July 20th, 2012
Three members of Russian punk group
Pussy Riot have had their detention extended by a further six months by a Moscow court,
reports say [ru]. Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Semutsevic will remain in jail until at least January 2013, with their detention already being extended from 24 June to late July. The trio were arrested in March and face charges of hooliganism for allegedly staging an anti-Putin performance in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February. If convicted they face up to seven years in prison.
Pussy Riot spoke to us exclusively in May, read the interview here.
June 27th, 2012
A court in
Turkey has sentenced a man with speech and hearing impairments to
eight years in prison for spreading propaganda on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Mehmet Tahir Ilhan was sentenced after attending a demonstration in in April 2011. Following his involvement in the protest, Ihlan was also charged with “committing a crime on behalf of a terrorist organisation,” “resisting security forces” and “contravening the Law of Assembly and Demonstration”. Ilhan claimed he was not one of the protesters who threw stones and Molotov cocktails during the rally.
May 15th, 2012
The Russian feminist collective tells Index’s Elena Vlasenko they will continue to speak out, in spite of arrests and harassment
A Moscow court has confirmed the legality of the pre-trial detention of alleged Pussy Riot members Maria Alekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Semutsevich.
The women had appealed against the Tagansky court decision detaining them until 24 June — when they will face a criminal trial on charges of hooliganism for allegedly staging an anti-Putin performance in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in the run-up to recent presidential elections. But the court has turned down their appeal.
Two of the three accused Pussy Riot members are mothers of young children. The maximum sentence for their charges is seven years in prison.
Tolokonnikova, Alekhina and Samutsevich deny the allegations and are considered prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International and other leading human rights activists in Russia and abroad.
The women’s arrests triggered an emotional public discussion about the Orthodox church’s relationship with Russian authorities and society. Radical nationalist movement members have been preventing activists from protesting against Pussy Riot arrests. The Church, led by patriarch Kirill, who publically supports Vladimir Putin, performed a public prayer in April “against blasphemers”. Kirill’s support of the Pussy Riot prosecution has concerned many religious Russians, who have petitioned for the release of the women.
Pussy Riot members who have not yet been arrested are now in hiding and are difficult to reach. They gave this exclusive email interview to Index on Censorship.
– Did you expect these consequences — arrests, criminal proceedings, your supporters being beaten and insulted by radical nationalists — when you planned your cathedral performance? Would you repeat the performance if you knew how this would end?
– We didn’t expect the arrest. We are a women’s group which is forced to consume the ideas of patriarchal conservative society. We experience each process that happens in this society. Besides, we are a punk band, which can perform in any public place, especially one which is maintained through our taxes. That’s why we would definitely repeat our prayer. It was worth it: look at the awakened pluralism — political and religious!
– The state remains intolerant towards much artistic expression. What about broader Russian society?
– We are trying to educate society and will definitely take the importance of this process into account in our further actions. We expect people to at least look through Wikipedia after watching us on YouTube.
– What must you do now to avoid arrests?
– After Putin’s inauguration, just wearing a white ribbon on your clothes — a symbol of protest — has become a reason for arrest in Moscow. So we don’t wear them now.
– Will you continue performing? You said that anonymity helps you replace the band members in case they get arrested. Have many people offered to join you?
– Many people have expressed their wish to participate in our perfomances and we are planning them right now. We don’t consider the patriarch’s ignorant opinion and are not going to perform any protest songs against him personally.
– The Russian Orthodox church, according to notable human rights activists, has lost its right to establish moral standards after having severely condemned you, as did some intellectuals who preferred not to notice your persecution. Who, in your perspective, is likely to take their place?
– We think that one can learn moral values through literature, music and art, but definitely not in church. And as far as people are concerned, any human being who advocates humanistic ideas should support any prisoner who has lost her freedom because the authorities are afraid to give up their power.
April 17th, 2012
Two activists
climbed to the roof of the Bahrain embassy in
London yesterday. Prominent opposition activist Ali Mushaima was joined by Moosa Abdali to protest human rights violations in
Bahrain, ahead of this weekend’s controversial Grand Prix. The pair scaled scaffolding on a neighbouring building in Belgrave Square. Mushaima claimed he was protesting in solidarity with two of the country’s political prisoners, his father Shi’a politician Hassan Mushaima, and prominent activist
Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. The activist criticised the decision to allow the Grand Prix to go ahead at the weekend, saying by doing so, Formula 1 supports “dictatorship, torture and repression.”
April 5th, 2012
Police
beat 30 demonstrators whilst they were detained at a police station in
Jordan on 31 March. The demonstrators were arrested after gathering near the Prime Minister’s office in Amman, protesting the detention of seven activists from Tafila who were arrested mid-March. The 100 strong group of protesters were warned by police after some began chanting “if the people are scorned, the regime will fall.” The crowd were violently dispersed and beaten with truncheons by the police, and 30 participants were arrested. After being taken to the Central Amman Police station, officers continued to kick, punch and beat those who had been arrested.
March 20th, 2012
Two musicians and the leader of a youth organisation
were detained by police during a sanctioned rally in
Azerbaijan. On Saturday, Camal Ali, the front-man of popular band Bulustan, used profane language to criticise Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev during a performance at the youth rally in Baku. Organisers were angered by his profanities, and he and fellow band member Natiq Kamilov were detained by police, along with Etibar Salmanli, the head of the Nida youth organization. The three protesters were badly beaten by police before being detained.
