Alsu Kurmasheva
Washington D.C./09.11.23/Turan: National Press Club, a leading voice for press freedom in the United States, on Wednesday urged the U.S. government to immediately designate RFERL reporter Alsu Kurmasheva’s imprisonment in Russia as an unlawful and wrongful detention, signalling that she is being held as a hostage, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
"The Biden administration is taking too long to make this important designation," Eileen O’Reilly, president of the National Press Club, and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, said in a statement.
Kurmasheva, an editor with RFE/RL Tatar-Bashkir Service, was detained in Kazan last month and has been charged with failure to register as a foreign agent. She is the latest journalist to be jailed in Russia simply for doing her job, per Press Club leadership. "Journalism is not a crime. Secretary Antony Blinken and officials at the State Department should act swiftly to ensure Alsu is freed from her unjust detention," reads the statement.
“Alsu has been locked away for multiple weeks and the Biden administration shouldn’t wait another minute to make this critical designation, which will open up resources to support her release. It’s time for Alsu to come home to her husband and two children," the authors said.
The State Department on Wednesday refused to outline specifics of its wrongful detention designation. "As it relates to the formal wrongful detention designation that this department uses, that is an active and ongoing process," Prinsipal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said when pressed by TURAN's correspondent.
He went on to elaborate, "If you look at the cases that we have been public about their wrongful detention designation, they did not always necessarily start out that way. It is a process. Sometimes it happens incredibly quickly; sometimes the nature of the detention evolves. And we will take this process step by step"
Alex Raufoglu
Politics
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Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who arrived in Baku today, held a press conference at the COP29 climate conference. When asked about the arrested climate activists and opposition figures in Azerbaijan, she stated that Germany advocates for the release of government critics and that she would raise this issue during her meeting with Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister. She specifically mentioned the name of Professor Gubad Ibadoglu, a doctor from Dresden University.
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On November 21, climate activists held a series of protests at the COP29 climate conference in Baku. The main themes of the protests included nuclear weapons testing, animal killings, protection of rivers and water bodies, and environmental pollution.
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The General Assembly of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF) adopted a resolution on Friday reaffirming its commitment to democratic reforms, regional stability, and European integration amidst escalating geopolitical tensions driven by Russia's ongoing aggression in Ukraine.
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Activist Nijat Ibrahim, who was detained in Baku pre-trial detention center-1, inflicted numerous wounds on himself on November 20 in protest against unjustified criminal prosecution, his wife Parvin Ibrahim told Turan. According to her, on November 21, her husband called her and informed her that the day before he had inflicted incised wounds on himself with a piece of mirror. In particular, he cut his throat and ears.
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