Latest news with #dissidents
Times
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Times
Iran-Israel latest: UK working to charter flights out of Tel Aviv
Trump to decide on striking Iran 'within two weeks' Israel's attacks may have accelerated the overthrow of an unpopular regime. From the Shan's son to a rapper, these are the dissidents that pose a threat. Gaza's civil defence agency has revised upwards its death toll from today's shooting, saying that at least 43 people have been killed, including 26 who had gathered near an aid distribution centre.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Prominent Nicaraguan dissident shot dead in exile in Costa Rica
A retired Nicaraguan military officer who later became a critic of President Daniel Ortega has been killed in a shooting at his condominium in Costa Rica, where he lives in exile. The death of Roberto Samcam, 67, on Thursday has heightened concern about the safety of Nicaraguan dissidents, even when they live abroad. Police in Costa Rica have confirmed that a suspect entered Samcam's condominium building in the capital of San Jose at approximately 7:30am local time (13:30 GMT) and shot the retired major at least eight times. Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Organisation identified the murder weapon as a 9mm pistol. Samcam's wife, Claudia Vargas, told the Reuters news agency that the suspect pretended to be a delivery driver to gain access to her husband. The suspect allegedly fired on Samcam and then left without saying a word, escaping on a motorcycle. He remains at large. Samcam went into exile after participating in the 2018 protests, which began as demonstrations against social security reforms and escalated into one of the largest antigovernment movements in Nicaragua's history. Thousands of people flooded Nicaragua's streets. Some even called for President Ortega's resignation. But while Ortega did ultimately cancel the social security reforms, he also answered the protests with a police crackdown, and the clashes killed an estimated 355 people, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). More than 2,000 people were injured, and another 2,000 held in what the IACHR described as 'arbitrary detention'. In the months and years after the protests, Ortega has continued to seek punishment for the protesters and institutions involved in the demonstrations, which he likened to a 'coup'. Samcam was among the critics denouncing Ortega's use of military weapons and paramilitary forces to tamp down on the protests. Ortega has denied using either for repression. In a 2019 interview with the publication Confidencial, for instance, he compared Ortega to Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the last member of what is commonly known as the Somoza family dictatorship, which ruled Nicaragua for nearly 43 years. And in 2022, Samcam published a book that roughly called Ortega: El Calvario de Nicaragua, which roughly translates to: Ortega: Nicaragua's torment. Ortega has long been accused of human rights abuses and authoritarian tendencies. In 2023, for instance, he stripped hundreds of dissidents of their citizenship, leaving them effectively stateless, and seized their property. He has also pushed for constitutional reforms to increase his power and that of his wife, former Vice President Rosario Murillo. She now leads with Ortega as his co-president. The changes also increase Ortega's term in office and grant him the power to coordinate all 'legislative, judicial, electoral, control and supervisory bodies' — putting virtually all government agencies under his authority. From abroad, Samcam was helping to lead an effort to document some of Ortega's alleged abuses. In 2020, he became the chain-of-command expert for the Court of Conscience, a group created by the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, a nonprofit founded by a Nobel Prize-winning Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias. As part of the group, Samcam solicited testimony of torture and abuses committed under Ortega, with the aim of building a legal case against the Nicaraguan president and his officials. 'We are documenting each case so that it can move on to a trial, possibly before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,' Samcam said at the time. Samcam is not the only Nicaraguan dissident to face an apparent assassination attempt while in exile. Joao Maldonado, a student leader in the 2018 protests, has survived two such attempts while living in the Costa Rican capital. The most recent one, in January 2024, left him and his partner seriously injured. Maldonado has blame Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front — which Ortega leads — for the attack.
