rferl--2020-09-06--Iran Broadcasts Wrestler's Purported Murder Confession

Iran has broadcast the purported confession of a wrestler whose execution sentence has been condemned by rights groups and criticized by U.S. President Donald Trump .
State television on September 6 broadcast video of Navid Afkari saying he stabbed a man , and showed confessions purportedly written by the 27-year-old wrestler .
However , in a recording circulating on social media , Afkari has said his confession was coerced .
Afkari was sentenced to death for committing a murder during mass anti-government protests in 2018 , and the airing of his purported confession came just days after Trump intervened on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ September 3 tweet , Trump called for Iran to reverse the death sentence imposed after Afkari 's conviction of murdering a man in the southern city of Shiraz amid the protests was upheld .
Human rights activists at home and abroad have denied that Afkari committed the crime and say that his confession was obtained under torture .
His two brothers also received sentences of 54 and 27 years , as well as 74 lashes each .
Dozens of Iranian athletes and international wrestlers have joined a campaign against the death sentence .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ on August 31 that the Iranian Supreme Court upheld the wrestler ’ s death sentence in an August 15 ruling .
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters

A polytechnic school in Russia’s Tatarstan, a region some 900 kilometers east of Moscow, is using manufacturing facilities that are part of a nearby special economic zone to assemble Iranian attack drones and are increasingly turning to underage students as laborers, many of whom often work in exploitative conditions.
The revelations at Alabuga Polytechnic University raise troubling implications about the lengths that Russian authorities are going to in order to boost the war effort and how the advanced Iranian weaponry -- which is increasingly used to bombard Ukrainian cities and has only recently begun to be manufactured inside Russia -- could contribute to escalating tensions and rising civilian casualties.
The use of underage students as drone factory workers and the details of the manufacturing facilities were first reported by Russian independent media outlets Protokol and Razvorot, which published a series of investigations in July.
Since then, RFE/RL’s Idel.Realities has spoken with students who describe grueling working conditions and interviewed dozens of parents whose children have been enrolled at Alabuga Polytechnic University -- some as young at 15 -- who say that their children were forced to work exceedingly long hours, often without proper breaks or meals, and under hostile conditions that have deeply affected their mental health.
“My son enrolled and 2 1/2 months later he called for me to take him away,” Zhanna, who asked to be identified only by her first name to protect against reprisals for speaking about the operation, told RFE/RL. “He said to me on the phone, ‘Come and get me or I’ll die,’ so I picked him up immediately.”
Zhanna, who asked that her underage son’s name also not be used, says that she sent him from Nizhny Novgorod to study at Alabuga Polytechnic University in 2022 because of its reputation as a leading technical institution inside Russia.
The school offered students -- often between the ages of 15-18 -- an opportunity to get vocational training as part of a dual program that combines a classroom education with practical work experience. Students were also promised an opportunity to work and earn a locally competitive salary of up to 70,000 rubles ($700) a month as part of the work experience program that could further their career growth.
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
But, instead, those enrolled were encouraged and in some cases pressured into working at the drone facility, where the salaries of the mostly underage laborers are contingent on meeting tough production quotas.
“This is a textbook definition of what constitutes exploitation,” Sergei Podsytnik, an investigative journalist at Protokol who worked on the series of reports, told RFE/RL. “[Students] assemble drones, with the work taking priority over their studies.”
The pressure to fulfill these quotas has allegedly led to strenuous back-to-back days -- with some shifts lasting up to 15 hours -- with little time for sleep or adequate sustenance. Overtime work is often unpaid, further highlighting potential labor violations. Exhausted students also reported not always meeting their quotas, which led to them not earning the salary initially promised by the school. Many students came from disadvantaged backgrounds and relied on their earnings to cover costs for tuition, room, and board and would send the remainder home.
Other parents, such as Marina, said she decided to take her daughter out of the program when she discovered that she was working in apparent unsafe conditions and that staff from the school had instructed students not to tell their parents about the drone assembly work.
“This was the last straw for me,” Marina, who also asked for her identity to be concealed, told RFE/RL. “This is a dangerous production process that involves dangerous chemicals. They also forbid the kids from telling everything to their parents.”
RFE/RL sent multiple requests for comment to various staff and administrators at Alabuga Polytechnic University but received no replies.
Making Iranian Drones In Russia
The complicated and concerning dynamic at Alabuga Polytechnic University stems from growing military cooperation between Iran and Russia that has accelerated since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Iran has said it provided drones to Russia before the start of the war, but not since. However, U.S. intelligence officials have warned for months of continued deliveries and deepening cooperation between Moscow and Tehran, saying the two sides were exploring how to set up a manufacturing plant for Iranian drones inside Russia.
According to The Wall Street Journal, an Iranian delegation visited Yelabuga in Tatarstan on January 5, touring a potential site for such a factory at the Alabuga special economic zone close to Alabuga Polytechnic University. U.S. officials released satellite images in April of the plant being built.
