July 3, 2002 President Charles G. Taylor President of the Republic of Liberia Monrovia, Liberia Via facsimile: 231-225-217 Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to request urgent information about the status of Hassan Bility, editor-in-chief of The Analyst newspaper based in Monrovia, who is missing and is feared dead. Bility, together with…
June 28, 2002 Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba Prime Minister’s Office Singh Durbar Kathmandu Via facsimile: +997 1 227286Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is writing to request urgent information about the status of Krishna Sen, editor of the pro-Maoist daily Janadisha and former editor of the pro-Maoist daily Janadesh. A report published in…
New York, June 26, 2002—Six suspects accused in the October 1994 murder of Dmitry Kholodov, of the Moscow-based independent newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, were fully acquitted today by the Moscow Circuit Military Court. The six men were released from custody following the verdict. The court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the suspects’ guilt, according…
New York, June 26, 2002—Tajikistan’s Prosecutor General’s Office has dropped its criminal case against Dodojon Atovullo, editor and publisher of the Russian-language paper Chroghi Ruz. Authorities have been searching for Atovullo since May 2001, when he fled in exile to Germany. According to a June 21 report from Interfax news agency, First Deputy Prosecutor General…
New York, June 25, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is dismayed that the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court today upheld journalist Grigory Pasko’s December 2001 conviction and prison sentence. Pasko was convicted of treason and sentenced to four years in prison on December 25, 2001, based on the charge that he intended…
New York, June 25, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s conviction of Mikola Markevich and Paval Mazheika, both of the independent weekly newspaper Pahonya. The Leninsky District Court in the city of Hrodno, in western Belarus, found editor-in-chief Markevich and journalist Mazheika guilty of libeling President Aleksandr Lukashenko. The journalists were sentenced to…
New York, June 24, 2002—Dragoljub Milanovic, the former director of the state broadcaster Radio Television Serbia (RTS), was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday for failing to protect 16 RTS employees killed by a NATO missile in April 1999, said Serbian and international press reports. A Belgrade district court found Milanovic guilty of…
New York, June 21, 2002—The Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an appeal on June 25 of imprisoned journalist Grigory Pasko’s December 25, 2001 conviction. Pasko’s defense lawyers are seeking his full acquittal and release. According to Russian sources, state prosecutors plan to use the hearing to ask for a…
New York, June 19, 2002—Belarusian journalists Mikola Markevich and Paval Mazheika, both of the independent weekly newspaper Pahonya, will give their final statements on Friday, June 21, in their ongoing criminal libel case. If convicted, the prosecution has requested prison terms of two-and-a-half years for editor-in-chief Markevich and two years for reporter Mazheika, said Belarusian…