BBC News
19 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
How Belarus dissidents in exile abroad are pursued and threatened
Dissidents who have fled Alexander Lukashenko's rule in Belarus have spoken of threats being made against them and their relatives at of thousands of Belarusians are estimated to have left their country since the brutal crackdown on widespread opposition protests in 2020, after Lukashenko, 70, claimed victory in presidential elections that were widely condemned as the exiles was journalist Tatsiana Ashurkevich, 26, who continued to write about events in Belarus. Then, earlier this year, she discovered that the door of her flat in the capital, Minsk, had been sealed up with construction guessed immediately who might be to blame. She decided to confront one of her followers on Instagram who had repeatedly messaged her with unsolicited compliments and views about the Belarusian opposition movement and journalism in exile."If there are criminal cases [against me], just say so," she said. "I have nothing to do with that apartment - other people live there. Why are you doing this?" The man immediately changed his tone to a more official one, saying criminal cases were not his responsibility, but he could ask the relevant he made a request: could she, in exchange for help, share information about Belarusians fighting for Ukraine, especially since she had written about them before?Ashurkevich blocked Belarus itself, tens of thousands of people have been arrested in the past five years for political reasons, according to human rights group hundreds of critics of Lukashenko's 31-year rule have also faced persecution and Belarusian state media often accuse opposition activists of "betraying" the country and plotting a coup with assistance from the West. Authorities have justified targeting activists abroad, arguing they are trying to harm national security and overthrow the people the BBC has spoken to have received messages and phone calls, sometimes seemingly innocuous, sometimes with thinly veiled threats - or promises with a catch. Anna Krasulina, 55, receives them so often she has become used to putting her phone in flight mode before going to bed."I can see who's handling me - it's a couple of people. Or maybe it's the same one using different accounts," she says. She's convinced the authorities are behind this. Ms Krasulina works as a press secretary for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, an opposition leader believed by many to have won the 2020 election, now living in women have been sentenced in Belarus to 11 and 15 years respectively in trials held in absentia. Charges included preparing a coup and running an extremist organisation. Since such trials against exiled political opponents were made possible by a decree by Lukashenko in 2022, more than 200 cases have been opened, according to Viasna, with last year seeing a record allows authorities to raid the homes of the accused and harass their are being identified on photographs and videos made in opposition gatherings have now stopped taking part in them, fearing for their loved ones who remain in Belarus, says Ms opponents choose jail and exile, claims LukashenkoBelarus ruler claims landslide in "sham election"Several people the BBC spoke to report their relatives being visited by the authorities."It's terrifying when you can't help them. You can't go back. You can't support them," says would go on record or even reveal any details anonymously out of concern that their families could be fears are not unfounded. Artem Lebedko, a 39-year old who worked in real estate, is serving a three-and-a-half year jail sentence for "financing extremism". He had never spoken out in public, but his father was an opposition politician living in the ties between Belarusians who have fled and those who stayed behind is a deliberate strategy by Lukashenko's government, says journalist and analyst Hanna Liubakova, also sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison."Even if someone in Belarus understands everything, they'll think three times before talking to a 'terrorist'," she says, referring to a list of "extremists and terrorists" which the authorities populate with names of their critics. The BBC sent a request for comment to the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs, but had not received a response by the time of of Liubakova's own relatives have also received visits from the security services, she says, and property registered in her name has been the BBC has spoken to believes the Belarusian authorities are seeking to exert maximum pressure on those who left in order to crush all opposition, wherever it Liubakova believes the persecution of dissidents stems from Lukashenko's personal revenge for the 2020 protests: "He wants us to feel unsafe even abroad, to know that we're being watched."One country that has proved particularly unsafe for Belarusian exiles is Russia. According to authorities in Minsk, in 2022 alone Russia extradited 16 people accused of "extremist crimes", a charge usually associated with Lukashenko critics."The methods used by Belarusian security forces are very similar to those of the Soviet KGB, just updated with modern technology, says Andrei Strizhak, head of Bysol, a group that supports Belarusian messages or promises of rewards for co-operation may not work on everyone, he adds. But by casting a wide net, the authorities may get a few who agree to share some useful calls the regime's efforts to hunt dissidents abroad a "war of attrition" that leaves many activists exhausted and wishing to get on with their lives."We're doing everything we can to stay resilient," Strizhak says, "but every year, it takes more and more effort."
