China: Tianjin Police ‘Investigate’ Colleagues of Detained Human Rights Lawyer

April 30, 2018

Authorities in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin have launched an “investigation” into detained human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, nearly three years after his incommunicado detention amid a nationwide police operation in 2015.

Wang was initially detained amid a wave of police raids launched in July 2015 on suspicion of “incitement to subvert state power.”

Lawyers, friends and relatives have made more than 50 attempts to visit him in detention since then, and his wife Li Wenzu has been repeatedly harassed for speaking out on behalf of her husband.

Li has herself been targeted for repeated harassment by police, who have forced her to leave rented accommodations several times since his detention, by putting pressure on her landlords.

Wang once worked for the now-shuttered Fengrui law firm, the first target of police raids and detentions in July 2015 that broadened into a nationwide operation targeting more than 300 lawyers, law firm staff and associated rights activists for detention, professional sanctions, house arrest, and travel bans, including for family members.

Last week, Tianjin police traveled to the southwestern city of Kunming in a bid to interview fellow rights attorney Lin Qilei, who was appointed to defend Wang but denied access to his client, as a “witness” in the case, Lin told RFA.

He said he had refused to cooperate.

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https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/colleagues-04302018113935.html

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/04/11/asia-pacific/li-wenzu-wife-detained-chinese-rights-lawyer-wang-quanzhang-house-arrest/#.WudJfohubIU

https://www.mrt.com/opinion/article/Commentary-China-returns-to-Mao-during-second-12875394.php

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/03/opinions/china-world-press-freedom-day-caster-intl/index.html

https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2018/04/25/cina-rapporto-usa-uccisioni-sequestri-repressione-delle-minoranze-la-replica-e-uninterferenza-negli-affari-interni/4311654/ (ITALIANO)

https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article175875588/Freethemall-Wang-Quanzhang-China-Autor-und-Anwalt.html (DEUTSCH)

Maldives: Rule of law and freedom under attack in the Maldives

April 30, 2018

THE government of the Maldives is undermining the rule of law and attacking fundamental freedoms as part of their ongoing crackdown on critics and opposition members, a new report from rights groups has found.

President Abdulla Yameen is leading an attack on “on all forms of dissent” which threatens the country’s ability to hold “free, fair and inclusive” elections, according to authors of the report, Civicus and Voice of Women (VoW).

After ignoring a Supreme Court ruling to release his political opponents, Yameen then implemented a nationwide state of emergency to quash protests taking place in the capital Male. In doing so, the president suspended several constitutional rights and gave himself sweeping powers to arrest and detain.

SEE ALSO: Fighting Totalitarianism: Maldivians refuse to buckle under president’s autocracy

Two Supreme court judges remain in custody despite international calls for them to be released. They have been charged under terrorism laws for trying to overthrow the government. All deny the charges.
Read more at https://asiancorrespondent.com/2018/04/rule-of-law-and-freedom-under-attack-in-the-maldives/#YTkEAoRRSc2bkAVA.99

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https://asiancorrespondent.com/2018/04/rule-of-law-and-freedom-under-attack-in-the-maldives/#W7gQuDbqjwkL1BmJ.97

Click to access PolicyBrief.MaldivesApril2018.pdf

https://avas.mv/en/48125

https://raajje.mv/en/news/31597

https://raajje.mv/en/news/31706

https://raajje.mv/en/news/31669

https://www.siasat.com/news/maldivian-mp-appeals-amnesty-international-declare-him-prisoner-conscience-1350923/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_Maldives

http://www.supremecourt.gov.mv/eng/?decision=eng

Qatar: Human rights lawyer Dr. Najeeb Al-Nuaimi protests travel ban imposed on him

April 30, 2018

Prominent human rights lawyer Dr. Najeeb Al-Nuaimi has complained about a travel ban imposed on him in Qatar. He released a statement on 28 April 2018 explaining, “In order to obstruct me and cause an altercation, the Attorney General of Qatar issued a decree preventing me from leaving the country and then made a malicious complaint against me. … I resorted to the judiciary, which was fair with me by acquitting me of the charges of slander made by the Attorney General, and the Court of Appeal issued a decision to cancel the travel ban issued against me. ”

“But the Attorney General, with government approval, has continued to flagrantly violate the principles of the Constitution and Qatari laws, and has grossly violated the human rights for which they hold international conferences in Qatar, and applied on me a blockade similar to the blockade imposed on Qatar,” he said.

“I will seek all my rights by all legal means available abroad, and I will resort to all means to obtain my rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the laws of the country,” he concluded.

Notably, on 26 June 2017, Capital Security Administration informed Dr. Al-Nuaimi that the travel ban previously imposed on him on 07 January 2017 had been renewed despite the fact that the Appeal Court in Qatar revoked it on 30 May 2017.

On 07 February 2017, authorities in Qatar prevented Dr. Al-Nuaimi from travelling without informing him about any possible reasons. The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) has received reports confirming that the Attorney General of Qatar, Ali Al-Marri, has placed Dr. Al-Nuaimi on the list of individuals who are not allowed to travel outside the country – without any prior clarification or directing any charges against him.

Dr.  Al-Nuaimi is a well-known human rights lawyer who voluntarily defended prisoners of conscience in Qatar including poet Mohamed Rashid Al-Ajami. Al-Ajami was handed down a life sentence in 2011, which was reduced to 15 years in prison, because of a poem he wrote. He was only released in 2016 after serving five years in prison.

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http://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/1841

https://www.ifex.org/qatar/2017/07/02/travel-ban-rights-lawyer/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najeeb_Al_Nuaimi

http://najeeblawfirm.com/file/about.html

Click to access EN_HRL_20180507_Qatar_Travel-ban-imposed-on-human-rights-lawyer-Dr-Najeeb-Al-Nuaimi.pdf

http://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/1842 (ARABIC)