17 Jul 2012 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
The United Arab Emirates deported an online activist to Thailand yesterday, it has been reported. Ahmed Abdul Khaleq was stripped of his rights to live in the country as a result of his campaigning. His website included appeals for a greater public role in the UAE’s political affairs. Political parties are banned in the Gulf nation. Khaleq was among five other activists who were convicted last year of anti-state crimes for insulting the UAE’s leaders. They were later pardoned, but the charges against them were not officially dropped.
13 Jul 2012 | Africa, Index Index, minipost
Prominent Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega was today sentenced to 18 years in prison for violating anti-terrorism laws. He and 23 other activists and writers were convicted last month, and accused of links with US-based opposition group Ginbot Seven, which Ethiopia considers a terrorist organisation. Last September Eskinder was arrested after publishing an article questioning arrests made under Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism legislation, namely that of well-known Ethiopian actor and government critic Debebe Eshetu.
13 Jul 2012 | Europe and Central Asia, Index Index, minipost
Ukraine’s tax police raided the office of television station TVi yesterday, accusing the often critical outlet of tax evasion. TVi interrupted its usual programming to show tax inspectors going through financial documents in its Kiev office. The State Tax Service said it had launched a criminal case against TVi’s chief executive, Mykola Knyazhitsky, after finding out that the station had evaded more than 3 million hryvnias (243,000 GBP) in VAT payments, it has been reported. Batkivshchyna, the main opposition party, accused the government of censorship. The raid took place three months before parliamentary elections in Ukraine.
10 Jul 2012 | Mexico
After a vote recount of Mexico’s presidential elections, Enrique Peña Nieto, of the Partido Revolucionario Institutional (PRI) was finally declared the winner by Mexican electoral authorities yesterday.
However, the left-of-centre candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Partido Revolucionario Democratico (PRD) continues to claim that the PRI victory was thanks to vote buying schemes and other irregularities, which included biased press coverage and faulty electoral polls. (more…)
