Ethiopia: On July 7, 2017, Chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), Dr. Merera Gudina, will appear in court for a scheduled hearing. Dr. Gudina has been detained since December 2016 for violating Ethiopia’s six-month state of emergency by associating with exiled opposition leaders at the European Parliament’s human rights hearing last fall. Since the…
Venezuela: On May 23, 2017, Venezuelan activist, Antonietta Ledezma, spoke at the Oslo Freedom Forum, a global human rights conference, where she advocated for the release of all Venezuelan political prisoners. Ledezma explained that Venezuela is “going through the cruelest dictatorship of [its] history,” and has witnessed a complete “criminalization of politics.” Ledezma is one…
CUBA: On January 21, 2017, artist Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado was released from El Combinado del Este prison after enduring psychological and physical torture during his 55 days of detainment. Cuban authorities arrested El Sexto after he graffitied “se fue” (he’s gone) on a public wall in reference to the passing of former Cuban President…
BAHRAIN: Nabeel Rajab’s trial has been postponed again to September 5. He is currently awaiting trial for charges in relation to his twitter posts in which he spoke out against the use of torture in Bahrain’s prisons. Others from his organization, Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, have had travel bans imposed on them by the…