Watchdog

BAKU -- A lawyer for jailed Azerbaijani human rights activist Leyla Yunus says her health has deteriorated drastically.

Lawyer Elcin Qambarov told RFE/RL on November 24 that a detention center doctor who examined Yunus recently gave her a diagnosis of advanced liver disease and a high blood-sugar level.

Qambarov said that Yunus's blood pressure fluctuates dramatically and that she has lost 10 kilograms since her arrest in July.

He said the detention center had refused to process her lawyers' request for access to official documents related to her medical examination.

Yunus, 58, is a fierce critic of Azerbaijan's poor rights record.

Her husband, Arif Yunus, 59, was arrested in August, and they are being held in pretrial detention on charges of high treason and other crimes.

Yunus and her husband say the charges are politically motivated.

Western governments and human rights groups have called for their immediate release.

HRODNA, Belarus -- An RFE/RL correspondent has been fined after a court ruled that he had violated legislation on public gatherings in Belarus.

The Lenin District Court in the western city of Hrodna ruled on November 25 that Mikhal Karnevich must pay the equivalent of $205 as a fine for taking part in an unsanctioned mass gathering on October 26.

Karnevich contends that he was doing his job as a journalist that day, covering the public gathering in the southwestern town of Svislach -- a commemoration of Kastus Kalinovski, a 19th-century Belarusian journalist and political activist who led a popular movement against Russian rule.

Karnevich has been charged with violating legislation on public gatherings in the past.

In 2011, he was found guilty of taking part in an unsanctioned public protest in Hrodna and fined $100 after he covered the event as a journalist.