Endangered Scholars Worldwide
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The reader will encounter a few changes in the current quarterly report. The information provided for continuing cases has been reduced to a basic description of charges and potential or actual reported sentences. Our website, which is being continually expanded and updated, includes more details about each case and the ways in which readers can be involved in calling for the freedom of endangered scholars and students. Please visit us at www.endangeredscholarsworldwide.net or follow us at https://www.facebook.com/endangeredscholars.
If you are aware of a scholar or student whose case you believe we should investigate, please contact us at esw@newschool.edu.
The information in this report is current, to the best of our knowledge, as of December 15, 2015.
bahrain
Continuing Cases
Scholars and Researchers who remain in prison are mahdi ‘issa mahdi abu dheeb, former president of the Bahrain Teachers’ Association, sentenced to five years of imprisonment in 2012 on charges of and “attempting to overthrow and change the regime by force,” and abdul-jalil al-singace, head of the department of engineering at the University of Bahrain, sentenced to life in prison by the military National Safety Court on charges of “plotting to topple the government” in 2011. al-singace is currently undertaking a hunger strike in protest of the alleged degrading and ill treatment of prisoners of conscience. [End Page v]
Students who remain in prison are ahmad hassan ali mshaima’, arrested in December 2013, and charged on April 16, 2014, with “illegal gathering with an intent to commit crimes and disturb public security”; ahmed al arab, a nursing student, arrested in January 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment; and ahmed aoun, arrested in May 2015 on charges of “involvement in pro-democracy demonstrations.”
Please send appeals to:
His Majesty Sheikh Hamad bin Isa
Al-Khalifa
Office of His Majesty the King
+The Amiri Court
P.O. Box 555
Rifa’a Palace
Al-Manama
Kingdom of Bahrain
Fax: +973 176 64 587
Website: http://www.mofa.gov.bh/
Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al-Khalifa
Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs
Diplomatic Area
P.O Box # 450
Al-Manama
Kingdom of Bahrain
Fax: +973 175 13 333
Dr. Fatima Al-Balooshi
Minister of Human Rights and Social
Development, Acting Minister of Health
Ministry of Human Rights and Development
Manama
Kingdom of Bahrain
Tel: +973 176 82 422
Email: fatima.albalooshi@social.gov.bh /
dr.albalooshi@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fatima.albalooshi.3
burma
New Cases
Students: In March 2015, the All Burma Federation Student Union (ABFSU) organized a student protest in Letpadan against the newly adopted National Education Law, which restrains academic freedom. The protests resulted in the arrest of some 70 student activists. ko nanda sitt aung, an ABFSU leader, was declared a fugitive until he was arrested in Yangon for his role in the Letpadan protests. He faces five criminal charges, including sedition and unlawful assembly, and risks [End Page vi] more than 10 years in prison. phyo phyo aung, the secretary general of ABFSU, and po po, an ABFSU member, were arrested on 10 March 2015 in Letpadan and face similar charges of unlawful assembly, rioting, and inciting the public. kyaw ko ko was not present Letpadan but led a similar protest in Rangoon on the same day, where he was apprehended by police after seven months in hiding. lin htet naing, a prominent student unionist, was detained in November 2015 after eight months in hiding. Others arrested during the Letpadan protest in March include aung hmein san, myo myat san, phyo dana, soe hlaing, and sithu myat, who declared a hunger strike in prison in October and November 2015, for which some have been beaten and tortured.
china
New Cases
qiao mu, an associate professor of journalism at Bejing Foreign Studies University, has been banned from teaching for political reasons since the summer of 2014.
Continuing Cases
Scholars and Researchers who remain in prison are chen taihe, a law professor at Guilin University, arrested in July 2015 on charges of “provoking a serious disturbance; xu zhiyong, sentenced in July 2015 to four years in prison for “gathering a crowd to disturb...