Russia already possesses an array of unarmed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, which are used mainly for surveillance and artillery spotting, but has turned increasingly to Tehran for attack drones.
After being forced to abandon Ukrainian territory that its troops captured in the early stretches of the war, Moscow shifted to a strategy of relentless air assaults on Ukrainian cities. These attacks often rely on a combination of cruise missiles and self-detonating drones packed with explosives to knock out electricity and running water for the civilian population in Ukraine.
So far, Iran has provided Russia mostly with so-called "suicide" drones, known as the Shahed-136, that contain a modest amount of explosives that can detonate when the drones crash into targets, military experts say.
In acquiring its own domestic assembly line, Russia could dramatically increase its stockpile of the relatively inexpensive but highly destructive weapons systems.
WATCH: Russia has resorted to using Shahed-136 drones from Iran in its war on Ukraine. Ukraine says it's already downed many of the drones, which work by slamming into their intended target, laden with explosives. Ordinary Ukrainians say they can already recognize the sound of the drones, which use two-stroke engines like lawnmowers or motorbikes. Iran has denied supplying the drones to Russia.
The arrangement also offers substantial economic and political benefits for Iran, which has sought to portray itself as neutral in the Ukraine war. The appearance of Iranian-made drones over Ukrainian cities, however, has triggered threats of new economic sanctions from the West. The United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom have also all issued rules in recent months designed to cut off the flow of drone components to Russia and Iran.
The Washington Post reported in November 2022, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials, that the agreement to deliver Iranian drone schematics and materials for manufacture in Russia resulted from Iranian leaders believing that the arrangement would allow Tehran to avert new sanctions.
Foreign Recruitment And Patriotic Education
Alabuga Polytechnic University is formally not a college. All of its students are officially enrolled at nearby Yelabuga Polytechnic College, with the Alabuga institution existing on paper as a specialized program for students looking to break into high-tech industries.
Currently, about 1,000 students are studying at Alabuga Polytechnic University, with several hundred of them -- most of whom are between the ages of 15 and 17 -- involved in assembling the Iranian drones.
In addition to the work on the drones, there are other signs that point to blurred lines in Russia between the education system and the country’s military amid the war in Ukraine.
According to current and former Alabuga Polytechnic University students, team-building and organized extracurricular activities through the school often take on a “patriotic” character that may be designed to expose students to official government narratives of international events or echo talking points from state television.
Organized paintball games have become a mainstay for students, especially first-year arrivals, in which they are encouraged to compete against one another and then play together against more experienced outside players. Teachers and administration officials regularly refer to paintball as being part of a “patriotic” education needed to complement the technical aspect of their studies.
In one instance, a group of new students competed in paintball as Soviet soldiers against outside players who were dressed as troops from Nazi Germany in a capture-the-flag competition meant to simulate the World War II battle of Stalingrad. According to one student, the Nazi flag contained the compass symbol used by the NATO military alliance instead of the swastika used by Nazi Germany.
Other instances of political teachings from staff are more direct. In a recording obtained by RFE/RL from June 16, a senior administrator can be heard telling the teenagers that NATO launched a hybrid war against Russia back in 2011 and that it has slowly become more overt. The man then goes on to tell students that their hard work and exceeding long days at the drone factory are part of a nationwide struggle against the West and that their patriotism will be rewarded.
Several students and parents identified the man in the recording as Timur Shagivaleev, the director-general of the special economic zone where Alabuga Polytechnic University and the drone factory operate.
Shagivaleev did not respond to RFE/RL’s request for comment.
The man in the recording then goes on to tell students not to take holidays and to continue working “even if it's mom's birthday,” before ending his speech with, “Long live our great country.”
WATCH: Amid a new wave of Russian drone attacks on Ukraine, analysts in Kyiv are gaining useful intelligence from a collection of downed Russian aerial weapons. They have been studying the remains of Iranian Shahed drones and Russian Kinzhal missiles, among others.
Multiple current and former students told RFE/RL that students who work in the drone factory are often praised by staff, while those who have refused or asked to be reassigned due to the high workload are often publicly shamed. In some instances -- according to recordings heard by RFE/RL -- staff even encourage students to bully others who are not deemed “patriotic” enough.
According to Protokol and Razvorot’s investigations, Alabuga Polytechnic University has also turned toward recruiting foreign students to enroll. The majority of them come from African countries, but also from Central Asia and Azerbaijan, where they are promised “world class” salaries as part of the dual-track world experience program.
However, these foreign students are then given low-skill and menial tasks around the campus and the special economic zone, such as janitorial work, and are also paid lower salaries than initially promised.
Written by Reid Standish based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Idel.Realities


