NEAR Newsletter January 2004
Welcome to the NEAR Newsletter. In this edition you will find our most recent Action Alerts and also an ‘Academic Freedom in the Media’ section, listing news by country (January 2004). Any comments and suggestions about the content and layout of the newsletter will be gratefully received at roisin.joyce@nearinternational.org.
NEAR Action Alerts *Taken from the NEAR website
Russia: Researcher’s Trial Postponed Indefinitely
The trial of Russian researcher Dr. Igor Sutyagin has been indefinitely postponed. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has issued the following alert: Dr. Sutyagin has spent the last five years in jail: his first trial was held in 2001 at a regional court and resulted in a ruling that the prosecution had failed to present sufficient evidence.
Russia: Russian Researcher Acquitted of Espionage Charges
On 29 December 2003, a jury acquitted Dr. Valentin Danilov of espionage charges. The Russian Security Service arrested Valentin Danilov, head of the Thermo-Physics Centre at Krasnoyarsk State Technical University, in February 2001 on charges of treason and fraud for allegedly selling top secret satellite information to a Chinese company.
Nepal: Nepalese Teacher Released
Pashupati Dhungana, a Nepalese teacher reportedly arrested on 25 September as he returned home from the Shiddi Ganesh Secondary School, in Paknajol, Kathmandu was released on 2 January. Amnesty International has not received any further details of his arrest or his place of detention. His family passed on their thanks for all the work put into campaigning for his release.
Nepal: Student Threatened by Nepalese Security Forces Kills Himself
Amnesty International has received reports that Naresh Maharjan, a Nepalese student, killed himself on 9 January, one month after he was released. He appears to have taken his own life to escape threats and harassment by the security forces. Amnesty International has received information that following his release he was harassed by security forces personnel who asked him to contact them regularly.
Guatemala: Former Guatemalan Colonel Sentenced for Murdering Anthropologist
Guatemala's supreme court has sentenced on 19 January 2004 Colonel Juan Valencia Osorio, a former military officer, to 30 years in prison for ordering the murder of anthropologist Myrna Mack in 1990. The researcher was stabbed 27 times and bled to death in the street in front of her office in Guatemala City.
** Please continue to send us any relevant cases involving threats to academic freedom and education rights, for potential alerts.
The Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR) is a membership-based, non-governmental organisation which facilitates international collaboration between organisations active in issues of academic freedom and educational rights, and committed to promoting an understanding of, and respect for, the values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
For more information about NEAR, please visit our website at www.nearinternational.org
For further information please contact:-
Roisin Joyce
Deputy Director
roisin.joyce@nearinternational.org