Avera Mangistu and Hisham al-Sayed have been missing respectively since 7 September 2014 and 20 April 2015 in the Gaza Strip. The two Israeli civilians suffer from serious mental health conditions.

Labour and land rights activist Trần Thị Nga was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment on 25 July 2017 for “conducting propaganda” against the state under Article 88 of the Penal Code.

Independent Azerbaijani journalist Aziz Orujov has been held in detention on fabricated charges since 2 May. He is being kept in inhumane conditions. On 23 July he fainted as a result of the sweltering heat in the prison cell.

Bahraini activist Yaser Mawali has been on trial before the Lower Court in Manama, the capital, since 7 June charged with “insulting the King” for two posts he had retweeted. He has been detained since 29 May and his next hearing is scheduled for 16 August.

Two activists, Ding Yajun and Shi Tingfu, have been formally charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for commemorating the 28th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.

University professor Dr Salem Mohamed Beitelmal was released on 6 June. He had been abducted by local militias on the outskirts of Tripoli since 20 April. He has now returned home and joined his family.

Ronald Phillips was executed in Ohio on the morning of 26 July for a murder committed in 1993 when he was 19 years old. This was the first execution in Ohio since January 2014.

The families of 15 Saudi Arabian men sentenced to death learned on 23 July that the Court of Appeal had upheld their sentences. The 15 men are accused of spying for Iran and were sentenced after a grossly unfair mass trial.

Human rights defender Maurice Fangnon was detained at the Nigerian Police Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department in Abuja accused of providing police with false information that a member of a powerful royal family was responsible for arson, murder and forced evictions of residents of the Otodo-Gbame community.