New Delhi, India – Kulvinder Kaur had tried and tried again to call her husband in the United States. After two weeks of the connection not going through, she was consumed by anxiety, she said from her home in Hoshiarpur, in the northern Indian state of Punjab. “I was really afraid about what might have…
Los Angeles, California – As a series of wind-driven wildfires caused unprecedented destruction in southern California this month, fire crews composed of currently and formerly incarcerated individuals were at the forefront of the fight to contain the flames. California’s firefighting programme has long been criticised for its reliance on imprisoned workers, who face low pay…
I was held in Guantanamo detention centre for 14 years without ever being charged with a crime. I was sent there when I was 19. I didn’t know why I was being held, what I had done to be imprisoned, or when I would be released. Like many of the other men at Guantanamo, I…
A United States military appeals court has denied an effort by Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin to throw out possible plea deals for the alleged mastermind of the attacks on September 11, 2001, and his two co-conspirators. The deals could see the three men — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi — plead…
Eugene Spector, a US citizen born in Russia, has been sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security Russian penal colony. Russia’s FSB security service has said a US citizen sentenced to a 15-year jail term this week was found guilty of leaking biotechnology secrets to the United States. In a statement on Friday, FSB…
Suspected riot erupts inside a prison in capital Maputo, with some officials denying the incident is linked to post-election unrest. A suspected riot inside a jail in Mozambique’s capital has left at least 33 people dead and 15 injured, while more than 1,500 prisoners escaped, authorities said. Police general commander Bernardino Rafael on Wednesday said…
Sednaya, Syria – For decades, Sednaya prison was only ever mentioned in hushed tones in Syria. Torture and death were known to be routine in this place everyone called the “human slaughterhouse”. But on the evening of December 7, that all ended when Syrian opposition fighters burst through doors and liberated the prisoners. In no…
Venezuela’s government has taken steps to release some arrested in post-election crackdown but continues to pressure opposition. The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has released 103 people imprisoned following the country’s contested July election, which the opposition accused Maduro of stealing. The citizen security service, headed by Minister Diosdado Cabello, announced the prisoner release…
