The Russian invasion of #Ukraine has squeezed some toothpaste out of the tube that can never be put back in.
The next time some politician wants to outlaw #BDS, regarding the Israeli apartheid in Israel, remind him of the invasion of Lebanon, the bombing of Gaza infrastructure,
and the shootings of unarmed #Palestinian protesters.
Apartheid was wrong in South Africa; the boycott was right. The occupation is wrong in Palestine; #BDS is not.
The invasion, bombardment and occupation of Ukraine is wrong. The fastest, most universal, and perhaps most all
encompassing, boycott, divestment and sanctions ever enacted have been levied on #Russia in the last week. If #BDS is justifiable against Russia, it is against Israel as well.
@Genproc@RusEmbUSA Zarema Musaeva was abducted on January 20, from her home in Nizhnii Novgorod by men who were later confirmed to be Chechen officials. At least seven men came to her apartment and forcibly took her away under a false pretext that she needed to testify as a
witness in a criminal case. A video captured by CCTV cameras has since been published, which shows her being taken into a snowy street wearing no winter coat and no shoes. The men forced her into a car and drove away. On January 21, 2022, Chechen authorities reported that Zarema
Musaeva was serving 15 days of administrative detention for “petty hooliganism”. She suffers from diabetes and requires medications and specialist healthcare, which should preclude her administrative detention under Russian law. She has been held incommunicado and her lawyers
@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.