· February, 2013

Stories about Law from February, 2013

Saudi Charged for “Down with the House of Saud” Tweet

  16 February 2013

Bader Thawab is a Saudi Twitter user who was arrested back in September 2012 after writing tweets calling for the fall of the Saudi monarchy. Journalist Iman al-Qahtani managed to get a leaked copy of the list of charges that he faces, and published them online. Among the charges are following political dissidents on Twitter.

#Shahbag Blogger Hacked To Death

  15 February 2013

Engineer Ahmed Rajib Haider, a young blogger and online activist participating in the ongoing Shahbag movement in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka was brutally killed a few hours ago, reports Mamur Hossain. Hasib Mahmud writes [bn] that a death warrant was posted against Rajib a few days ago on an Islamist-run...

Who Owns the Copyright for Trinidad and Tobago Carnival?

  15 February 2013

It has been popular in recent years for photographers (professional and amateur alike) to publish their pictures of Trinidad and Tobago's various Carnival activities online, especially on social media sites like Facebook. But now, the Trinidad & Tobago Copyright Collection Organization (TTCO) considers this to be a possible copyright infringement. Netizens weigh in on the issue.

Secret Life and Death of Mossad Spy ‘Prisoner X’

  14 February 2013

Revelations by Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) progamme Foreign Correspondent on 12 February, 2013 have fired up onliners. The mysterious Prisoner X who allegedly committed suicide in an Israeli gaol in 2010 was not only a dual citizen of Australia and Israel, but also a Mossad agent.

Blood on the Russian Tracks

RuNet Echo  14 February 2013

Earlier today, the Russian Railways concluded its official investigation into the death of Elena Soboleva, who died on January 18 crossing the tracks at the Saltykovskaia train platform [ru], located just east of Moscow. The Railways (or RZhD, as it's known in Russian) determined [ru] that Ms. Soboleva was responsible for her...

Saudi Women Protesters Arrested for “Impairing Development”

  13 February 2013

Last Saturday, February 9th, a small protest was organized in front of the building of Human Rights Commission in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by a group of women and children including the wife, daughter and granddaughter of Suliman al-Rushoodi, the detained chairman of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association. The women were set free today - but the case against them was not dismissed. They will stand trial again on February 27.

Students to Protest Constitutional Amendment

  11 February 2013

The Hungarian Student Network and the Hungarian High School Network posted a declaration [en] “about the rule of law” in Hungary – and are planning yet another protest rally [hu] in Budapest on Monday, Feb. 11: Today’s proposal for a constitutional amendment has made it obvious – even for those...

Bureaucracy and Motherhood in Serbia

  10 February 2013

Marija Janković's photo of her 3-month-old baby sleeping peacefully next to the 52 medical and administrative documents has received 942 ‘likes’ and 826 ‘shares’ on the Facebook page of Status Magazin [sr], a Belgrade monthly, and was awarded the first prize in a photo contest run by the publication. It...

Hong Kong Activist Jailed for Burning Chinese Flag

  9 February 2013

A Hong Kong activist was sentenced to nine months in prison on Thursday for burning and defacing the Chinese flag and the Hong Kong flag during two separate demonstrations against the mainland's communist government, sparking many web users to upload their own desecration of the Chinese flag in protest of the heavy-handed sentence.

European Regional Differences

  8 February 2013

Slovak NGO/think-tank Conservative Institute [en] blogged [sk] about the results of a study of 270 second-level EU regions (NUTS 2). Comparing changes in unemployment, they found that during 1990-2011, despite the growing amount of Euro-funds, the differences between the regions grew by about 4 percentage points. In more than 50...

The Romanian-Hungarian “War of the Flags”

  8 February 2013

Hungarian Spectrum writes about the ongoing diplomatic confrontation between Romania and Hungary, sparked by the Romanian authorities’ ban on flying the flag of the Székely Land, an ethnic Hungarian enclave currently demanding territorial autonomy within Romania.

Bangladesh: Protesters Demand Capital Punishment for 1971 War Criminals

  7 February 2013

Abdul Quader Mollah, the secretary general of Bangladesh's Islamist party Jamaat-e Islami has been sentenced to life in prison for murder, rape, torture and other crimes committed during the 1971 liberation war. But tens of thousands feel that justice has not been served. They want him hanged. Protests are spreading like wild fire across the country.

Europe's Frozen Conflicts

  7 February 2013

Black Sea News publishes Natalya Belitser's paper [en] – “Transnistrian Conflict: State of Affairs and Prospects of Settlement” – written for the international conference on “frozen conflicts” in Europe, which was held in September 2012 in Bled, Slovenia (via Andrei Klimenko).