Rights advocate calls for release of three Lao dissidents ucanews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ucanews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
UN Expert Urges Laos To Free Critics
04/13/21 AT 1:45 AM
A UN rights expert has urged Laos to free three activists serving long prison sentences for criticising the country s authoritarian communist government.
The trio Somphone Phimmasone, Soukan Chaithad and Lodkham Thammavong were jailed in 2017 after taking part in a protest outside the Laos embassy in Bangkok and posting Facebook messages.
Mary Lawlor, the UN s special rapporteur on human rights defenders, said they had not had a fair trial and called for their release. To date, none of the above human rights defenders have had access to their lawyers, she said in a statement issued late Monday.
BANGKOK (AFP) - A UN rights expert has urged Laos to free three activists serving long prison sentences for criticising the country's authoritarian communist government.. Read more at straitstimes.com.
Tuesday, 13 April 2021, 6:29 am
GENEVA (12 April 2021) – A UN expert called on the
Government of Lao PDR to immediately release three human
rights defenders who have been detained for more than five
years, saying their continued imprisonment was an impediment
to the advancement of human rights in the South-East Asian
nation.
A court in the capital, Vientiane, sentenced
Ms. Lodkham Thammavong, Mr. Soukane Chaithad and Mr.
Somphone Phimmasone to prison terms of up to 30 years in
2017 after they took part in a demonstration outside the Lao
Embassy in Thailand to express concerns over the
government’s human rights record. The three, who were
Lao PDR: Five years after arrest, human rights defenders still denied access to lawyers – UN expert
Format
GENEVA (12 April 2021) – A UN expert called on the Government of Lao PDR to immediately release three human rights defenders who have been detained for more than five years, saying their continued imprisonment was an impediment to the advancement of human rights in the South-East Asian nation.
A court in the capital, Vientiane, sentenced Ms. Lodkham Thammavong, Mr. Soukane Chaithad and Mr. Somphone Phimmasone to prison terms of up to 30 years in 2017 after they took part in a demonstration outside the Lao Embassy in Thailand to express concerns over the government’s human rights record. The three, who were arrested in March 2016, had also posted messages on social media criticizing the Government.