Political prisoners among 2,000 pardoned by Myanmar junta
Reuters Myanmar’s military government on Wednesday pardoned more than 2,000 prisoners, state media reported, among them a journalist and what activists and media said were numerous political detainees. State television MRTV said 2,153 prisoners convicted of incitement were pardoned to mark a Buddhist holiday and warned they would be arrested and given additional sentences if […]
Ex-prisoner tells diplomats Nicaragua holding families “hostage”
Reuters “I said I would hand myself in, but the police kicked down the gate,” Tamara Davila, a formerly jailed Nicaraguan activist on Wednesday told regional diplomats looking into allegations of abuses by President Daniel Ortega’s government. Davila is one of 222 political prisoners who were flown to the United States last month in a […]
Over 200 Nicaraguan prisoners, including top Ortega critics, freed and sent to US
Managua, NicaraguaReuters More than 200 political prisoners in Nicaragua were released and flown to the United States on Thursday, including five former presidential hopefuls and other leading critics of President Daniel Ortega, in what Washington described as a “constructive step” toward improving human rights. The mass release “opens the door to further dialogue between the […]
UN council demands end to Myanmar violence in first resolution in decades
United NationsReuters The UN Security Council adopted its first resolution on Myanmar in 74 years on Wednesday to demand an end to violence and urge the military junta to release all political prisoners, including ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Myanmar has been in crisis since the army took power from Suu Kyi’s elected government […]
Pope urged to talk of human rights, political prisoners, in Bahrain visit
Vatican City Reuters Families of death row inmates in Bahrain appealed to Pope Francis on Monday to speak out against capital punishment and defend political prisoners during his trip to the Gulf state this week. The families made their appeal in an open letter released by the London-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, which […]
Prison blaze: Deadly Iran jail fire erupted as police clashed with inmates, sources say
Reuters correspondents investigate circumstances around a deadly fire in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison…
Fire, gunshots at Tehran jail holding political prisoners, dual nationals
Dubai, United Arab EmiratesReuters A fire broke out on Saturday in Tehran’s Evin prison, where many of Iran’s political and dual-national detainees are held, and witnesses reported hearing gunfire. State news agency IRNA said eight people were injured in the unrest, which erupted after nearly a month of protests across Iran over the death in […]
Nicaraguan political prisoners held in “horrific conditions”, says lawyer
Managua, NicaraguaReuters Two former presidential candidates are among more than 180 political prisoners in Nicaragua undergoing “the worst kinds of human rights abuses,” their lawyer said Wednesday. One year after Juan Sebastian Chamorro and Felix Maradiaga were arrested ahead of Nicaragua’s disputed 2021 election, neither has spoken to their families and both are being held […]
Syrians in Berlin seek release of loved ones after presidential amnesty
Berlin, Germany/Damascus, SyriaReuters For 10 years, Rojin Derki hoped her brother Mohammad was still alive and would one day be released from a Syrian government prison after his arrest in 2012. Yet when a presidential decree last week gave a general amnesty for prisoners, she had mixed feelings. “It’s an ugly feeling because you don’t […]
UN expert urges North Korea to dismantle political prison camps
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters A UN human rights expert called on North Korea on Monday to release tens of thousands of people believed to languish in political prison camps, while urging regional and world powers to raise such issues with Pyongyang alongside nuclear concerns. Tomas Ojea Quintana said that a landmark UN investigation in 2014 had […]