A Vietnamese activist was jailed for nine years on Tuesday for “anti-state activity”, her lawyer said, the second such heavy sentence handed down by the authoritarian state in less than a month. Dissidents, rights lawyers and bloggers are routinely jailed in the communist country but rights groups and activists accuse the new government in place … Read more
A prominent Vietnamese blogger known as ‘Mother Mushroom’ went on trial Thursday for anti-state propaganda, a court clerk said, as rights groups decried the charges as “outrageous” and demanded her immediate release. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, whose penname derives from her daughter’s nickname “mushroom”, was arrested in October 2016 for critical Facebook posts about politics … Read more
A third Turkish national has been arrested in Malaysia, his lawyer said Friday, after two others were taken into custody this week on suspicion of funding the Islamic State group. Turkish academic Ismet Ozcelik was arrested Thursday, his lawyer Rosli Dahlan told AFP, adding that no official reasons were provided by authorities. Local media reported … Read more
Two Turkish nationals who went missing in Malaysia have been arrested as a security threat, the police chief announced on Wednesday, but a rights group raised concerns of possible pressure from Ankara for the detentions. National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar tweeted that Turgay Karaman and Ihsan Aslan were arrested “because they threatened the security … Read more
The Philippines’ police chief has defended the detention of a dozen people inside a closet-sized secret cell in a case that raised further alarm about abuses under President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs. The government’s human rights commission discovered a dozen men and women packed into the tiny cell behind a wooden cabinet during … Read more
China should immediately reveal the whereabouts of eight North Koreans it detained last month, Human Rights Watch said Monday, adding they risk severe torture if they were returned to the North. Most North Korean refugees begin their escape by crossing into China and then try to make it to third countries — often in Southeast … Read more
Indonesia’s Aceh looks set to cane two men who admitted having sex in contravention of Islamic laws, an official said Monday, the first such punishment of a gay couple in the conservative province. They face up to 100 strokes if found guilty of breaking Aceh’s sharia regulations after they were caught in late March by … Read more
Cambodia’s parliament passed a law Monday giving judges sweeping powers to dissolve political parties, a move seen as a brazen attempt by premier Hun Sen to checkmate his opponents ahead of next year’s polls. Hun Sen, who for three decades has led the country with force and political guile, has used the kingdom’s pliant courts … Read more