Bulgarian authorities say they have confiscated more than 400 kilograms of heroin from a ship traveling from Dubai that was transporting construction materials from Iran.

Prosecutor Vladimir Chavdarov said on February 16 that the drugs were divided into 487 packages and hidden among asphalt rollers, which the ship was carrying.

Customs officials in the Black Sea port of Varna valued the seized heroin at about $22 million.

Prosecutors said the owner of the importing company and a customs official had been detained and charged with drug trafficking.

The two men could face up to 20 years in prison, if convicted of the charges.

Bulgarian police believe the heroin was not intended for the domestic market but rather destined to be sold in Western Europe.

Bulgaria is on the so-called Balkan drug-trafficking route, which is used to supply Western Europe with drugs from Asia and the Middle East.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa

Russian parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, has approved in the last reading a bill that envisages fines for those violating the country’s controversial law on "foreign agents."

First passed in 2012 and expanded several times since, the law gives authorities the power to brand nongovernmental organizations, human rights groups, news media, and individuals working for organizations deemed to receive foreign funding for political activity as a “foreign agent,” a label that carries pejorative Soviet-era connotations.

The law subjects these organizations and individuals to bureaucratic scrutiny and spot checks and requires them to attach the "foreign agent" label to their publications. They must also report on their spending and funding.

According to the bill approved by lawmakers on February 16, failure to attach the "foreign agent" label could lead to fines of up to 2,500 rubles ($34) for individuals and up to 500,000 rubles ($6,800) for entities.

In addition, organizations branded as “foreign agents” and working without being registered as such could face fines of up to 5 million rubles ($68,000).

The bill will come into force after parliament’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, approves it and President Vladimir Putin signs it into law.

The law, among other things, requires certain news organizations that receive foreign funding, including RFE/RL, to label content within Russia as being produced by a "foreign agent."

Since early in Vladimir Putin’s presidency, the Kremlin has steadily tightened the screws on independent media. The country is ranked 149th out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index produced by Reporters Without Borders.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Kazakh activist Kenzhebek Abishev, who was jailed for being linked to a political movement founded by a fugitive tycoon, was not released from prison on February 16 as expected.

On February 1, the Qapshaghai City Court in southern Kazakhstan's ruled that Abishev can be released on February 16, more than three years early, for good behavior while in prison, a procedure allowed by Kazakh laws.

However, the Almaty regional prosecutor’s office appealed the ruling at the very last moment, arguing that the 53-year-old activist's good behavior in custody is not enough to warrant his early release since he still has more than three years to serve.

Abishev's lawyer, Gulnara Zhuaspaeva, told RFE/RL that the prosecutor's appeal was "baseless," since all inmates are entitled to benefit from early release for good behavior.

"Abishev was officially praised five times for his good behavior while in the penal colony, he received several letters of thanks from the colony's administration. His medical condition is also a serious reason for an earlier release," Zhuaspaeva said, adding that she will continue to fight for her client to be set free ahead of schedule.

Abishev was sentenced to seven years in prison in December 2018 after he and two other activists were found guilty of planning a "holy war" because they were spreading the ideas of the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement. His prison term was later cut by eight months.

Abishev, whom Kazakh rights groups have recognized as a political prisoner, pleaded not guilty, calling the case against him politically motivated.

The DVK was founded by Mukhtar Ablyazov, an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government who has been residing in France for several years.

Ablyazov has been organizing unsanctioned anti-government rallies in Kazakhstan via the Internet in recent years.

Iran and Russia have embarked on a joint naval drill in the northern part of the Indian Ocean that they say has been designed to "enhance the security" of maritime trade in the region, Iranian state media reported.

State television said on February 16 that the exercise dubbed Maritime Security Belt will cover an area of about 17,000 square kilometers and include units from the Iranian Navy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Navy, and the Russian Navy.

Iranian Rear Admiral Gholamreza Tahani said its purpose was to "enhance the security of international maritime trade, confront maritime piracy and terrorism, and exchange information."

The Indian Navy will also join the exercise, in a message of "peace and friendship for neighboring and regional countries," Tahani said.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that the drill was scheduled to last three days.

This is the second joint Russian-Iranian naval exercise since December 2019, when the two countries plus China held a drill in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman.

Iran and China also participated in military exercises held in Russia in September 2020.

Tehran has been seeking to step up military cooperation with Beijing and Moscow amid tensions with the United States.

Iran has also increased its military drills in recent weeks as tensions built during the final days of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Tehran is now trying to pressure U.S. President Joe Biden's new administration to reenter a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

Last week, the IRGC conducted a ground forces drill in the southwest of Iran near the Iraqi border.

Trump withdrew the United States from the nuclear pact in 2018 and reimposed crushing sanctions on Iran.

