Watchdog

A sexually explicit video showing former activist Said Nuri has been posted on the Internet in what Nuri says is an attempt by the Azerbaijani authorities to discredit him.

Nuri, a U.S. citizen who was prevented from leaving his native Azerbaijan last week following a visit there, said on Twitter on September 11 that he has done nothing illegal and that woman he is shown with in the video is his girlfriend.

A former deputy chief of the pro-opposition youth group Yeni Fikir (New Opinion), Nuri left Azerbaijan several years ago after a treason investigation was launched against his organization.

Azerbaijani officials barred him from leaving the country on September 4 and questioned him in connection with an undisclosed investigation.

The Caspian Sea country's government has been criticized in the past for using intimate and illegally obtained videos to discredit opposition activists and journalists, including RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service correspondent Khadija Ismayilova.

The 88-year-old father of a jailed Belarusian opposition leader has received a threatening letter that he says is government pressure on his son.

Viktar Statkevich, the father of former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich, told RFE/RL that he found a Russian patriotic symbol called a St. George ribbon affixed to the gate of his house in the western city of Baranavichy on September 8.

He then found a letter in his mailbox addressed, in Russian, to "the slaves of the CIA, dirty offenders the Statkeviches."

It said it was from "the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant" and also included the words "Allah Akbar!" (God is great).

Human rights activist Syarhey Housha called for an investigation and said he shared Stakevich's belief that the letter was a form of pressure on his son.

Mikalay Statkevich is serving a six-year prison term for "organizing mass disturbances" following authoritarian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's reelection in December 2010.