Follow-up

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has pardoned former journalist Ahmed Ghous Zalmai, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in September 2008 for publishing a translation of the Koran into Dari (the Persian dialect spoken in Afghanistan), according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Issued a few days ahead of the Persian New Year festival of Nawruz, the pardon also affects Mohammad Ateef Noori...

The conviction on Saturday of four men, including three members of the military police, in the 2007 murder of Brazilian journalist Luiz Carlos Barbon Filho is an important step forward in the global campaign to combat impunity in journalists’ murders, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. A court in Sao Paulo sentenced Captain Adelcio Carlos Avelino, Sergeant Edson Luiz Ronceiro...

Azerbaijani editor Genimet Zakhidov, who served more than half of a four-year term on fabricated “hooliganism” charges, was released from prison on Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. “We're relieved Azerbaijani officials released our colleague Genimet Zakhidov, who served 28 long months in prison in retaliation for his critical journalism,” CPJ Europe and Central...

A Tashkent appeal court Wednesday upheld photographer and documentary filmmaker Umida Akhmedova’s conviction on charges of slandering and insulting the Uzbek people, according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Her lawyer, Sergei Mayorov, tried without success for three hours to convince the court that her conviction by a lower court on February 10 was illegal. They said after the hearing that...

The Ingush supreme court has ordered the release of the policeman who fatally shot Magomed Yevloyev, the owner of the Ingushetiya.ru news website, on August 31, 2008, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. By reducing the gravity of the charge on which Ibragim Yevloyev (no relation) was convicted, the court was able to commute his two-year jail sentence to two years of “supervised residence...

Hanevy Ould Dehah, the editor of the website Taqadoumy, was finally freed Friday along with around 100 ordinary offenders under a presidential pardon issued in honour of Mawlid (the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday), according to Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). Dehah’s lawyer, Brahim Ould Ebety, said his client had become an embarrassment for the government. He thanked all those who fought for Dehah’s...

One month after the disappearance of her husband Prageeth Eknelygoda, the journalist’s wife, Sandhya Eknelygoda , has said that she has not been able to get police or other government officials to actively investigate the case. “I have written to the president and have not gotten a response,” Eknelygoda told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Our children want their father back, and we...

Aylin Duruoglu, editor the Vatan newspaper’s website, Gazetevatan.com, was granted a conditional release by an Istanbul court on February 23, 10 months after her arrest on April 27 for alleged links to a clandestine armed group called Devrimci Karargah (Revolutionary Headquarters), Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Nine other people who were arrested in the same operation, including...

Newspaper journalist Maan Aqil was released from prison Tuesday after the authorities held him for three months without ever charging him, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. The national criminal investigations department still has not said why it arrested Aqil at his place of work on November 22. A reporter with the government daily Al-Thawra, he had written articles denouncing...

A man believed to have gunned down Venezuelan journalist Orel Sambrano in 2009 in reprisal for his reporting on drug trafficking was arrested on Sunday, the local press reported. Venezuelan investigative police, known as CIPC, arrested former police officer David Antonio Yánez Inciarte during a police drug raid in the city of Moron, department of Carabobo, according to local press reports. Yánez...