Posts Tagged ‘police’
August 10th, 2010
The Belarusian government has continued with its crackdown on opposition groups by arresting
Mikhas Bashura on charges of forgery. Bashura, who denies the charges, is an outspoken member of the
Tell the Truth campaign. In May 2010 three of his campaign colleagues were arrested. Two months later his car was searched and campaign documents containing the signatures of 20,000 people
were seized. The arrest is the latest in a
series of actions against
opposition campaigners.
July 27th, 2010
A journalist
narrowly escaped death in an incident in Veracruz, Mexico. Edgar López took photographs of a local mayor admonishing a police officer arrested for being drunk on duty. The mayor was angered by the presence of journalists and seized a camera from Enrique García. Later, when López left the station he was followed and stopped by eight officers. He was beaten and one of the officers fired a shot, which missed. The officers then fled the scene.
July 22nd, 2010
The Crown Prosecution Service has said there is no charge to answer in the case of a newspaper vendor who died during G20 protests in London. Leah Borromeo disagrees
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June 29th, 2010
A cameraman has been
attacked and beaten by police in Pakistan, after filming violent clashes during a protest in Lahore. According to colleagues Farrukh Asif, who works for the Urdu language station
Express News, was approached by police officers as he filmed three protestors being beaten. After refusing to hand over his camera or destroy footage of the incident, Asif himself was attacked. He was taken to a nearby police station and detained, suffering further violence while in custody. After being released, Asif was taken to hospital with injuries to his arms, back, and head, as well as a fractured collarbone.
June 8th, 2010
A pro-opposition journalist
arrested and detained on 2 June has been released. Ani Gevorgian was covering a sit-in for the daily national newspaper Haykakan Zhanamak when police clashed with protesters and arrested 17 people. Police allege she struck a police officer. However, other journalists maintain that Gevorgian’s reports on local police had angered authorities. A
video of the protests appears to show Gevorgian photographing arrests, before being detained herself. Gevorgian
face charges of assaulting law-enforcement personnel and hooliganism.
June 8th, 2010
Two policemen
have been arrested, and the country’s most senior policeman suspended from duty, after the death of a human rights activist in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Voice of the Voiceless” campaigner Floribert Chebeya, whose body was
discovered last week in a Kinshasa suburb, was last heard from shortly before attending a meeting ordered by the inspector general of the national police force, John Numbi. Following the arrest of two policemen suspected of killing Chebeya, Numbi was suspended on Sunday by the attorney general, to allow an internal investigation to take place. Chebeya’s death has prompted widespread international attention. Criticisms have also been raised over increased police harassment of human rights activists. Four DRC-based human rights campaigners have been murdered in the last four years.
May 18th, 2010
Augustie Chihuri, Zimbabwe’s police commissioner, has
banned public demonstrations and protests during this summer’s World Cup, taking place in neighbouring South Africa. Reports indicate that a decision to curtail all public protests “from June 1 until further notice” has already been circulated to senior officers, and will be formally announced later in May.
April 28th, 2010
The conviction of Liverpool atheist Harry Taylor for placing “offensive” cartoons in an airport prayer room has caused controversy among secularists. Butterflies and Wheels’ Ophelia Benson and Paul Sims of New Humanist magazine go head to head
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