In response to the U.S. moves, which were accompanied by increased tensions between Iran, the United States, and its allies, Tehran has gradually breached parts of the pact saying it is no longer bound by it.

The Biden administration has expressed willingness to return to compliance with the accord if Iran does, and then work with U.S. allies and partners on a "longer and stronger" agreement, including other issues such as Iran’s missile program and its support for regional proxy forces.

Iranian officials insist that the United States should make the first move by returning to the agreement, which eased international sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

They also say that the country's missile program and regional policies are off the table.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

An advocacy group says that homophobic language and hate speech against transgender people is on the rise among European politicians and has warned about a backlash against the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people across the continent.

The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association said in its annual report published on February 16 that politicians in 17 countries in Europe and Central Asia have verbally attacked LGBT people over the past year.

The report highlighted Poland, where nationalist politicians from the ruling right-wing PiS party have criticized "LGBT ideology" during election campaigns. It also singled out Hungary, where transgender people last year were banned from legally changing gender.

The situation for LGBT people in Bulgaria and Romania could worsen this year, while in Turkey, ruling-party politicians have repeatedly attacked LGBT people, Evelyne Paradis, the association's executive director, warned.

The trend of politicians verbally attacking LGBT people has also been on the rise in countries such as Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, and Russia, the report said.

In Belarus and Ukraine, some religious leaders have blamed LGBT people for the coronavirus pandemic. Hate speech on social media has grown in Montenegro, Russia, and Turkey, in traditional media in Ukraine, and is an ongoing issue in Georgia, North Macedonia, and Romania, the group said.

"There's growing hate speech specifically targeting trans people and that is being reported more and more across the region....We have grave concerns that it's going to get worse before it gets better," Paradis said.

In Central Asia, LGBT rights are stagnating or backsliding in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the report said, adding that in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, "we see windows of opportunity for advancing LGBT rights."

The group said the pandemic has caused difficulties for some young LGBT people at home with homophobic families during lockdowns and given openings to politicians who attack gay and trans people as a way to shift attention from economic problems.

"LGBT communities are amongst the groups that get scapegoated in particular," said Paradis.

With reporting by Reuters

SOFIA -- The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Bulgaria's courts had wrongly dismissed two discrimination cases brought against far-right nationalist lawmaker Volen Siderov.

The February 16 ruling by the Strasbourg court was the latest to scrutinize the rhetoric of Siderov, whose pro-Russian party, Attack, has been a controversial presence in Bulgarian politics.

The court agreed with plaintiffs in two separate cases -- one brought by two Bulgarian Jews; the other by two Bulgarian Roma – who charged that Siderov's rhetoric violated their rights to privacy and freedom from discrimination.

Some of the more incendiary statements cited by the plaintiffs included claiming that the mass murder of Jews by Nazis during World War II was a "great deception" and a speech Siderov gave in July 2005 when he said "Bulgaria above all, Bulgaria for the Bulgarians!"

Bulgarian courts have dismissed past lawsuits against him, citing, among other things, Siderov's right to free speech.

Until 2019, Siderov’s party was part of the United Patriots alliance, a partner in Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's government. The party has traditionally defended positions in support of Russia and against the European Union and NATO.

Since then, Siderov has been a municipal lawmaker in the capital, Sofia.

KYIV -- Ukraine’s Security Service said its agents have detained a man alleged to be the leader of an intelligence group of Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

In a February 16 statement, the security service, known as the SBU, did not identify the man, saying he was from Luhansk, which is part of the territories in eastern Ukraine controlled by separatist groups.

The service also said he had taken part in the seizure of the SBU headquarters in Luhansk in 2014 as conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine, and that he was a commander of the separatists' intelligence and sabotage unit who participated in operations against the Ukrainian armed forces.

The man was detained in Odesa, about 900 kilometers southwest of Luhansk, and he traveled to the Black Sea port “with an intention to carry out intelligence activities related to Ukraine’s military objects," the statement said.

No further details were given and there was no independent confirmation of the arrest.

Since erupting in April 2014, fighting between Ukrainian government forces and the Moscow-backed separatists holding parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions has killed more than 13,200 people.

Weeks before fighting broke out, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula after staging a referendum that was deemed illegitimate by more than 100 countries.

The Kremlin on February 16 dismissed French allegations that hackers linked to Russian intelligence have breached several French organizations as absurd.

The assertion by the French government's cybersecurity watchdog, made in a report released February 15, comes amid growing international concerns about cybercrime and espionage allegedly orchestrated by Russian intelligence agencies.

The U.S. government is grappling with its largest hack in history, a hack it has blamed on Russian security forces.

The French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems said the hackers had taken advantage of a vulnerability in monitoring software sold by the Paris-based company Centreon.

The agency said it discovered intrusions dating back to late 2017 and stretching into 2020. It also did not identify the names or number of victims involved but said they were mainly “information technology providers, especially web-hosting providers."

