· August, 2010

Stories about Legal Threats from August, 2010

A legal case against Nokia Siemens Networks

  31 August 2010

Saharkhiz believes that intelligence offices tracked his location through his limited cell phone usage and arrested him. So he and his son, Mehdi have filed a lawsuit in a U.S. Federal Court against Nokia Siemens Network that sold communications intercept technology to Iran which, according to him, was subsequently used by the government to monitor opposition activists.

Iran: Jailed blogger Goudarzi receives NPC award

  27 August 2010

The National Press Club has announced the international recipient of the 2010 John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award is Iranian blogger Kouhyar Goudarzi, who is being held in Tehran's Evin Prison–notorious for its torture of detainees.

Iran: Blogger May Face Charge of ‘Waging War Against God’

  25 August 2010

There is a growing concern that Shiva Nazar Ahari, a jailed human rights activist, blogger, and editor of the Committee of Human Rights Reporters website in Iran, may be charged with moharbeh (waging war against God/enmity against God) in an upcoming trial. In Iran, this can carry a death sentence....

Azerbaijan: Supreme Court Upholds Bloggers’ Conviction

  20 August 2010

On 19 August, the Azerbaijani Supreme Court considered the case of imprisoned bloggers and youth activists Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade. In its decision, the Court upheld the lower courts' rulings, which convicted Milli and Hajizade of hooliganism and sentenced them to two and a half years and two years of imprisonment respectively. The two were arrested on 8 July 2009 after appealing to police as victims of an assault following an incident in which they were attacked in a restaurant.

Online dictatorship in the Islamic Republic of Iran

  18 August 2010

Since the post-presidential election of 2009, the Islamic republic of Iran has intensified its crackdown on media including bloggers and even micro-blogging environments like Facebook and twitter. Although the crackdown on media has been a common practice in the Islamic republic, this time, the gravity of the situation is far...

Russia: Anothr Kemerovo Blogger Sued For Libelling

  12 August 2010

A criminal case has been started against Kemerovo-based Alexander Sorokin (aka LJ-user commentator40), Echo Moskvy reported. Sorokin is accused of libel against Kemerovo governor Aman Tuleev for the post in which he compares Russian regional governors to Latin American dictators. It is the second loud case of blogger prosecution in this region in 2010.

Iran: A blogger among hunger strikers

  8 August 2010

Kouhyar Goodarzi, human rights activist and blogger, is one of 17 Iranian political prisoners who started their hunger strike at the end of July to protest against the poor prison conditions, the behaviour of prison officials, and the ban on visits.

USA: Wikileaks representative detained

  2 August 2010

Jacob Appelbaum, a representative of Wikileaks, has been detained for 3 hours by US agents at the borders after returning from Holland trip. Recently Wikileaks published more than 90,000 leaked classified U.S. military documents. These documents reportedly reveal hidden details of the Afghanistan war.