17 Feb 2011 | Index Index, minipost
Thursday 17 February saw the beginning of the hearing against Vasil Parkiankou. The trial, which is being held in Minsk, has been described by an opposition activist as a mere “show trial”. Parkiankou is accused of smashing the windows of a government building in the course of a demonstration in December. This is a “public order offence”. He was protesting against vote rigging in the presidential election. Human rights organisation Viasna have said that more than 40 opposition members will be tried. They face up to 15 years of imprisonment.
This Saturday there will be a solidarity protest outside the Belarusian Embassy in London.
17 Feb 2011 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Egyptian activists have condemned an assault on Lara Logan, a senior CBS correspondent, during celebrations in Tahrir Square after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down. Logan became separated from her crew and was attacked before being rescued by a group of women and soldiers. Activists denounced it as a social evil that needs to be “stamp[ed] out alongside corruption and all the other social ills that have befallen Egypt during Mubarak’s regime”. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented more than 140 attacks on journalists covering the Egyptian protests between 30 January and 9 February 2011.
17 Feb 2011 | Events
This Saturday, 19 February at 2pm, there will be a protest organised by the Belarus Committee outside the Belarusian Embassy, 6 Kensington Court, London (you can see it on a map here). The protest is to raise awareness of the prisoners of conscience detained by President Lukashenko since the rigged election in December.
Many of those detained have little access to justice and there are serious reports of ill-treatment. Of those detained many are close friends and associates of the Belarus Free Theatre. Please join us to send a clear signal to the Belarusian authorities that the world is watching.
The Belarus Committee is a group of NGOs including Index on Censorship, English PEN, PEN International, Amnesty, Article 19, human rights firm H20 Lawand individuals including Sir Tom Stoppard, with patrons Mikhail Gorbachev and Vaclav Havel, established in solidarity with all the victims of President Lukashenko’s regime, especially the prisoners currently detained by the secret police. The first trial of the prisoners begins on 17 February.
Belarus is Europe’s last dictatorship. The Presidential elections last December were described by the OSCE as “seriously flawed”, with the count in half of the polling districts “bad or very bad”. During an post-election rally in Independence Square in Minsk the authorities arrested members of the country’s political opposition and civil society activists. Over 600 people were arrested that evening including Natalia Koliada from the Belarus Free Theatre and Index on Censorship award nominee Natalia Radzina. Currently, 33 prisoners are still kept in custody, and journalist Irina Khalip — the wife of presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov — and presidential candidate Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu are both under punitive house arrest. They face up to 15 years in prison for orchestrating “mass disorder”.
For more information, contact Michael Harris
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7974 838 468
Heather McGill
[email protected]
+44 (0) 77 960 5261
www.zoneofsilence.org
17 Feb 2011 | Middle East and North Africa, News
International media has restricted access to Bahrain, journalists report. At least 95 people were injured and four people killed in a police attack on protesters in Manama’s Pearl Square on Thursday. Two people died in the protests earlier this week.
Nick Kristof, New York Times correspondent said: “Bahrain barring journalists from entry at airport. King Hamad doesn’t want witnesses to his brutality.”
Amira Al Hussaini, whose blog was blocked in the country earlier this year, is tweeting and blogging from Bahrain.
CNN cameras have been confiscated at airport and Al Jazeera’s Bilal Randeree (@bilalr) has not been allowed into the country, Al Hussaini said.
Randeree, an online journalist based in Qatar, confirmed the incident on Twitter: “I arrived@ #Manama airport this morn [Thursday] was told by immigration that no more visa on arrival for #aljazeera ppl – returnin to #Doha soon.”
ABC News reported that its correspondent Miguel Marquez had been caught in the crowd and “beaten by men with billy clubs in Bahrain’s capital, Manama.”
On Wednesday the Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern about detained and attacked journalists and restricted internet access across the Middle East, in Libya, Bahrain, Iran and Yemen.
In an open letter on Monday, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights called upon the Bahraini King to prevent the use of force against peaceful protest.
The organisation also asked for the release of more than 450 detainees, including human rights activists.
