Strong Supporter
Dr. Andrew Sessler, CCS Advisory Board member and the former director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, passed away on April 1, 2014 after a long illness. "Intensely concerned about human rights, Sessler focused on scientists caught in political situations beyond their control. He wrote letters in support of dissidents in the Soviet Union and other countries. He was active on boards and ... Continue Reading>>
CCS Urges Reinstatement of Russian Scientist Punished for Attending Stony Brook Workshop
Four scientists at Russia's Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) resigned in protest after their colleague Alexander Gorsky was fired for attending a workshop at Stony Brook University. As a condition for his attendance, where Gorsky was to deliver a paper published a year earlier, ITEP's administration allegedly demanded a cooperative agreement with Stony Brooks and a ... Continue Reading>>
Jailed Uyghur Professor’s Family in Beijing Is Harassed by Police, Daughter Testifies
The wife of Ilham Tohti, who was arrested and charged with separatism (see our letter), cannot access his bank account since his arrest, Tohti's daughter told the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Tohti's young children are traumatized by police harassment, she said, especially after witnessing mistreatment of her father. CCS urges authorities to end to restrictions on Tohti's ... Continue Reading>>
Iranian Graduate Student in Belgium Sentenced for Scholarship Funding
In a repeat of the arrest, prosecution, and sentencing of Omid Kokabee, Hamid Babaei, an industrial engineering student in Belgium, was arrested as he attempted to return to his studies at the University of Liege. He was sentenced to six years in prison for communicating with a hostile government, apparently on the basis of his scholarship funding. CCS wrote to protest this charge, that Babaei ... Continue Reading>>
Egyptian’s Criticism of NGOs Guilty Verdict
Leads to Charging Him of Insulting Judiciary
Dr. Amr Hamzawy, a professor of political science at Cairo University and of public policy at the American University in Cairo, faces criminal charges in Egypt for expressing his opinions on Twitter. He wrote that he found shocking and obviously political a verdict against 43 employees of Western-based civil society groups. The employees were found guilty of "receiving illegal funds" and ... Continue Reading>>