On February 16, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the French charges.

"Russia has never had, currently does not have, and could never have any involvement in cybercrime," Peskov was quoted as telling reporters. He said it was "absurd" to blame Moscow.

Earlier this week, the head of computer software giant Microsoft said the hacking campaign that targeted U.S. government agencies was "probably the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen."

With reporting by AFP, TASS, and Interfax

Turkmen opposition groups abroad have announced protests to demand authorities in Turkmenistan investigate the death of a 14-year-old judoka, who they claim was killed for refusing to throw a fight.

The Democratic Choice of Turkmenistan movement and the Turkmen Coordination Council opposition group announced on YouTube on February 15 that they plan to hold several protests after Suleiman Tursunbaev's death.

On February 14, Tursunbaev's parents issued a statement on YouTube saying their son was kidnapped by unidentified people in the town of Baherden immediately after winning a judo competition which he had been ordered to lose by the tournament's organizers.

The boy was later found severely beaten and unconscious, and died in hospital several days afterwards.

According to a report by Turkmen News, Tursunbaev's coach was also severely beaten after the end of the tournament.

The parents appealed to President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to find and punish their son's killers.

The Turkmen News opposition online newspaper reported that organizers had ordered the teenager to lose the final to an opponent from a military school, which he refused to do and instead went ahead and won the tournament.

The opposition groups claim that the boy might have been killed by local officials in retaliation for his refusal to throw the fight.

There was no immediate reaction from the tournament organizers to the accusations.

The Democratic Choice of Turkmenistan and the Turkmen Coordination Council will hold an online protest via Zoom on February 16 and will stage single-person pickets on Istanbul's Taksim Square on February 19 demanding a fair investigation into the death.

On February 20, the groups will hold a minute of silence at noon, Ashgabat time, to honor Tursunbaev.

Turkmen News quoted the two opposition groups' representatives as saying that they will also hold a rally outside the UN building in New York on February 19.

With reporting by Turkmen News

Russian news agencies said a court has rejected an appeal by gulag historian Yuri Dmitriyev, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of sexually abusing his daughter.

TASS and RIA Novosti reported that the St. Petersburg appeals court on February 16 dismissed the request by Dmitriyev, who has said the charges brought by prosecutors were based on fabricated evidence.

Dmitriyev, 65, was arrested on child-pornography charges in 2016 based on photographs of his foster daughter that authorities found on his computer.

He said the images were not pornographic and were made at the request of social workers concerned about the child’s physical development.

Last July, he was found guilty, and he was scheduled to be freed in November due to time served.

But a court in the northwestern Karelia region, where Dmitriyev lives, abruptly added a decade to his sentence and ordered him held in a high-security prison.

Dmitriyev's historical work has focused on exposing the victims of the 1937-38 Great Terror, in which nearly 700,000 people were executed.

After the Soviet collapse, he found a mass grave containing thousands of bodies of people held in the Soviet gulag network of slave labor camps.

Memorial, a rights group where Dmitriyev works, has said the accusations against him were groundless.

Based on reporting by TASS and RIA Novosti

MINSK -- Belarusian security forces have searched the homes of more than two dozen journalists and rights activists across the country in what the European Union, the Belarusian opposition, and rights watchdogs called a targeted campaign to intimidate independent voices as the country continues to be gripped by unprecedented protests against longtime leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

At least 25 residences in Minsk and other towns and cities were targeted by police and security-service officers on February 16.

The offices of the Vyasna (Spring) human rights center in Minsk and the the headquarters of the Association of Belarusian Journalists also reported being searched.

Reports said that more than 30 people were briefly detained, while several others were remanded in police custody.

In a statement, the Belarusian authorities said the searches were tied to an investigation into what they said was the financing of protests by "organizations positioning themselves as human rights defenders."

The country's leading opposition figure, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said the raids represented a "crisis" for the government.

"In its attempt to cling to power, the regime is repressing those who are defending human rights. As long as this continues, all Belarusians are in danger," she said in a statement on Telegram. "Belarusians know how to solve this crisis."

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell's spokesman said the Belarusian authorities escalated their "intimidation and assault" campaign against civil society activists, human rights defenders, and journalists in violation of "freedoms and rule of law."

"It's unacceptable. Only respect [for] human rights [and] free [and] fair elections can guarantee stability [and] sovereignty,” the spokesman, Peter Stano, wrote in a tweet.

Torture Allegations

Tens of thousands of Belarusians have taken the streets, almost weekly, since August when Lukashenka claimed reelection in a vote that Tsikhanouskaya and her supporters called fraudulent.

The demonstrators are demanding that Lukashenka leave and new elections be held, but Belarus's strongman has been defiant. Security officials have arrested thousands and forced Tsikhanouskaya and other top opposition figures out of the country.

Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used against some of those detained.

But the vice president of the Association of Belarusian Journalists, Barys Haretski, said the latest wave of police searches was "the largest crackdown ever on journalists and rights activists Europe has ever seen."

"There have been more than 400 detentions of journalists over the last six months, and the authorities aren't going to stop at that," said Haretski, whose home was searched on February 16.

"This is an attempt to intimidate journalists and human rights activists who have been telling the world about the unbelievable scale of repressions," Vyasna deputy head Valyantsin Stefanovich said.

The searches and detentions also drew international condemnation, with the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Dunja Mijatovic, calling them "unacceptable."

Crisis In Belarus

Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.

"Freedoms of expression, association & assembly [should] be ensured according to [international] human rights standards," she tweeted.

In a statement, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE-ODIHR) voiced its "utmost concern" over "what seems to be a concerted effort by the Belarusian authorities to investigate and intimidate" human rights activists in connection with peaceful protests.

Aisha Jung, Amnesty International's senior campaigner on Belarus, denounced a "centrally-organized and targeted attempt to decimate the country's independent media and human rights organizations."

"Having imprisoned or forcibly exiled almost anyone associated with the political opposition in the country, the Belarusian authorities have now set their sights on human rights defenders and journalists," Jung said in a statement.

Tsikhanouskaya ran for president in August after her husband was jailed while trying to mount a candidacy of his own. She left the country for Lithuania shortly after the election due to security concerns.

Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.

Last weekend, he held a two-day "People's Assembly" that was billed as a way to discuss political reforms. His opponents dismissed it as a sham performance.

The United States, European Union, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka's claim of reelection and have slapped him and other senior officials with sanctions in response to the "falsification" of the vote and postelection crackdown.

With reporting by AP

MOSCOW -- Prosecutors have demanded that the Kremlin critic and opposition activist Aleksei Navalny be fined 950,000 rubles ($13,000) for allegedly slandering a World War II veteran.

The demand was made in a Moscow court February 16 during the latest proceedings against Navalny, whose allies have called the trial a politically motivated sham.

Officials accuse Navalny of defaming a war veteran who took part in a Kremlin-organized promotional video. Navalny mocked the people in the video, calling them "corrupt lackeys and traitors."

SEE ALSO:

With Flashlight Protests, Russian Opposition Circumvents Ongoing State Crackdown

World War II veterans are revered by most Russians and criticism of them is generally regarded as socially unacceptable.

The judge in Moscow's Babushkinsky district court did not immediately rule on the prosecutors' demand, and instead adjourned the trial until February 20.

Earlier this month, Navalny was ordered to prison for nearly 3 years after a judge ruled he had violated parole while he was recuperating in Germany from a near-fatal nerve-agent poisoning.

Navalny's appeal of that ruling, in the Moscow City Court, is also scheduled for February 20.

Navalny's jailing, and the judge's prison order, sparked protests across Russia.

Many Western countries have condemned both his jailing and his poisoning, which has been blamed on Russian security agents.

Navalny and his main organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation, have been hit with fines and civil lawsuits in the past, in what appeared to be efforts to bankrupt them and put them out of business.

With reporting by Reuters

Ion Mihai Pacepa, a top Romanian intelligence officer who became the highest-ranking defector from the Soviet bloc when he fled Romania and sought asylum in the United States, has reportedly died after being hospitalized with COVID-19. He was 92.

Ronald Rychlak, Pacepa’s co-author on a 2013 book about disinformation during the Soviet era, told RFE/RL that Pacepa died on February 14 in a hospital in an undisclosed location in the United States.

He said he was notified of the death by Pacepa’s wife on February 14, and he said he had spoken directly with Pacepa the previous day when his health began to worsen.

There has been no official announcement about Pacepa's death.

Pacepa joined the Securitate intelligence agency in 1951 and rose in its ranks. At the time of his defection in 1978, Pacepa was a top general in Romania's much-feared Securitate secret police. He was also an adviser to dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and he held other top security posts in the government.

After being granted political asylum by President Jimmy Carter, Pacepa lived under an assumed identity and government protection, having changed his name and identity twice after it was compromised. Ceausescu reportedly offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture or killing.

In 1987, Pacepa published a memoir called Red Horizons: Chronicles Of A Communist Spy Chief that was then translated into Romanian, and copies were smuggled into Romania.

The following year, the book was serialized and broadcast by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Romanian Service, generating huge interest within Romania.

In December 1989, as Romania was gripped by violent protest, Ceausescu was arrested and put on trial by a military tribunal. Excerpts of Pacepa’s memoir were reportedly read into the record during the trial, which ended with Ceausescu and his wife being executed by firing squad.

