NOV. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek opposition media reported that police detained Uktam Paradayev, a well-respected human rights activist. It is unclear if Mr Paradayev has been charged with anything. Earlier this month Mr Paradayev was denied an exit visa to leave Uzbekistan.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish mobile operator TeliaSonera said that the authorities in Tajikistan had ordered it to block access to a series of social media sites, including Facebook, because of alleged security threats.
In an unusually candid note, TeliaSonera, which operates in Tajikistan under the Tcell brand, said it had complied with the order, given on Nov. 2, although it did cast some doubt on the motives behind it.
“Government’s requests or demands often serve legitimate purposes such as the protection of certain human rights, but they may also be problematic in that they could conflict with other human rights,” it said in a statement on its website. “TeliaSonera’s commitment is to respect freedom of expression in telecommunications.”
The authorities in Tajikistan often ban access to social media because they say radical Islamists have infiltrated it. Human rights groups, though, have accused the government of cracking down on free speech.
As well as blocking Facebook, the authorities also blocked the Russian websites odnoklassniki.ru and vk.ru.
TeliaSonera, which is looking to sell its businesses in Central Asia and the South Caucasus after a corruption scandal in Uzbekistan, said it doesn’t comment on domestic politics.
“However, TeliaSonera does engage in dialogue regarding requests from authorities that affect our business and customers of companies in which we have ownership interests,” it said.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in the town of Ridder, north- east Kazakhstan, imprisoned an internet blogger for five years for asking users on a popular social media website if they thought the east of the country should split and join Russia.
This is the first time that a new law banning separatist incitement has been used. The law was introduced in 2014 after the civil war in Ukraine broke out.
According to media reports, 26- year-old Igor Sychev, the blogger, has denied allegations that he was fomenting separatist feelings.
But this is an issue that the Kazakh authorities, up to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, are touchy about.
The north and east of Kazakhstan are populated mainly by ethnic Russians.
This population skew was one of the main reasons Mr Nazarbayev relocated his capital to Astana, in the centre of the country, from Almaty in the south in 1997 and he has spent much time re-working the history of the Kazakh state to be as inclusive as possible — without stretching the realms of possibility too much.
Nationalists in Russia have also increased tension by floating the idea of bringing north Kazakhstan into a Greater Russia.
On a trip to Pavlodar in the north of the country last year, though, it was clear to a Bulletin correspondent that for most ethnic Russians living in Kazakhstan, although their cultural centre of gravity may lie to the north in Russia, they still have faith in the Kazakh state.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Rauf Mirkadyrov, a high-profile journalist in Azerbaijan has gone on trial for high treason. He was extradited in April 2014 to Azerbaijan from Turkey. The West has been highly critical of Azerbaijan’s crackdown on media.
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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)
NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan released Murod Juraev, a 63-year-old former MP, from prison after 21 years. He was jailed for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government, although human rights groups have said this is a fabrication. Observers linked Mr Juraev’s release to a visit this month to Uzbekistan by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Georgian lawyer accused police of beating him for several hours after he visited a client at a Tbilisi police station, sparking outrage across Georgia’s social media and jibes of hypocrisy against the authorities.
Police brutality is a sensitive political issue in Georgia. The ruling Georgian Dream coalition has accused the previous administration of Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement of presiding over a regime built around repression and fear.
Giorgi Mdinaradze, the lawyer, said that he had been to hospital with bruises and cuts to his face after the beating.
“They [policemen] put my hands in cuffs and I could not even cover face with hands as they were beating me for five or ten minutes,” media quoted him as saying.
Mr Mdinaradze works for Legal Aid, a government funded group that gives legal advice and support to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it.
One of the ruling Georgian Dream’s main challenges against the United National Movement party was a case against former defence minister Bacho Akhalaia. He was sent to prison last year for ordering inmates at a prison to be tortured in 2006 when he was the prisons minister.
Police said that they have opened an investigation into the alleged beating of Mr Mdinaradze, the lawyer. On Nov. 13, Georgian media reported that they had arrested a senior policeman in the case.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Baku released jailed human rights activist Arif Yunus from prison because of his failing health. Yunus will have to serve the rest of his sentence for various financial crimes under house arrest. He was sent to prison with his wife Leyla in August for 7 years. Leyla received a prison sentence of 8-1⁄2 years. Human rights campaigners have said they are political prisoners.
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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)
OCT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A journalist documenting forced labour practices in east Uzbekistan said his office had been burnt down in an act of sabotage, media reported. Dmitiry Tikhonov also said that files with data on a number of specific cases appear to have been stolen from his office in Angren.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
OCT. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities paid a journalist working for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty $30,000 in compensation after they admitted that police officers had beaten him in 2008. Agil Khalil was beaten by policemen when he tried to take photos in Baku.
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(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)
NOV. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan was due to start considering an appeal by jailed human rights activists Leyla Yunus and Arif Yunus against their imprisonment in August for 8-1/2 and 7 years for various economic crimes. Human rights groups have said the authorities imprisoned Leyla and Arif Yunus to silence them.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)