rferl--2020-09-06--Serbian Official Lashes Out At Russian Spokeswoman For Mocking President

A top Serbian official has lashed out at Moscow after a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman mocked Serbia 's president for his participation in a U.S. White House ceremony .
The back-and-forth between Belgrade and Moscow was an unusually public and biting exchange given the historical close ties between the two countries .
Serbian President Aleksandr Vucic participated in a ceremony at the Oval Office on September 4 along with Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti of Kosovo , in an event marking the normalization of economic relations between the two countries .
The event was hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted a photograph of Vucic sitting in front of Trump 's desk , and wrote a mocking post suggesting he should have been sitting like the seductive character played by actress Sharon Stone in the U.S. movie Basic Instinct .
On September 6 , a top Serbian government official , Marko Djuric , defended Vucic and reprimanded Zakharova .
He also took a poke at Russian President Vladimir Putin who , Djuric said , had once made Vucic wait 90 minutes for a meeting in Moscow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ single bad word against Russia , not even in that place , '' Djuric wrote on Twitter .
Vucic `` waited for an hour and a half to be received by the Russian president and never asked for a special chair .
I will not allow you to attack proud Serbia .
Shame on you ! ''
he wrote .
In a later post on Facebook , Zakharova seemed to walk back her suggestion about Vucic , saying she had been misunderstood .
The Russian Foreign Ministry also announced on September 6 that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ telephone with Vucic , during which Vucic briefed Lavrov on the outcome of his trip to Washington .
On the issue of Kosovo , the Russian ministry said , the Kremlin had stressed its position of seeking a `` long-term settlement based on UN Security Council Resolution 1244 . ''
The Oval Office event was seen as notable progress in getting Belgrade and Pristina to agree to full diplomatic relations .
A former province of Serbia , Kosovo broke away after the 1999 war and declared independence in 2008 .
Serbia , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ declaration , and Serbia and Kosovo have engaged in trade blockades .
The Trump administration has pushed hard for the two countries to normalize relations , and the ceremony was seen as a victory for U.S. diplomatic efforts .

