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On 17 July, Abdul Razeq Farraj, Finance and Administration Director at the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a development NGO based in Ramallah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), was released from Ofer prison. He had spent 14 months in administrative detention without charge or trial.
Joaquim Costa Zangui, the National Youth Secretary of the Democratic Bloc, was abducted by unknown men on 12 August. He went missing a day after he had presided over the electoral process to elect the new Residential Commission President in Massaque, Viana Municipality, Angola. His whereabouts remain unknown.
On 11 August, Maadi Misdemeanour Court postponed Amal Fathy’s trial to 8 September in one case, while a State Security Prosecutor renewed her pre-trial detention for 15 more days in another case.
In recent closed-door discussions, the US and Mexico are considering declaring Mexico a “safe third country”. This would block all asylum seekers passing through Mexico from seeking protection in US and force them to stay in dangerous and under-equipped Mexico. This deal could be agreed in coming weeks putting thousands at risk.
Afonso S. Muatchipuculo (22), António J. Fernando (18) and Justino H. Valente (21) were released on 17 July. The three youth had been sentenced to seven months in prison by the Malange Provincial Court in Angola on 9 April after an unfair trial. They were arrested on 4 April by the police in Malange province in Angola for allegedly throwing stones at the Vice-President’s convoy during a demonstration.
Amada Martínez, human rights defender from the Tekoha Sauce Indigenous community of the Avá Guaraní People in south-east Paraguay, was threatened by three armed men wearing uniforms of the Itaipú Binational (Paraguay-Brazil) hydroelectric plant on 8 August, in the presence of three minors, her sister and a taxi driver.
Shahidul Alam, photographer and outspoken social activist, has been charged under Section 57 of Bangladesh’s Information and Communication Technology Act after giving an interview to Al-Jazeera on the current wave of school student protests in Bangladesh. Detained and charged solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression, Shahidul Alam must be immediately and unconditionally released.
Human rights defender Hanan Badr el-Din has started a hunger strike over a court decision on 5 August to renew her detention for 45 more days. Hanan Badr el-Din, who is a prisoner of conscience, has been in pre-trial detention since 6 May 2017.
Military official accuses Venezuelan Indigenous environmental rights defender Lisa Henrito of “treason” - on national television - due to her activism in the defence of the Pemón Indigenous People's traditional territory.
Indigenous human rights defenders face sustained intimidation and threats of physical violence in light of their continuing efforts to protect their land. Incidents of harassment by a private company developing plantation projects have been reported by the community to local police.