Al Jazeera
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Prominent Nicaraguan dissident shot dead in exile in Costa Rica
A retired Nicaraguan military officer who later became a critic of President Daniel Ortega has been killed in a shooting at his condominium in Costa Rica, where he lives in exile. The death of Roberto Samcam, 67, on Thursday has heightened concern about the safety of Nicaraguan dissidents, even when they live abroad. Police in Costa Rica have confirmed that a suspect entered Samcam's condominium building in the capital of San Jose at approximately 7:30am local time (13:30 GMT) and shot the retired major at least eight times. Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Organisation identified the murder weapon as a 9mm pistol. Samcam's wife, Claudia Vargas, told the Reuters news agency that the suspect pretended to be a delivery driver to gain access to her husband. The suspect allegedly fired on Samcam and then left without saying a word, escaping on a motorcycle. He remains at large. Samcam went into exile after participating in the 2018 protests, which began as demonstrations against social security reforms and escalated into one of the largest antigovernment movements in Nicaragua's history. Thousands of people flooded Nicaragua's streets. Some even called for President Ortega's resignation. But while Ortega did ultimately cancel the social security reforms, he also answered the protests with a police crackdown, and the clashes killed an estimated 355 people, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). More than 2,000 people were injured, and another 2,000 held in what the IACHR described as 'arbitrary detention'. In the months and years after the protests, Ortega has continued to seek punishment for the protesters and institutions involved in the demonstrations, which he likened to a 'coup'. Samcam was among the critics denouncing Ortega's use of military weapons and paramilitary forces to tamp down on the protests. Ortega has denied using either for repression. In a 2019 interview with the publication Confidencial, for instance, he compared Ortega to Anastasio Somoza Debayle, the last member of what is commonly known as the Somoza family dictatorship, which ruled Nicaragua for nearly 43 years. And in 2022, Samcam published a book that roughly called Ortega: El Calvario de Nicaragua, which roughly translates to: Ortega: Nicaragua's torment. Ortega has long been accused of human rights abuses and authoritarian tendencies. In 2023, for instance, he stripped hundreds of dissidents of their citizenship, leaving them effectively stateless, and seized their property. He has also pushed for constitutional reforms to increase his power and that of his wife, former Vice President Rosario Murillo. She now leads with Ortega as his co-president. The changes also increase Ortega's term in office and grant him the power to coordinate all 'legislative, judicial, electoral, control and supervisory bodies' — putting virtually all government agencies under his authority. From abroad, Samcam was helping to lead an effort to document some of Ortega's alleged abuses. In 2020, he became the chain-of-command expert for the Court of Conscience, a group created by the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, a nonprofit founded by a Nobel Prize-winning Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias. As part of the group, Samcam solicited testimony of torture and abuses committed under Ortega, with the aim of building a legal case against the Nicaraguan president and his officials. 'We are documenting each case so that it can move on to a trial, possibly before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights,' Samcam said at the time. Samcam is not the only Nicaraguan dissident to face an apparent assassination attempt while in exile. Joao Maldonado, a student leader in the 2018 protests, has survived two such attempts while living in the Costa Rican capital. The most recent one, in January 2024, left him and his partner seriously injured. Maldonado has blame Nicaragua's Sandinista National Liberation Front — which Ortega leads — for the attack.
Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Times
Inside the Iranian opposition, from a rapper to the Shah's son
T he banner was unfurled over a Tehran bridge by night, with a message scrawled in spray paint. 'Those who experienced the Iran-Iraq war,' it read, 'demand no war again.' The dissidents behind this modest protest a few months ago sought to cover their tracks, wary of the unforgiving punishment that befalls critics of the Islamic regime. But they had decided to take the risk, one organiser in Iran said, because they 'believe Iran is very close to opening a new regional war, which will cost Iran and all Iranians … Enough is enough. If you don't take risks, you can't expect rewards.' That moment feared by dissidents, who are mostly students — just like the ones that helped Ayatollah Khomeini overthrow the Shah in 1979 — has now come. Across the region, and above all in Israel and the US, the question is being asked as to how many such dissidents there are and what risk they pose to the Islamic Republic's clerical leaders.
