Alleged Child Offender on Saudi Death Row: Daily Brief
Saudi man on death row for crime he allegedly commited at age 14; leading democracy activists convicted in Hong Kong; lead contamination threat to migrants in Greece; ICC acquits former Ivorian president of crimes against humanity; defamation conviction of French #MeToo pioneer overturned; and Germany pledges to champion LGBTI rights abroad.
A Saudi man on death row could be executed even though he was 14 at the time of the alleged crime, and his conviction followed a grossly unfair trial. The accused said in the letter and to the court that interrogators subjected him to torture and ill-treatment to force him to confess.
Hong Kong authorities convicted leading activists of the pro-democracy movement for organising and participating in protests in 2019. Among the convicts are former legislator Martin Lee, labor leader Lee Cheuk-yan and Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai.
Dozens of families are still accommodated in areas of a migrant camp in Lesbos where soil testing showed elevated lead levels two months after the Greek government confirmed that the areas were contaminated.
Laurent Gbagbo, former president of Cote D’Ivoire, is acquitted of charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. He and and former minister Charles Ble Goude had been accused for their alleged role in post-election violence in Ivory Coast in 2010/11.
Another acquittal happened in France, where an appeals court overturned the defamation conviction of a pioneer in the country's #MeToo movement. Sandra Muller had coined the hashtag #BalanceTonPorc ("expose your pig") in 2019 which has since been used by French survivors to name and shame sexual abusers.
Finally, the German government pledged to use its foreign and development branches to do more to uphold LGBTI rights abroad. With the adoption of its "Inclusion Strategy", Germany joins countries like the Netherlands, Canada, and Sweden in setting LGBTI rights as a priority in their foreign policy.