Amnesty International Seattle will be hosting a virtual Write for Rights event on June 26th. It’ll start at 6pm Seattle time. Please join us as we write letters from home (or wherever you’re attending the event from) in support of human rights. To learn more about Write for Rights, please click here. To register for our event, please click here.
There’ll be seven cases in total:
Senator Leila De Lima is a prisoner of conscience in the Philippines. She was imprisoned on suspect charges after criticizing extra-judicial killings that occurred as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs.
Ciham Ali Ahmed disappeared in Eritrea at age 15 after trying to cross into Sudan and has been detained for over 8 years.
Prageeth Eknaligoda is a Sri Lankan journalist who disappeared in 2010 just before the presidential election.
Maura fled to the US from Mexico to escape relentless transgender-based violence and abuse. She’s been detained by ICE for more than two years in the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California, where she faces abuse and inadequate medical care.
Hossam Khalaf and Ola al-Qaradawi are a married couple who have been imprisoned in Egypt for nearly four years on unfounded charges. Their imprisonment may be retaliation against Ola’s father, a well-known Egyptian sheikh now living in Qatar, who was once connected with the Muslim Brotherhood, but is no longer involved with that group.
Photo from freeolaandhosam.org
Exiled Belarusian journalist and government critic, Raman Pratasevich, was unlawfully arrested on May 23rd, 2021 by Belarusian authorities along with his partner Sofia Sapega, a Russian national. Their Athens-Vilnius flight was diverted and forced to land in Minsk under false pretext. Raman Pratasevich was wanted by Belarusian authorities on trumped-up “terrorism” charges solely for his journalistic work. If convicted, Raman Pratasevich is facing up to 20 years’ imprisonment. A televised “confession” may indicate torture and other ill-treatment.
Human rights activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and human rights lawyer Mohamed el-Baqer have been arbitrarily detained by Egyptian authorities for more than 20 months without trial over unfounded terrorism-related accusations. They are held in a maximum-security prison in inhumane conditions and subjected to discriminatory and punitive treatment.
