It’s a never ending story it seems.
Freedom of speech is already a sharp two sided sword in Western countries.
But in Asia and the Middle East you don’t have it.
Simple as that.

When you are a blogger and one with a critical mind at that, you can easily get into trouble.

This time it’s a young man from Burma, who reported during the uprising in 2007 via his blog.

A Burmese blogger has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for posting a cartoon of the military leader Than Shwe.

Nay Phone Latt was arrested in January; the sentence delivered on Monday included 15 years for offences under the Electronics Act, two years for “creating public alarm” and three and a half years for offences under the Video Act, his mother said.

Full article on BBC

And he’s not the only one. And not only in Burma.

Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.

In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice.

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent.

Human Rights Watch said that Ms Falih had exhausted all her chances of appealing against her death sentence and she could only now be saved if King Abdullah intervened.

Sign the Petition to halt the execution

More on BBC

Letter from Human Rights Watch to King Abdullah bin Abd al-’Aziz Al Saud

Human Rights Watch

Earlier, her interrogators blocked her access to a lawyer and the judges, and denied her the right to professional legal representation, thus depriving her of the opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses against her.

Quote from an article on Hands of Cain

Western Resistance

In November 2007 an Egyptian man was beheaded, after being charged with sorcery

More on Virtue Commission Members or “The religious police”

…im Minisupermarkt um die Ecke hoere ich doch glatt aus dem Fernseher eine bekannte Stimme auf Deutsch hochschwallende Saetze von sich geben.
Da faellt mir doch fast die Milch aus der Hand

(Es war das Schroederlein)