“However we look at it and judge it, his book 'Red Horizons' contributed to the unmasking of the 'Great Lie.' After breaking with the dictatorship he had served, he became an irreconcilable opponent of communism,” Vladimir Tismaneanu, a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, wrote in an opinion piece published by RFE/RL’s Romanian Service.

In 2009, Pacepa published a book of confessions called Face To Face, based on a series of interviews by the Romanian journalist Lucia Longin.

In 2013, Pacepa and Rychlak collaborated on a book called Disinformation in which Pacepa detailed how the Soviet KGB and allied intelligence agencies worked to sow disinformation and plant false news stories in the Western news media.

In the book, which is largely written as a first-person narrative, Pacepa said the Soviet Union orchestrated an anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda campaign in the Middle East four decades ago -- and the effects of the effort still reverberate in present-day Islamist terrorism.

"Before I left Romania for good in 1978, [Romania's foreign intelligence service] had sent around 500 such undercover [influence] agents to various Islamic countries. Most of them were religious servants, engineers, medical doctors, teachers, and art instructors," Pacepa told RFE/RL in a rare interview after the book was published.

Pacepa recalled being given Soviet instruction manuals to study, and how those manuals recounted the early beginnings of disinformation campaigns dating back to Tsarist-era Russia.

"Tsarist anti-Semitism spawned the pogroms. Nazi anti-Semitism engendered the Holocaust. Soviet anti-Semitism generated today’s international terrorism," he told RFE/RL.

Years after defecting, Pacepa, a devout Roman Catholic, explained that among the reasons he fled Romania and defected to the West was that Ceausescu had ordered him to assassinate the heads of Radio Free Europe’s Romanian Service.

Pacepa’s marriage to his wife in Romania ended before he defected. He is survived by his second wife and a grown daughter, according to Rychlak.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Romanian Service

The International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA) has confirmed that Iran has told it that the country plans to reduce its cooperation with the UN atomic watchdog's inspectors as of February 23.

The Vienna-based agency said on February 16 that Tehran had informed it the previous day that it would stop implementing "voluntary transparency measures" under the 2015 nuclear agreement with major powers, including the so-called Additional Protocol, which allows IAEA inspectors to visit undeclared sites in Iran at short notice.

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi "has offered to travel to Iran in order to find a mutually agreeable solution for the agency to continue essential verification work," a spokesperson said in Vienna.

Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, announced on February 15 that Tehran had informed the UN agency about its plan.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed punishing sanctions against Iran.

In response, Tehran has gradually breached parts of the pact, saying it was no longer bound by it.

"All these steps are reversible if the other party changes its path and honors its obligations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on February 15, alluding to the United States.

The new U.S. administration of President Joe Biden has expressed a willingness to return to the agreement but has insisted that Iran move to full compliance with the deal first. Tehran has rejected any preconditions and called for the immediate lifting of sanctions.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who said last week that Doha was in consultations to help salvage the agreement, met in Tehran with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on February 15.

The minister also held talks with President Hassan Rohani and delivered a message from the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

"We welcome efforts by friendly countries like Qatar," Khatibzadeh said, confirming that there have been consultations between Tehran and Doha at various levels.

Under the 2015 nuclear accord -- reached by Iran, the United States, China, Russia, Germany, France, and Britain -- Iran agreed to curbs on its uranium-enrichment program in return for the lifting of sanctions. Iran has always denied pursuing nuclear weapons, saying its nuclear program is strictly for civilian purposes.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and dpa

BAKU -- A court in Azerbaijan has rejected a journalist's appeal after he was imprisoned on charges of high treason, which he and rights groups have said were politically motivated.

The Baku Court of Appeal on February 15 upheld a lower court’s decision to convict Polad Aslanov and sentence him to 16 years in prison.

His wife told RFE/RL that the ruling would be appealed in the Supreme Court.

Gulmira Aslanova said that the journalist has been on hunger strike for 15 days in protest of his sentencing, is complaining of kidney and stomach pains, and is not receiving medical care.

Aslanov, the editor of the xeberman.com and press-az.com online news portals, is critical of the authorities in a country where Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says many media outlets have been silenced or have had to relocate abroad, the main independent websites are blocked, and at least two other journalists are currently in prison.

Aslanov was working on a story allegedly implicating members of the State Security Service in extortion when he was arrested in June 2019.

In November 2020, he was convicted on what RSF and the Committee to Protect Journalists called “trumped-up” charges of high treason for allegedly providing information to Iran.

Azerbaijan is ranked 168th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

France's cybersecurity watchdog says it has discovered a hack of French organizations that bore similarities to other attacks by a group linked to Russian intelligence.

In a report released on February 15, the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI) said the hackers had taken advantage of a vulnerability in monitoring software sold by the Paris-based company Centreon.

ANSSI said it discovered intrusions dating back to late 2017 and stretching into 2020.

