Saeed Malekpour, a 43-year-old engineer and web designer, has been imprisoned in notorious Evin prison in Iran since 2008. He was sentenced to death following a conviction of masterminding an online pornography network. According to Malekpour’s supporters, he developed an Internet photo-sharing tool which was used without his knowledge to share pornographic photos. He was accused by Iranian authorities to “discredit the country’s…
Gilgit-Baltistan Police has reportedly blocked 141 social media accounts over anti-religious and anti-state publications. Five people are facing legal charges for violating the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 over “spreading religious hatred and posting anti-state content online”. DOWN reports that Special Branch Additional Inspector General (AIG) Hanifullah admitted that social media accounts are being monitored for anti-state content and…
Sina Dehghan, a 21-year-old man, was sentenced in Iran to death over criticizing Islam. He was arrested by security forces on October 21, 2015, at a military barracks in Tehran. Dehghan was charged under article 262 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code for ‘insulting the prophet’ of Islam; a criminal charge which is punishable by death. Dehghan was convicted at the Penal Court of the…
Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee, an Iranian 36-year-old human rights activist and writer, was sentenced to six years in prison over charges of ‘insulting Islamic sanctities’ and ‘spreading propaganda against the system’ for her Facebook posts supporting political prisoners in Iran. Golrokh was arrested at her home by Iranian security forces without official summons on October 24, 2016. She was taken to the notorious Evin prison, where…
Faisal Hayyat, a prominent blogger and sports journalist, was sentenced on November 29 by a Bahraini court to 3 months imprisonment for ‘insulting a sect and a religious figure’ on Twitter. Hayyat was arrested on October 9, a few days after posting tweets critical to the Bahraini government. On his tweets Hayyat commented on events from early Islamic history. The conviction was based on article 209 of the…
Sanal Edamaruku, a 61-year-old Indian man, was forced to flee India after being accused of blasphemy over exposing claimed “miracle” at a local church in Mumbai for being a fraud. Edamaruku has been living in Finland in the past 4 years to evade his arrest. Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalist Association, describes himself as a ‘miracle-buster’ who aims to demystify false superstitious beliefs.…
In the early hours of September 15, 2016, prominent atheist blogger and ‘freethinker’ Tarak Biswas was arrested at his home in West Bengal over a Facebook post which was considered critical of Islam. Mere minutes after his post was made, a First Information Report (or FIR) was filed by local Trinamool Congress leader Sanaullah Khan, demanding that the Howrah Police Commissionerate take action…
