Kenya’s NGO Coordination Board threatened to arrest George Kegoro, Executive Director of Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), Gladwell Otieno, Executive Director of African Center for Open Governance (AfriCOG) and Maina Kiai, former UN Special Rapporteur and a member of AfriCOG’s Board of Directors on 16 August.
Former prisoner of conscience, Nguyễn Bắc Truyển was last seen on 30 July 2017 after dropping off his wife outside her place of work in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.
Menchi Barriocanal and Oscar Acosta, Paraguayan journalists and married couple who were threatened with imprisonment by President Horacio Cartes, have stopped received threats and seem to be out of immediate danger of being arbitrarily detained.
Investigative journalist Tomasz Piątek is facing criminal charges for a book he published in June, alleging a link between the Defence Minister and the Russian intelligence services. If found guilty he could face up to 3 years in prison.
On 17 August, four-year-old Carlos and 16-year-old Michael along with their mothers, Lorena and Maribel (all names changed to protect their identities), were ordered released from Berks County Residential Center in Pennsylvania by an immigration judge after nearly 700 days in detention.
Dissident Iranian cleric Seyed Hossein Kazemeini Boroujerdi has faced continued intimidation and death threats by the Iranian authorities since his release from prison on
4 January.
Iranian prisoner of conscience and human rights defender Arash Sadeghi is critically ill and requires immediate hospitalization outside of prison. However, the authorities are refusing to authorize the transfer, apparently on the orders of the Revolutionary Guards.
Huang Qi, founder of “64 Tianwang” (64tianwang.org), who has been detained since November 2016, was ill-treated by police officers in the detention centre and it is unclear if he has received adequate medical treatment.
Ihar Hershankou and Siamion Berazhnoy were convicted and sentenced to death by the Mahiliou Regional Court, in eastern Belarus, on 21 July 2017. Theirs are the second and third death sentences imposed in Belarus in 2017.
Raúl Isaías Baduel was unexpectedly taken from his cell at Ramo Verde National Military Detention Centre, Caracas, at dawn on 8 August 2017. There has been no information regarding his whereabouts since.