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The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the continuing detention incommunicado and judicial harassment faced by Mr. Mohamed Issa Al Tajer, a prominent human rights lawyer.

New Information:

The United States has violated Egypt’s sovereignty by offering funding to Egyptian civil institutions, organizations and associations without properly consulting the government, said Egyptian Minister of Solidarity and Social Justice Gouda Abdel Khaliq on Wednesday.

In a press statement, Abdel Khaliq said that his ministry has managed to track the flow of US funds to Egyptian groups in violation of Egyptian law.

Amid a large presence of campaigners affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, thousands of voters streamed to the polls Saturday in Giza to vote on proposed amendments to the 1971 Constitution, marking rare fair elections in Egypt’s political history.

The Brotherhood, according to eyewitnesses, called for imams to speak in front of the polling stations about the benefits of voting “yes”.

In this pre electoral period in DRC, many journalists and newspapers are threathened by National Intelligence Agents who want to silence them and don't want that medias speak or write on politics issues.

Deux journalistes de Umurabyo accusées de diffamation, de divionisme et d'idéologie du genocide, aussi d'inciter le public à la desobéissance se sont présentées devant le tribunal. Le procureur demande à la cour une pine d'emoprisonnement de 33 ans.

According to the Belarus Helsinki Committee, at approximately 3:15 a.m. on 20 December, government personnel arrested ten members of the Viasna Human Rights Center in central Minsk, detaining lawyers - including Valentin Stefanovich and Vladimir Labkovich - who were in the process of analysing data from 600 election observers from across the country. The previous night, the Chairman of Belarus Helsinki Committee, Aleh Hulak, was also arrested and detained by security personnel during a post-election demonstration in Nezavisimosti Square.

The past few months have been marred by growing intolerance towards dissenters, which began in the run up to the October elections and continues in the post election phase.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A jailed Kazakh human rights activist says authorities are pressuring him, his wife, and his lawyer at the minimum-security labor camp in eastern Kazakhstan where he is serving a jail sentence, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

Yevgeny Zhovtis, head of the Almaty-based Kazakh Bureau for Human Rights, today issued a statement saying that the labor camp administration is trying to isolate him from the outside world.

The space for civil society to freely express, associate and assemble remains constrained in Swaziland.  Statements in the press on 19 October by Swazi Prime Minister Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini outlined his intentions to propose legislation to force columnists to request prior permission before publishing comments that criticise the government. The Prime Minister stated that columnists write pieces that are harmful to the image of the country and that they receive compensation from foreign sources with interests in Swaziland.

On 27 October the newspaper Uralskaya Nedelya (Ural Week) received the collection order for the amount of 20 million tenge, the equivalent of $133,500 to the Tengizneftestroi Oil Company. Journalist Luqpan Akhmedyarov was found guilty of libel and obliged to pay for his article about an allegedly rigged tender won by Tengizneftestroi. The trial was biased. The sentence was unfair.