Search

On 29 May 2017, the house of human rights defender Maitree Chamroensuksakul was raided by police while he was returning from a meeting with the U.N. Special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, during an unofficial visit to Bangkok on 26 and 27 May 2017. The raid took place in the the village of Chaiyaphum Pasae, a Lahu human rights defender who was shot dead by military officials earlier this year, during an alleged anti-drug operation in Ban Kong Phak Ping, in the Chiang Dao district of Thailand’s northern Chiang Mai province. Maitree Chamroensuksakul was a mentor of Chaiyaphum Pasae’s and a primary witness in his murder. On the same day, the defender’s sister-in-law, Nawa Ja-ue, and the cousin of Chaiyaphum Pasae, Chanthana Pasae, were arrested and accused of handing drugs to Chaiyaphum Pasae on the day he was killed.

On 20 July 2017, Bangladeshi human rights defender Adilur Rahman Khan was arrested upon his arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, as he attempted to enter Malaysia in order to attend a conference on “The abolition of the death penalty in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific”. He was detained within the airport for most of the day and was not allowed to meet with a lawyer. No reason was given for his detention. He was forced to board a flight to Bangladesh in the evening.

On 28 February 2017, the investigators of the Russian Investigative Committee and representatives of the Federal Security Service (FSB) carried out a search of the apartment of human rights defender and journalist Zoya Svetova, that lasted ten hours.