USCIRF News Digest

        Source:              www.uscirf.gov
Date:                   April 7, 2020

USCIRF News Digest - April 7, 2020

USCIRF News

 USCIRF Welcomes the Release of Ayda Expósito, Calls for Release of Other Religious Prisoners of Conscience in Cuba

 USCIRF Calls for the Release of Vietnamese Prisoner of Conscience Nguyen Bac Truyen

 USCIRF Dismayed by Lack of Accountability for the Murder of Daniel Pearl

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 April 28 – USCIRF Annual Report Release

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Top News from Around the World

 Afghanistan
 Afghan forces announce arrest of local ISIL leader (Al Jazeera)
 Living Scared: In Kabul's Shi'ite Enclave, Hazara Fear A Taliban Return (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

 Azerbaijan
 Azerbaijani rights defenders disappointed by pardon decree (Caucasian Knot)
 'They Are Trying to Move in the Right Direction': US Delegation Monitors Religious Freedom in Azerbaijan (CBN News)

 China
 Tibetan Shopkeeper Freed After Serving 5 Years For Dalai Lama Photo (RFA)
 US religious freedom ambassador calls for release of prisoners of conscience (Catholic News Agency)
 Mindong priest taken and held by police. Bishop Guo Xijin blesses agents who control him (Video) (AsiaNews.it)
 Lack of Answers Makes ‘Clear’ Missing Academics Are Detained in Xinjiang Camps: Exile Group (RFA)
 Chinese Campaign in Tibet Rewards Tibetans for Reporting on Each Other (RFA)
 Fearing Covid-19 relapse, China keeps religious places shut (UCA) 
 Uyghur Health Workers Forced to Treat Virus Patients in Xinjiang’s Makeshift Quarantine Centers (RFA)
 Did China use slave labor to keep factories open during coronavirus?  (Catholic News Agency)

 Cuba
 CSW denounces harassment of Christian journalist and his family

 Egypt
 In 15th batch of approvals, Cabinet approves legalisation of 74 unlicensed churches (Watani)
 Egypt Ignores Justice for Christian Prisoners (ICC)

 Georgia 
 Easter liturgy in Georgia to go ahead despite coronavirus crisis (JAM News)
 The conflict between church and state during a pandemic endangers us all (OC Media)

 Germany
 Jews and Israel ‘Main Targets’ of Coronavirus Hate Speech, German Antisemitism Commissioner Warns (Algemeiner)
 Germany's antisemitism commissioner: Jewish communities are thriving (Jerusalem Post)

 India
 ‘Muslims Are Foreigners’: Inside India’s Campaign to Decide Who Is a Citizen (New York Times)
 COVID-19 : Plea In SC Seeks Release Of Persons From Foreigners Detention Centres In Assam (Live Law)

 Iran
 Battling COVID, Iran Regime Makes Jews its Bogeyman (Iran Wire)

 Mexico
 Mexico’s Persecuted Protestants Lack Simple Coronavirus Defense (Christianity Today)

 North Korea
 U.S. calls on N. Korea, others to free religious prisoners amid coronavirus pandemic (Yonhap)

 Russia
 Moscow Church Holds Anti-Coronavirus Procession Despite Stay-at-Home Order (The Moscow Times)

 Saudi Arabia
 Saudi Arabia imposes 24-hour curfew in Mecca and Medina (Reuters)
 Saudis Deploy Clerics to Say Fighting Virus Isn’t Anti-Islamic (Bloomberg)
 Saudi textbooks revised, but still incite hate (Long War Journal)

 Syria
 Erasing the Legacy of Khabour: Destruction of Assyrian Cultural Heritage in the Khabour (Assyrian Policy Institute)

 Tajikistan
 Conscientious objector tortured, jailed for two years (Forum 18)

 Turkey
 Turkey’s top religious authority issues fatwa on donating zakat to state’s campaign against COVID-19 (Duvar English)

 United Kingdom
 New leader of Britain’s Labour Party vows to wipe out the ‘stain’ of #Antisemitism from the party (EU Reporter)

 Vietnam
 Vietnam urged to free prisoners of conscience over Covid-19 (UCA)

 Other
 COVID-19 Symposium: Don’t Let Religious Freedom Become a Casualty of Coronavirus (Opinio Juris)
 US religious freedom ambassador calls for release of prisoners of conscience (Catholic News Agency)