Russia’s long-running campaign against 45-year-old human rights lawyer Mikhail Benyash culminated in his March 2023 retrial and conviction for allegedly assaulting the police.
TrialWatch monitored the first trial against Benyash in 2019 as part of its focus on how Russia is stifling dissent.
Our Fairness Report was used by the defense in its successful appeal that resulted in...
A vocal critic of Rwanda’s ruling party, Paul Rusesabagina, was convicted of terrorism-related activities for his alleged role in attacks perpetrated by the National Liberation Front (FLN) following a sham trial.
In March 2023, two and a half years after he was arrested in Rwanda, Rusesabagina’s 25-year prison sentence was commuted and he was freed. Our monitoring and reporting were...
34-year-old investigative journalist Muhammad Asrul was convicted of cyberdefamation under Indonesia’s notorious Electronic Information and Transactions Law and sentenced to three months in prison for reporting on alleged corruption by the son of a city mayor. Even though the Supreme Court of Indonesia ultimately upheld his conviction, he was not imprisoned, likely because of international pressure, including that of...
Just days after the TrialWatch report was released on the trial of Dian Abdullah, a 65-year-old blogger who was tried for ‘offensive communication’ for criticizing the government and the monarchy’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the prosecution offered to settle the case for a fine.
TrialWatch has since leveraged the monitoring and reporting in Abdullah’s case to file an amicus...
Soon after TrialWatch issued a press statement calling for the release of Shafiqul Kajol, a 52-year-old Bangladeshi photographer and editor of an independent news outlet, he was freed. Kajol is charged under Bangladesh’s draconian cybercrime law, the Digital Security Act, in three separate cases. The cases all relate to a story he shared on his Facebook page alleging a...
Ahmed Manseri, an Algerian blogger and human rights activist, was acquitted after TrialWatch monitored his trial. Mr. Manseri was charged with criminal defamation after he filed a criminal complaint alleging police abuse. His trial, graded a “D” by TrialWatch, was one of the first cases to be monitored by an international organization in Algeria in years.
The monitor reported
At the appeal hearing of blogger and activist Myriam Bribri, her defence team used TrialWatch’s Fairness Report to demonstrate that her trial violated her right to freedom of expression.
TrialWatch also released a video ahead of her appeal in which Bribri discussed the motivations behind her prosecution. TrialWatch monitored Bribri’s case from the courtroom. In 2022 she was convicted...
Paola Ugaz is an investigative journalist in Peru who has written about corruption, drug trafficking, and terrorism and, most recently, allegations of paedophilia in a Catholic organization called Sodalicio. People linked to Sodalicio submitted multiple complaints against her, including a criminal defamation complaint filed by the director of a Catholic news website. TrialWatch was not allowed in the courtroom...
TrialWatch monitored the trial of Moroccan journalist Hajar Raissouni and released a report exposing her sham trial. She was then freed & pardoned following the international attention drawn to her case. TrialWatch Expert Baroness Helena Kennedy KC – Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute – graded the trial a “D” and our findings on the...