4 Feb 2010 | Index Index, minipost
Five people were arrested on 3 February after a group of men assaulted Victoire Ingabire; her assistant Joseph Ntawangundi was badly beaten in the attack in the capital, Kigali. Ingabire who intends to run for president returned to Rwanda in January after 16 years in the Netherlands. She has been criticised for highlighting the deaths of Hutus in the genocide and for claiming that the current government is dominated by a Tutsi elite. Gregory Mthembu Salter, a research associate at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said the attack may reflect a need for Rwanda to better uphold freedom of speech.
4 Feb 2010 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, minipost
The editor of Taqadoumy website Hanevy Ould Dehah remains in detention after a Supreme Court decision to retry him on a charge of ‘offending public decency’, a crime for which he has already served a six-month sentence. Commenting on his original trial Reporters Without Borders said “The sole aim of this disproportionate sentence is to restore the reputation of Ibrahima Moctar Sarr, a politician whose financial dealings Dehah examined.”
4 Feb 2010 | minipost, Uncategorized
There are increasing concerns about the whereabouts of missing dissident Gao Zhisheng. The case is unusual because the Chinese authorities have refusedto divulge Gao’s whereabouts. Gao has vanished without legal explanation, normally even in the most politicized cases, the Chinese authorities comply with their own criminal procedure laws. The only comment came two weeks ago from Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, who said that Gao “is where he should be.” When asked again last Tuesday, he offered a smile and said: “Honestly speaking, I don’t know where he is. China has 1.3bn people and I can’t know all of their whereabouts.”
3 Feb 2010 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Controversial Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders will face trial in the Netherlands on hate speech. Wilders’s lawyers had attempted to block the trial, claiming that as a politician he should have protected speech. Wilders has gained notoriety for his fim Fitna, which compels Muslims to tear out parts of the Quran.
Read more here
Read Oliver Kamm on Wilders here
