Today is Ali Mohammed Mostafa’s 55th birthday, a father of three who has been forcibly disappeared for nearly four years, and his family still has no information about his fate or whereabouts.

Bills to reintroduce the death penalty in the Philippines are pending before the Senate, which resumed session on 2 May 2017.

Lahpai Gam has been discharged from hospital following some improvements to his health.

Three political opposition activists, Mohamed Hassan El Bushi, Amin Saad and Motaz Al Ajail, were released without charge on 25 and 30 April.

Chadian activist Dingamnayal Nely Versinis has been released. Fellow activists Nadjo Kaina Palmer and Bertrand Sollo, detained at Amsinene prison, are on trial for their role in calling for peaceful protests.

Dutch-Iranian national Sabri Hassanpour, who has been detained in Tehran’s Evin prison since his arrest on 19 April 2016, is being denied urgently needed open heart surgery by the Iranian authorities.

Kenneth Williams was executed in Arkansas on 27 April for a murder committed during a prison escape in 1999.

The civil society organization Bolivian Documentation and Information Centre (CEDIB) reports being harassed, threatened, and evicted from its premises in Cochabamba, central Bolivia.

Research student Siti Noor Aishah has been sentenced by the Kuala Lumpur High Court to five years in prison for possessing 12 books deemed ‘illegal’ by the Malaysian government.

Iranian filmmaker Keywan Karimi was released from Tehran’s Evin prison on 19 April 2017. He had been imprisoned since 23 November 2016. Keywan Karimi was a prisoner of conscience.