prisoner of conscience

“Muhammad Bekzhanov has languished in jail for 17 long years. His prison sentence was handed down after an unfair trial and severe torture, and arbitrarily extended as the authorities have not forgiven Bekzhanov’s political activism. At the time of his release, Bekzhanov was one of the world’s longest prison-held journalists,” - said Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International.

Muhammad was arrested in 1999 after being accused of involvement in a series of terrorist attacks committed in Tashkent in February of the same year. However, he had faced harassment by the authorities in connection with his role as the editor of the banned newspaper Erk and for being the brother of Muhammad Salih, the leader of the opposition People's Movement of Uzbekistan.

By William Nee, China Researcher at Amnesty International. On twitter @williamnee

26 years have passed since the tragic days in 1989 when thousands of peaceful pro-democracy protesters were brutally repressed in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

But even though the tanks have long left the city’s infamous square, President Xi Jinping, appears as determined to quash anyone perceived as challenging the Communist Party’s hegemony.

When President Xi took office in late 2012, he declared power would be put “in a cage”, but it is the independently minded academics, journalists, lawyers, and rights activists that have been thrown in jail.

We are witnessing one of the darkest periods for freedom of expression in China since the bloodshed of 1989.