@prayutofficial Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul is a promising university student, who like many other young people, has been peacefully protesting as part of Thailand’s democracy movement. Over time, this shy amateur violinist has become a protest leader for constitutional
and social reform.
Rung was arrested, in March 2021, under a law outlawing criticism of the monarchy. She was imprisoned for 60 days, during which she was diagnosed with COVID19. She was denied bail six times. In defiance, she went on a 38 day hunger strike. She was
released April 30, 2021.
Rung faces dozens of charges and, if found guilty, life imprisonment. She is guilty of nothing more than exercising her rights to freedom of expression and assembly. All charges against Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul should be dropped.
@SecBlinken Ciham Ali, a US citizen born in Los Angeles and raised in #Eritrea, has been missing since December 8, 2012. Ciham was arrested at the Sudan border as she tried to flee Eritrea. The teenager, who dreamed of becoming a fashion designer, was 15 at the time. Her arrest
appears to be in retaliation against her father’s suspected involvement in a coup attempt on the Eritrean government.
Nine years on, and no one knows where Ciham Ali is being held. #Eritrea is notorious for imprisoning people in underground containers where they where they
suffer extreme cold and heat. There are reports of many people dying from torture, starvation, infection and other appalling treatment in these jails. While other children her age might have headed to college, Ciham Ali has been suffering unknown horrors.
@AlsisiOfficial Mohamed Baker is a human rights lawyer. He is in prison for defending some of the most marginalized people in Egypt. In September 2019, he went to the prosecutor’s office to defend his friend and was himself arrested. Authorities never put him on trial. Instead,
they made false, terrorism-related accusations against him and threw him in jail – all because they disagreed with his work as head of the Adalah Center for Rights and Freedoms, which supports human rights and those unjustly jailed. Baker was never put on trial. Instead he
remains in prison, where authorities are confining him to his cell around the clock and refusing him a bed, mattress, books, newspapers – even family photos.
Defending people’s freedoms should not cost him his own. Mohamed Baker should be released immediately and
@EgyptEmbassyUSA@MotazZahran Hoda Abdelmoniem has been arbitrarily detained for over three years, related to her human rights work. On November 1, 2018, National Security Agency forces broke into her house in Cairo, at 1:30 am, ransacked it, and took her away blindfolded. She
was disappeared for three weeks after her arrest until she was brought to the Supreme State Security Prosecution for investigation. After she spent 35 months in pre-trial detention, she was charged with joining, financing, and supporting a “terrorist group” and disseminating
news on social media accusing the security forces of human rights violations through a Facebook page in order to incite violence against state institutions. These charges are linked to her work with the Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms, which documents enforced
Mikita Zalatarou, a now 17 year-old. Mikita was waiting for a friend on the street in Homel when he was swept into a crowd of protesters on August 10, 2020. The following day – August 11– police officers came to Mikita’s door. They arrested him, beating and accusing him of
throwing a Molotov cocktail towards two officers the night before. While holding him in custody, they beat him with an electric shock truncheon. Officers interrogated him without a lawyer or responsible adult present, and locked him up for six months before putting him on trial.
Mikita was convicted of mass disorder and using illegal explosives, yet video evidence did not show him taking part in violence. Media reports on the demonstrations mentioned no mass unrest. Still, the judge sentenced Mikita to five years in a child educational prison colony.
@Iran_UN@TakhtRavanchi Two students, Ali Younesi, aged 21, and Amirhossein Moradi, aged 22, are arbitrarily detained in section 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison. Following their arrest in April 2020, they were held in solitary confinement for 60 days in violation of the absolute
prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment. Ali Younesi revealed to his family that he had been denied adequate healthcare for injuries to his left eye sustained during beatings by Military of Intelligence agents and that lights in his cell were turned on 24 hours a day,
which left him with no sense of day or night. Amirhossein Moradi also reported being beaten harshly during his arrest.
Ministry of Intelligence agents repeatedly interrogated these two university students, without their lawyers present and forced them to make “confessions,” in
@DiazCanelB@EmbaCubaUS@lianystr Hundreds of people remain detained for peacefully protesting in Cuba, including during the mass demonstrations on July 11, 2021. The cases of prisoners of conscience Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, José Daniel Ferrer García, Esteban Rodríguez,
and Maykel Castillo Pérez represent only a tiny fraction of the total number of people who are detained solely because of their political, religious, or other beliefs without having used or advocated violence.
All prisoners of conscience must be immediately and unconditionally
released. Activists, independent journalists, and human rights defenders must be free to do their jobs, without being subjected to surveillance or arrest.