The watchdog did not identify the names or number of victims involved but said they were mainly “information technology providers, especially web hosting providers."

It also stopped short of identifying the hackers but said they had a similar modus operandi as the Russian cyberespionage group often nicknamed Sandworm and thought to have links with Russian military intelligence.

Centreon's website says the company has more than 600 enterprise clients across the world, including France’s Justice Ministry and blue-chip French companies such as power group EDF, defense group Thales, and oil and gas giant Total.

The announcement comes as U.S. cybersecurity officials are still investigating a massive espionage campaign that hijacked IT monitoring software made by U.S. firm SolarWinds.

U.S. intelligence services have said Russia was likely behind the intrusions discovered in December 2020 in which government and private company networks in the United States and other countries were breached.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that suspected Chinese hackers also targeted SolarWinds customers.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

German prosecutors say they have charged five Tajik men with being members of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, accusing them of preparing acts of violence in Germany by raising funds and recruiting members for attacks.

Federal prosecutors filed the indictment at the Duesseldorf state court on February 15, where an alleged associate of the five, also a Tajik citizen, was handed a 7 year prison sentence.

The suspects now charged were identified only as Farhodshoh K., Muhammadali G., Azizjon B., Sunatullokh K., and Komron B., due to German privacy rules. They were arrested last year.

"The aim of the cell members, who were in contact with IS leaders in Syria and Afghanistan, was to take up the armed struggle against what they saw as 'infidels' and to commit attacks in Germany," the indictment read.

The prosecutors said the network raised funds for IS operations and recruited would-be attackers. They also allegedly acquired components for an “unconventional” bomb.

They also said the five Tajiks trained with paintball games to improve their military skills. Some of the sessions' participants were believed to have had contact with the dual national of Austria and North Macedonia who killed four people in a rampage in Vienna in November 2020.

Azizijon B. is accused of being an IS member since at least March 2017 and of carrying out instructions from high-ranking IS leaders in Afghanistan. He also allegedly recruited members for IS in Germany, leading to the founding of the cell in January 2019.

Farhodshoh K. and Ravsan B. are accused of traveling to Albania in 2019 to carry out a contract killing that was intended to finance IS to the tune of $40,000.

The men had allegedly already begun spying on the intended victim and had planned to circulate pictures of the body on the Internet as IS propaganda.

That killing was called off because doubts arose over the intended victim’s identity.

IS-linked militants have committed several violent attacks in Germany in recent years, including a ramming attack at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP

BELGRADE -- Hundreds of people have gathered in central Belgrade to pay their respects to Serbia’s doctors and nurses killed by COVID-19 and to demand more to be done to protect health-care workers who are at the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Colleagues and families of the deceased medics placed flowers and lit candles at the entrance to the government building on February 15, and read the names of 105 doctors and a number of other health professionals who have died from the coronavirus.

Participants also made several demands of the Serbian government, asking for national pensions for the families of deceased health workers and better working conditions for those fighting COVID-19.

WATCH: Serbian Doctors Demand Pensions For Families Of Deceased Health Workers

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The event was organized by the Union of Doctors and Pharmacists.

More than 4,000 deaths from COVID-19 have been confirmed in Serbia since the beginning of the pandemic.

Doctor Dejan Zujovic, a pulmonologist who has worked in COVID-19 red zones in Belgrade, said poor protective equipment and long working hours were the main reasons for the high death toll among doctors in Serbia.

"People do not go on holidays, they are exhausted and their immunity suffers," he said.

Media have reported that only one doctor died from COVID-19 in neighboring Croatia, 24 in Albania, and 23 in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Serbian government officials have said they would investigate the deaths of medical workers in the country, but critics say little has been done so far.

With reporting by Reuters

The Moscow-based Novaya gazeta newspaper on February 15 published official documents it says prove that many of the people allegedly killed in extrajudicial executions in Chechnya in 2017 had been detained by local police.

Novaya gazeta reported in 2017 that 27 detained individuals had been summarily executed in late January that year.

Chechen authorities have denied the individuals in question had ever been arrested, while the Investigative Committee rejected Novaya gazeta's request to launch an investigation into the allegations.

The North Caucasus region of Chechnya is controlled by Kremlin-installed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. Its security forces have been accused of gross human rights abuses for many years, including abductions, torture, and killings.

Citing documents Novaya gazeta said were obtained from the Chechen Interior Ministry, the newspaper reported on February 15 that the 27 were detained during a special operation following an attack against police officers in Grozny in December 2016.

In April 2017, Novaya gazeta officially handed to the Investigative Committee the list of the 27 people and an additional three men who, according to the newspaper, were also killed by the Chechen police during a campaign against gays in February 2017 in the region.

Investigators only confirmed that four men from the list had died, and two other men were announced as being alive.

