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Human Rights Watch Daily Brief, 29 April 2015

Saudi Arabia; Turkey; Hungary; Indonesia, Iran, Sudan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Burundi

The promotion of Saudi Arabia's new crown prince may seem to signal a positive shift in the kingdom's leadership, but don't be fooled into thinking it will bring about a new approach to human rights.
Today, a Turkish court released from prison a lawyer who is to go on trial for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He should not be facing such charges in the first place.
As Europe grapples with how best to respond to the crisis of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban is stoking the flames of intolerance toward migrants and asylum seekers.
From earlier today: Indonesia has executed eight death row prisoners — seven of them foreign nationals - all of whom had been convicted of drug smuggling. The men were executed just after midnight and reportedly met their fate by refusing blindfolds and singing loudly together until they were silenced by the firing squad. The execution of a Filipino woman, Mary Jane, was called off at the last minute after a person accused of planting drugs on her was taken into police custody.
Iran’s intelligence and security forces have rounded up and detained scores of Ahwazi Arabs, including several children, in what appears to be an escalating crackdown in Iran’s Khuzestan province.
Security forces in Sudan arrested dozens of opposition party members, students and political activists in the lead up to, during, and after the country's elections earlier this month. Instead of allowing people to express their views peacefully, the government is snatching up political activists and "beating, torturing and jailing them - without the slightest pretense of respect for basic rights," said Human Rights Watch.
Good news from Kenya, where in a groundbreaking decision the High Court has ruled that members of a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights group can formally register their organization.

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