Kubanychbek Joldoshev is treated in hospital.
Kyrgyz journalist Kubanychbek Joldoshev was beaten by unknown assailants and hospitalized in Osh on November 2, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.Joldoshev, a former RFE/RL correspondent, was working for the "Osh Shamy" newspaper."Osh Shamy" editor Turgunbay Aldakulov told RFE/RL that three unknown assailants attacked Joldoshev as he was returning home.He suffered a concussion and other head injuries.Joldoshev's colleages say the attack is connected with his professional activities. He covered Osh University student protests last month.Several journalists have been threatened or severely beaten in Kyrgyzstan this year.Others have sought and received asylum in Western countries.
George Krol
A U.S. official has called on Kazakhstan to fulfill its obligations before it assumes the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.George Krol, the deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, told journalists in Astana on October 30 that Kazakhstan should carry out reforms it agreed to in Madrid last December.At that time, then-Kazakh Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin told the other OSCE member states' foreign ministers that Astana would make progress on OSCE recommendations to change its laws on the media, namely the mitigation of responsibility for defamation and the liberalization of the registration for media outlets.Tazhin also said then that Kazkahstan intended to liberalize laws on elections and political parties.Kazakhstan is due to take over the chair of the OSCE on January 1.
Andrei Zatoka in an undated photograph
Prominent Turkmen environmental activist Andrei Zatoka has been sentenced to five years in prison for hooliganism, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reports. Zatoka, 53, was found guilty in a court in Dashoguz of attacking a man in a market in the northern Turkmen city on October 20. His supporters say he was attacked by the man and attempted to detain him until police arrived. However, police detained Zatoka instead of the man. His supporters in Moscow held a protest in front of the Turkmen Embassy on October 27 and again on October 29, demanding his immediate release. They said they consider Zatoka's case to be politically motivated and connected to his professional activities. Zatoka, a biologist, has run an environmental-protection group shut down by the government in 2003. The co-founder of the group, Farid Tukhbatullin, now lives in exile in Europe and monitors human rights abuses in Turkmenistan. Zatoka was also detained in December 2006 and charged with possessing and dealing with in arms and dangerous substances, which Human Rights Watch said were trumped-up charges. In January 2007, he was finally released under pressure from the international community when a court granted him a conditional release upon his pledge not to leave the country for three years. His wife has been living in Russia since that time.
Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan
The international Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has called on the country's judiciary to release blogger Hossein Derakhshan, who was arrested a year ago.Derakhshan is known as "the blogfather" of Iran for introducing a guide that helped popularize blogging in Iran.Derakhshan, who reportedly holds dual Iranian-Canadian citizenship, was arrested in 2008 just a few weeks following his return to Iran after living in Canada and other countries for eight years.His brother, Hamed Derakhshan, told RFE/RL Radio Farda’s Nima Tamadon that the family is not aware of the charges against Derakhshan. He said no trial has been held for Derakhshan. He said they have been able to meet with him only twice since his arrest.Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the International Campaign for Human rights in Iran, has called Derakhshan's case an example of the lack of respect that the country’s judiciary has for Iranian laws.Some suggested that Derakhshan had cooperated with judiciary officials in the cases of those arrested in the postelection crackdown. The indictments of reformists and others put on trial over the postelection unrest include references to information provided by “a jailed spy who worked with Israel.” Some believe that is a reference to Derakhshan because of a 2006 trip to Israel.But Derakhshan’s brother told Radio Farda that he believes the information allegedly used against the reformists may have been taken from Derakhshan’s blog entries, which he had posted before his arrest.An Iran-based rights group, Human Rights Activists in Iran, reported recently that Derakhshan was held for several months in solitary confinement and that he has been under pressure to confess to the charges brought against him by his interrogators.(by Golnaz Esfandiari)
TEHRAN (Reuters) -- An Iranian journalist and political activist detained after the Islamic republic's disputed election in June has gone on hunger strike, a reformist website has reported.Norouz website said Hengameh Shahidi, who worked for the "Etemad-e Melli" newspaper of pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karrubi, started her action in Tehran's Evin jail on October 27."She is suffering from heart disease and severe depression," it said, giving no source.Norouz said Shahidi, a women's rights activist who advised Karrubi in the June 12 presidential election, had been detained for several months. Etemad-e Melli was shut down by the authorities in August.Thousands of people were arrested after the June election, which sparked huge street protests and plunged Iran into political turmoil.The moderate opposition says the poll was rigged to secure hardline President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's reelection. The authorities deny it. Karrubi came fourth in the vote.Most of the detainees have since been released, but more than 100 senior reformers, activists, journalists, and others have been put on trial accused of fomenting street unrest. The opposition has denounced the court sessions as "show trials."The authorities have portrayed the post-election street demonstrations, which were quelled by the elite Revolutionary Guards and an allied Islamic militia, as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic republic.
Kazakh rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis in court
Leading Kazakh human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis has been transferred from Almaty to a labor camp in northeastern Kazakhstan, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. Zhovtis, director of the nongovermental organization Bureau of Human Rights, was sentenced to four years in prison last month for accidentally striking and killing a man with his car. On October 19, an Almaty Oblast appeals court in the city of Taldy-Qorghan upheld his conviction and sentence, which has been condemned by international human rights groups as too long for his alleged crime. The labor camp OV-156/13, where Zhovtis was transferred, is located about 1,000 miles from his native Almaty. His supporters say the fact that Zhovtis was transferred so far away from his family and colleagues to serve his term confirms their belief that the case against him is politically motivated.
Student protests against the regime of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad continue.A protest was held today by students at the Islamic Azad University in southern Tehran. Reports say more than 1,000 students participated.The students chanted “Allah Akbar,” “Death to the Dictator,” and “Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein," in support of opposition politician Mir Hossein Musavi, who lost to Ahmadinejad in a disputed election in June. A number of protests against Ahmadinejad and his allies have been held at universities in Tehran and other cities since the beginning of the academic year in late September.(by Golnaz Esfandiari)
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