On April 2, Mubarak Bala pleaded guilty to blasphemy charges for posting social media posts that caused a public disturbance “due to their blasphemous content.” He was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his alleged crime.
On March 30, a Bangladesh court sentenced four men to death for the brutal killing of a secular blogger in 2015. Judge Nurul Amin Biplob of the Sylhet Anti-Terrorism Tribunal gave the death penalty to four out of the five suspects in the murder of Ananta Bijoy Das.
Amnesty International published a report on March 23, 2022, shedding light on Libya’s dreadful persecution of young Libyans upholding their right to freedom of expression. The report also criticized the Libyan government for the alleged forced-confession videos.
Jewish activists dress up as Muslims to circumvent the prayer ban in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Sunni Islam's third holiest site. Swapping their Jewish clothes for a thobe, also called a dishdasha or jalabiya, these activists defy the delicate agreement between Israel and Jordan.
The same site where the mosque sits is considered the holiest site in Judaism.
On Thursday, March 17, jubilant passengers landed in RAF Brize Norton, the United Kingdom, after years of detention in Iran. British-Iranian nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were finally reunited with their families. Both were released on March 16, 2022.
On Saturday, March 12, the Saudi Arabia court confirmed the 10-year travel ban for the human rights activist and blogger Raif Badawi. The ban will effectively imprison Badawi in the country for another ten years.
Released on Friday, March 11, Badawi was arrested in 2012 and jailed for ten years for charges of "insulting Islam."
Raif Badawi, a prominent Saudi blogger and human rights advocate, arrested in 2012, is finally free after ten years in prison. Ensaf Haidar, Badawi's wife, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that her husband called her about his release.
"Raif called me. He is free," she said. Haidar is living in Quebec, Canada, along with their three children.
Los Angeles County sees a new brand of pirates clearing out religious signage posted in public places. Atheist Street Pirates, a sub-group of Atheists United, a Los Angeles-based atheist group, has removed religious signs from streets and overpasses.
France has announced a plan to ban two Palestinian advocacy groups based in the country. Gerald Darmanin, France’s Minister of the Interior, on February 24 tweeted that he would disband Collectif Palestine Vaincra (Palestine Will Win) and Comité Palestine Action (Palestine Action Committee).
On Wednesday, February 16, the constitutional court of Kuwait overturned Article 198 of the country's penal code. Introduced in December 2007, Article 198 of the Kuwaiti Penal Code criminalizes "imitating the appearance of a member of the opposite sex."
The law effectively criminalizes transgender, creating a hostile environment for transgender individuals in Kuwait.
