Endangered Scholars Worldwide

Endangered Scholars Worldwide Social Research wasfounded by a group ofscholars known as the University in Exile, refugeesfrom Nazi Europe who found a home at the New School. In each issue we publish the names and details ofscholars, researchers, and students who have been threatened or imprisoned, along with ways to offer them support. We see this effort as consistent not only with our own history as ajournal but with the need to call attention to the increasing and often brutal attempts to silence our colleagues around the world. Ifyou are aware of a scholar or student whose case you believe we should investigate, please contact us at socres@newschool.edu. SCHOLARS AND RESEARCHERS: NEW AND CONTINUING CASES BA H R A IN A Bahraini court upheld the life sentence of previously featured scholar d r . a b d u l -ja l il a l-s in g a c e , professor of engineering at the University of Bahrain, at a High Court o f Appeals hearing on September 2, 2012. He was originally sentenced to life im prisonm ent on June 22, 2011, on charges of training and financing a terrorist organization and was reportedly tortured during his pretrial detention. In August 2012, Dr. al-Singace was am ong a group of im prisoned activists who signed an open letter to prison authorities protesting several violations and restrictions placed on prisoners, including limitations on calls to family and lawyers, access to newspapers, and access to exercise in fresh air. The letter states that the protests will include a hunger strike. Information current, to the best of our knowledge, as of September 12, 2012. Additional information and more current information about many of these cases may be available on our website at . Endangered Scholars Worldwide v Other previously featured scholars from Bahrain who rem ain in prison include ja l il a al-s a l m a n and m a h d i ‘is s a m a h d i a b u d h e e b , both board members of the Bahrain Teachers’Association, sentenced to three and ten years, respectively, on charges of “inciting hatred against the regim e” and “calling to overthrow and change the regime by force” following the group’s call for a teacher strike in March 2011; and r u l a a l-s a f f e r , assistant professor at the College of Health Sciences and the head of the Bahrain Nursing Society, sentenced on September 29,2011, to 15 years in prison. Appeals to: His Majesty Sheikh Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa Office of His Majesty the King P.O. Box 555 Rifa’a Palace Kingdom of Bahrain Fax: +973176 64 587 Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al-Khalifa Ministry ofJustice and Islamic Affairs P.O. Box 450 Al-Manama Bahrain Fax: +973175 31 284 CHINA Scholars featured in previous issues who rem ain in prison in China include w riter and editor t a s h i r a b t e n (pen name Te’urang), sentenced to four years’im prisonm ent on June 2,2011, for his critical political w rit­ ings; l iu x ia o b o , a hum an rights activist and 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, held in an undisclosed location in Beijing since his arrest in December 2008 for “inciting subversion of state power”; and g u o QUAN, a former literature professor at Nanjing Normal University, sentenced to ten years in prison and three years of deprivation of political rights in October 2009 on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” Dr. Fatima Al-Balushi Minister of Human Rights and Social Development, Acting Minister of Health Ministry of Human Rights and Development Manama Kingdom of Bahrain vi social research Mr. Wang Shengjun President, Supreme People’s Court No. 27 Dongjiaominxiang Dongcheng District Beijing 100745 People’s Republic of China Fax: +86 10 65292345 (c/o Ministry of Communication) Salutation: Dear President Facebook group in support of Liu Xiaobo: IRAN a r z h a n g d a v o o d i , a cu rren tly im prisoned poet, teacher, and cofounder of the pro-Western...