Despite a summer break, there has been plenty of activity to report
Two positive pieces of news from Egypt and Turkey: firstly, as you will no doubt know, Alaa Abdel Fattah was released on September 22nd following a pardon by Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. Alaa had spent years in jail in Egypt for participating in peaceful protests against the injustices of al-Sisi’s government and was one of the most high profile political prisoners in Egypt. His release is wonderful news and is thanks to tireless campaigning from his family and the international community, including Amnesty.
Secondly, last month, we also signed cards in support of four of the Gezi park activists. In 2022, 8 men were convicted of “attempting to overthrow the government” for their alleged role in the 2013 Gezi Park Protests.
Amnesty has described Turkey’s justice system as a tool of political repression since the prosecuting authorities have repeatedly failed to provide credible evidence to substantiate the baseless charges against them, and whilst 3 of the men were released in February 2025, 5 remain in prison.
We were pleased to receive a reply from one of the prisoners, Can Atalay who is a trades union lawyer who has been sentenced to 18 years. He thanked us for our card and has put it on his “wall of hope”.
We have also continued supporting Nasser Zefzafi in Morocco by signing butterfly themed cards which celebrated the anniversary of Moroccan Independence, whilst calling for Nasser’s release.
We had a very successful event at Taunton Together at the end of September when we used our newly purchased gazebo for the first time. We obtained lots of signatures for Oqba and Nasser, our prisoners of conscience and were able to make a lot of contact with members of the public which helped raise awareness of our activities.. We even had our photo published on the website of the County Gazette!
Last Thursday saw the launch of the Amnesty South West Network.
This network is designed to make it easier for more people in the region to be part of Amnesty’s work who may find it difficult to attend meetings as it will operate principally online.
An inaugural webinar took place last Thursday entitled “Breaking the Silence: Disillusioned Israeli soldiers speak out. Founded in March 2004 Breaking the Silence is an organisation of veteran soldiers who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public to the reality of the horrendous conditions faced by the Palestinians in the West Bank. They endeavour to stimulate public debate in Israel about this and, through their work aim to bring an end to the occupation.
July 2025
Apologies for the lack of a blog over the last couple of months; we have had a busy schedule since April with an excellent talk on the plight of the Roma people by Ulrike Schmidt, Amnesty UK country co-ordinator for the Balkans.
One of the oldest and largest ethnic minorities, who have a long history of persecution which continues today, the Roma people are routinely deprived of their rights to housing, education, healthcare and employment. Amnesty is calling on governments across Europe to develop policies in consultation with the Roma to promote social inclusion and combat the entrenched discrimination in public service provision as well as in society in general.
At our meetings, we have continued to follow with interest the case of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who has been in prison for over 10 years. The UN ruled in May that his detention by the Egyptian authorities was illegal under international law and that he should be released immediately. Alaa’s mother Soueif remains on hunger strike in protest.
We have written cards in support of the BK16, the group of Indian human rights defenders who remain imprisoned without trial for an alleged plot against the Indian government.
Several local schools have been writing letters in support of one of our Write for Rights cases, Oqba Hashad, an Egyptian student held in pre-trail detention since 2019 in retaliation for his exiled brother’s human rights activism. For more information about Oqba, click here
If you are a teacher and would be interested in involving your students in campaigning for Oqba’s release, please email Pat, at amnestytaunton@gmail.com for a schools pack which contains all the information you need to start campaigning.
At our last meeting, we marked Throne Day in Morocco by signing a letter to the Moroccan Prime Minister asking him to recommend Nasses Zefzafi for a royal pardon. Zefzafi has been arbitrarily detained on charges linked to peaceful activism. Throne Day celebrates the accession of King Mohammed VI and provides an opportunity for Royal Pardons.
For those of you who do not subscribe to the local groups newsletter, you may be interested to hear that Mahmoud Khalil has been released after 3 months in detention. He took part in the Columbia University pro-Palestinian protests in 2024 and he was arrested as part of the broader efforts of the Trump administration to suppress solidarity with the Palestinian people. Incidentally, if you would like to read an Amnesty briefing on the first 100 days in office from a human rights perspective, please click here – it makes for a sobering read.
I mentioned the Niger Delta in my last blog – the High Court Preliminary issues trial ruling stated that Shell can be held accountable for its historic oil spills which have decimated the land and livelihood of the Ogale and Bille communities. The legal process can now move to the next stage in the fight for justice. If you are not sure about the history behind this court proceedings, click here to find out more.
In a related piece of positive news, the Nigerian government have pardoned the Ogoni 9. You may recall that the Ogoni 9 who included Ken Saro-Wiwa, an environmental activist and writer, were executed after a blatantly unfair trial on 10 November 1995. Officially accused of involvement in murder, the men had in fact been put on trial because they had challenged the devastating impact of oil production by Shell. November will mark 30 years since their hanging, and Amnesty plan to use this anniversary to call for full exoneration for the Ogoni 9. We hope to bring you more information about this in the autumn.
We have been talking about how to have more of a presence locally in terms of publicity. Firstly we hope to update our website more regularly with information about the campaigns we are working on, and with news about upcoming events. Secondly we have decided to purchase a gazebo! This has been generously funded by individual contributions, and will allow us to be less weather dependent when planning to attend local events. Look out for our red roofed gazebo at Taunton Together 25, a celebration of Diversity, Arts, Culture and Creativity which will be held on Saturday September 26th 10-4pm in locations across the town centre. Please come along and say hello!
Finally, our Media of the Month…Channel 4’s documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack. Uncomfortable viewing but recommended.
Some good news – Rita Karasartova of Kyrgyzstan, featured in Write for Rights 2023, has been acquitted and released – ‘We didn’t expect it at all. We were crying from surprise,’ said Rita.
Amnesty International Taunton Local Group 