#political-repression

#political-repression

Ilker Catak's Yellow Letters and Emin Alper's Salvation, two politically outspoken films that examine Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's autocratic regime, shared the top prizes at this year's Berlinale: the Golden Bear for Catak and Silver for Alper. These striking works share a lot more. Both titles are co-produced by Liman, an indie film company from Turkey.

The reality at the moment is that we're unable to get in touch with the players. That's incredibly concerning. That's not a new thing. That's really been since the repression really dialled up in February, January. So we're really concerned about the players, but our responsibility right now is to do everything within our power to try and make sure that they're safe.

The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation issued the decree late on Friday, citing the parties' failure to meet their legal obligations. Beyond stripping them of their legal status, the order froze their assets and banned the use of their names, logos and emblems, with a government-appointed curator assigned to oversee the transfer of their holdings.

For years, Luis Peche, a 31-year-old political consultant, dreamed of a Venezuela without its leader, Nicolas Maduro. Living under Maduro's rule, Peche saw friends flee the country for fear of hunger and repression. Others were imprisoned for their activism. Then, in May 2025, Peche himself was forced into exile after being tipped off that security forces were preparing to arrest him. He has lived in Colombia ever since.

"The government believes that the proliferation of political parties has led to abuses, fuelled divisions among citizens and weakened the social fabric," it said. A bill scrapping party statutes, financing rules and the post of opposition leader will be sent to the transitional council, according to cabinet minutes. All assets of the dissolved parties will be transferred to the state. Before the coup, Burkina Faso had more than 100 registered political parties, with 15 holding seats in parliament after the 2020 election.

Ugandans are preparing to vote in an election that is expected to result in Yoweri Museveni extending his nearly four-decade grip on power in the east African country, after a campaign beset by violence. Security forces have frequently clamped down on supporters of Museveni's main opponent, Bobi Wine, by teargassing and shooting bullets at events and detaining people. Authorities have also arrested civil society members and suspended rights groups.

A new report by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances on Sunday said a total of 1,913 complaints were filed with it over disappearances, of which 1,569 were considered to have disappeared by definition after verification selection. list of 3 itemsend of list Among these, 287 allegations have fallen in the Missing and Dead' category, the report, which was posted on Facebook by Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, read.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah came to global attention because he was a leading figure in the 2011 pro-democracy revolution that turned Cairo's Tahrir Square into a surging sea of young people. The demonstrators chanted Down with corruption, Down with autocracy and Down with dictators. When the uprising succeeded in toppling Egypt's dictator Hosni Mubarak, the world rejoiced, including Europe and North America. Abd el-Fattah was all over the media, a voice for the part of the movement that was committed to building an accountable, participatory democracy

Ali Karimli's whereabouts were unclear on November 30, a day after the raid on his Baku home, according to the Popular Front Party. Other officials with the party, known as AXCP, also reported their residences searched and had also gone missing. Turan Ibrahim, whose father Mammad serves as a member of the party's presidium, said in a post on Facebook that more than a dozen security agents searched his father's house, seizing his phone and computer and took him to undisclosed locations.

The US state department announced on Thursday that the ban would apply to Germany's Antifa Ost, an anti-fascist group whose members have been prosecuted by German authorities for attacks on far-right figures; Italy's International Revolutionary Front, which sent explosive packages to the then president of the European Commission in 2003; and two organisations accused of planting bombs in Greece: Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self Defense.

The Thai defendant, who was arrested in Cambodia the day after the shooting, had faced a potential death sentence for the premeditated murder but his sentence was commuted to life as he confessed. Who was Lim Kimya? Kimya, 74, was a dual Cambodian and French citizen and a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) from 2013 to 2017.

Walter Salles' " I'm Still Here," which won the Best International Feature Film Oscar earlier this year, calmly but powerfully observes a real-life personal struggle under a dictatorship in Brazil during the early 1970s. While never overlooking the grim and horrific aspects of that time, the movie stays focused on small but resonant human moments, and these intimate interactions become all the more poignant to us as the story eventually arrives at its two-part epilogue.