However, Novaya gazeta said in its latest investigative report that the two in fact were brothers of two executed men identified as Mokhma Muskiyev and Shamkhan Yusupov.

The report also alleged that several men detained in Chechnya in January 2017 were pressured by local law enforcement to "take an oath of loyalty to the Islamic State [extremist group]" in front of cameras and then forced to denounce the extremist group.

The newspaper suggested that the videos were later used to declare the men as terrorists.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied Turkish media reports alleging that an Iranian citizen recently arrested in Turkey is a consulate employee linked to the 2019 murder of an Iranian dissident in Istanbul.

"What has happened is the arrest of an Iranian national upon entry," ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters on February 15, adding that Tehran was in contact with Turkish officials regarding the matter.

Khatibzadeh did not provide more details.

Last week, Turkey's pro-government Sabah newspaper reported that a man identified as Mohammad Reza Naserzadeh was arrested on suspicion of planning the killing of Masud Molavi Vardanjani, a critic of Iran's political and military leadership.

Reuters confirmed that Naserzadeh had been held over Vardanjani’s killing, but the news agency said it could not confirm Sabah’s allegation that the suspect worked at the civic registry department of the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul.

Vardanjani, a former Iranian intelligence operative who exposed corruption involving Iranian officials, was shot and killed in Istanbul on November 14, 2019 -- a year after leaving Iran. He had been put under investigation by Iranian authorities.

A Turkish police report published in March 2020 said Vardanjani had worked in cybersecurity at Iran’s Defense Ministry before becoming a vocal critic of the Iranian regime.

Two senior Turkish officials told Reuters last year that Vardanjani's killing was instigated by intelligence officials at the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul. One of the officials identified the two suspects by their initials, and one set of initials matched Naserzadeh's.

A senior U.S. administration official said in April 2020 that Washington had grounds to believe that Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security was directly involved in Vardanjani’s killing.

Iran has denied that any consulate staff had been involved in Vardanjani's shooting death.

Last week, a Belgian court sentenced an Iranian diplomat to 20 years in prison on charges of planning an attack on an exiled opposition group.

It was the first trial of an Iranian official on terrorism charges in Europe since Iran's 1979 revolution.

With reporting by IRNA, AFP and Reuters

The European Union's executive arm is urging Hungary to allow a liberal-leaning radio station to continue broadcasting after it was forced off the air on February 15 following a refusal by the authorities to extend its broadcast license.

European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said that the commission sent a letter to Hungary's permanent representation in Brussels last week to express concerns over Klubradio, the country’s last independent news radio station.

The commission asked Budapest to take urgent action to ensure that Klubradio can continue using its frequency until final decisions become legally binding, said Wigand, who warned of “irreparable damage” to the radio station.

He said the station’s loss of its license occurred “on the basis of highly questionable legal grounds,” and that Hungary “should respect the EU’s charter of fundamental rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, information, and the freedom to conduct a business.”

The spokesman said Hungary had not yet sent an official answer to the commission's letter.

Klubradio's content is often critical of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government.

In September 2020, Hungary's National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) refused to extend Klubradio's seven-year operating license, saying the station "repeatedly infringed" on the compulsory registration law by twice submitting documents late.

Such violations usually incur fines and the NMHH's announcement raised new concerns about political pressure from the government on the media in the EU member state, which is ranked 89th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders's 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

Last week, Klubradio's appeal at a Budapest court to force the NMHH to issue a temporary broadcasting license was turned down, taking it off the airwaves when its license expired on February 15, though the radio station continues its programming online.

Klubradio President Andras Arato has said the company planned to appeal the court ruling to Hungary’s Supreme Court.

The suspension has drawn international condemnation, with the European Union and media watchdogs calling the move a further attack on media pluralism in the EU member state.

The NMHH has rejected accusations of political bias, while a Hungarian government spokesman said Klubradio's management was to blame for the station's demise "by flagrantly disregarding broadcasting regulations.”

Hungary is under EU investigation for undermining the independence of the judiciary, media, and nongovernmental organizations, and Wigand suggested that further action could be taken against the country if the commission finds that Klubradio was silenced unlawfully.

"We are concerned about the situation, and we are looking into this -- into possible implications under union law," the spokesman told an online press conference in Brussels.

"We are looking into these legal possibilities," he added.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and RFE/RL’s Hungarian Service

SOFIA -- Bulgarian prosecutors want to question a prominent Sofia businessman who fled the country after helping to reveal a fraud scheme allegedly involving prosecutors in the capital, Sofia.

The move against Iliya Zlatanov appears to be part of a related criminal investigation, and is the latest chapter in the scandal that erupted last year with the release of a documentary called The Eight Dwarves. The scandal has highlighted Bulgaria's continuing problem with corruption and organized crime.

The film alleged that the Sofia Prosecutor-General’s Office and other official entities were involved in a scheme to defraud Zlatanov and take control of the country’s biggest elevator manufacturer, which Zlatanov was the majority shareholder of.

The elevator manufacturer was seen as a prime target by shady business interests because of government efforts to rebuild and repair much of the country’s aging housing stock, which dates back to the communist era.

The European Union is helping to fund that effort, part of which would include upgrading elevators in thousands of multistory apartment blocks.

In the film, Zlatanov accused the former head of the Sofia prosecutors’ investigative unit, Petyo Petrov, his wife, and special prosecutor Dimitar Petrov (no relation to Petyo) of a number of crimes related to the takeover of Zlatanov’s company, called Izamet.

Among other things, they allegedly threatened that if Zlatanov refused to turn over his shares in the company, his son, who suffers from a kidney ailment, could be deprived of medical hemodialysis treatment.

The film caused an uproar in Bulgarian politics; the reporter and anti-corruption activist who spearheaded the film, Nikolay Staykov, has received dozens of death threats and has gone into hiding.

Last week, however, Sofia investigators visited Zlatanov’s daughter’s house, as part of an investigation into alleged forgery involving a former employee of the elevator manufacturer.

Speaking in an interview with RFE/RL’s Bulgarian Service on February 15, Zlatanov said prosecutors want to question him as a witness as part of a criminal investigation against a company accountant who, they allege, falsified his signature on a company document.

However, Zlatanov, who spoke to RFE/RL from an undisclosed location, said he personally signed the document in question. He said it appeared the move was an attempt to pressure him. He said he feared for his personal safety if he were to return to Bulgaria and submit to questioning.

"Instead of gathering evidence, the prosecutor issued a decree on February 4 ordering [Sofia police] to determine Zlatanov's address. In the course of this procedure, my client found himself in the search system,” Zlatanov’s lawyer Greta Ganeva told RFE/RL.

The Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office did not respond to queries from RFE/RL seeking comment.

The name of the film, The Eight Dwarves, refers to a well-known Sofia restaurant where prosecutors and lawyers, and crime bosses, were known to meet regularly.

The UN’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran has expressed concern over reports that the country has subjected lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) children to “torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”

In a report released last week, Javaid Rehman said such practices, which violate Iran’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, reportedly include “electric shocks and the administration of hormones and strong psychoactive medications.”

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Rehman said that members of Iran’s LGBT community “are often advised that their gender nonconformity or same-sex attraction represents so-called gender identity disorder, which necessitates ‘reparative’ therapies or sex reassignment surgeries, to ‘cure’ them.”

The report quoted the Iranian government as claiming that “there were no restrictions on medical services and that any treatment was administered with consent.”

Iranian officials have not yet commented on the report, which is to be discussed during the 46th session of the Human Rights Council from February 22 to March 19.

Gays and lesbians are forced to hide their sexual orientation in Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death.

According to the U.S. State Department’s 2019 Country Report on human rights practices, Iranian security forces have harassed, arrested, and detained individuals they suspected of being members of the LGBT community.

In some cases, security forces raided houses and monitored Internet sites for information on LGBT persons, the report said.

A Romanian sculptor has been charged with fraud after his much-derided sculpture of the Emperor Trajan -- and 10 other works -- turned out to be made of brass and not bronze as originally claimed.

Ioan Bolborea, 65, who made the sculptures for the Bucharest municipality, is accused of defrauding local authorities of 3.7 million euros ($4.5 million), a police spokesman said on February 15.

One of the statues, a portrayal of a naked Roman emperor Trajan holding a she-wolf in his arms, was widely ridiculed after its installation outside the National History Museum in Bucharest in 2012.

The artwork, based on a model by late sculptor Vasile Gorduz, symbolizes the genesis of the Romanian people from the merging of the Romans and the Dacians, with the wolf as a symbolic animal for both people. The Dacian standard ensign known as the Dacian Draco also depicts a dragon with a wolf's head.

After it was unveiled, the statue’s design prompted a wave of both mockery and indignation by Romanians. Online critics quipped it was a monument to Bucharest's stray dogs. The museum's curators said it was of "doubtful artistic quality."

Suspicions about the materials used in the sculpture first surfaced in 2017 when the statue was vandalized and the tail of the she-wolf was broken.

During restoration work, experts noticed that the statue was made of brass, not bronze as it was originally supposed to be.

Bolborea refused to comment on the charges.

The investigation originated in a series of complaints from the Bucharest municipality regarding Bolborea's works, which at the time he rejected as "nonsense."

Bolborea's sculptures are placed in several central spots in downtown Bucharest, including a massive sculpture titled A Cartful Of Clowns, located outside the National Theater.

With reporting by AFP, protv.ro, and g4media.ro