A top Serbian official has lashed out at Moscow after a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman mocked Serbia's president for his participation in a U.S. White House ceremony.
The back-and-forth between Belgrade and Moscow was an unusually public and biting exchange given the historical close ties between the two countries.
Serbian President Aleksandr Vucic participated in a ceremony at the Oval Office on September 4 along with Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti of Kosovo, in an event marking the normalization of economic relations between the two countries. The event was hosted by U.S. President Donald Trump.
A day after the ceremony, however, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted a photograph of Vucic sitting in front of Trump's desk, and wrote a mocking post suggesting he should have been sitting like the seductive character played by actress Sharon Stone in the U.S. movie Basic Instinct.
On September 6, a top Serbian government official, Marko Djuric, defended Vucic and reprimanded Zakharova.
He also took a poke at Russian President Vladimir Putin who, Djuric said, had once made Vucic wait 90 minutes for a meeting in Moscow.
Vucic "did not say a single bad word against Russia, not even in that place," Djuric wrote on Twitter.
Vucic "waited for an hour and a half to be received by the Russian president and never asked for a special chair. I will not allow you to attack proud Serbia. Shame on you!" he wrote.
In a later post on Facebook, Zakharova seemed to walk back her suggestion about Vucic, saying she had been misunderstood.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also announced on September 6 that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had spoken by telephone with Vucic, during which Vucic briefed Lavrov on the outcome of his trip to Washington.
On the issue of Kosovo, the Russian ministry said, the Kremlin had stressed its position of seeking a "long-term settlement based on UN Security Council Resolution 1244."
The Oval Office event was seen as notable progress in getting Belgrade and Pristina to agree to full diplomatic relations.
A former province of Serbia, Kosovo broke away after the 1999 war and declared independence in 2008.
Serbia, and Russia, have refused to recognize the declaration, and Serbia and Kosovo have engaged in trade blockades.
The Trump administration has pushed hard for the two countries to normalize relations, and the ceremony was seen as a victory for U.S. diplomatic efforts.


rferl--2020-09-06--Thousands March In Minsk In Latest Opposition Effort To Pressure Lukashenka

MINSK -- Tens of thousands of Belarusians have marched through central Minsk as part of the continuing opposition-led effort to pressure President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to resign .
Scenes from the Belarusian capital on September 6 showed massive crowds marching through the city center chanting `` Long live Belarus ! ''
and `` Shame !
`` , and carrying red-and-white flags and banners , a symbol of the opposition that has been banned by the authorities .
Shortly after nightfall , journalists were reporting that the 29th-straight day of demonstrations was over , with defenses removed and traffic resuming in front @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cordon in front of Lukashenka 's residence reportedly used tear gas on demonstrators , and at least 20 protesters at the site were detained .
A live blog of the `` March of Unity '' by RFE/RL 's Belarus Service reported that dozens of protesters had been detained in Minsk , and that confrontations between police and demonstrators had taken place in the the western city of Hrodna , and to the east in Mahilyou .
The Belarusian rights group Vyasna placed the number of detentions of protesters in Minsk at more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dozen detained in Brest , and other detentions recorded in Baranavichy and Hrodna .
The Belarusian Association of Journalists reported on its Telegram channel that two journalists were detained .
Protests were also reported in the southern city of Homel .
Earlier in the day , riot police were seen stringing barbed wire around several government buildings and monuments in central Minsk , and helmeted police were spotted outside several subway stations .
Videos posted to several Telegram channels appeared to show armored vehicles being staged in several locations in the city .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ warned of a crackdown against those who decided to participate in the unsanctioned demonstration .
Lukashenka , who has ruled the country for 26 years , has refused to hold talks with his opponents , and rebuffed calls to hold new elections .
He claims to have won the August 9 elections with over 80 percent of the vote , something his opponents and outside observers say is false .
Opposition groups are also calling for the release of political prisoners and for an independent investigation of the police crackdown that swept up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Meanwhile , the country 's leading opposition figure , Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya , said her country was in `` deep political crisis . ''
`` Belarusians have changed , they have woken up , '' she said in a live stream on September 5 from Vilnius , where she fled in the days after the vote .
The people of Belarus `` do n't believe in the current government anymore . ''
She said that it was `` impossible to force people to back down . ''
The postelection demonstrations are the greatest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ September 5 , two unsanctioned rallies organized separately by university students and women 's groups took place in Minsk .
News agencies reported that dozens of students were dragged from the streets and pushed into vans by masked security agents .
Interfax quoted a police representative as saying that 25 students were later released , while nine others remained in detention .
The protests have not been limited to Minsk .
Several hundred people rallied in the southern city of Homel on September 5 , and police detained at least two protest participants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this week to hold meetings with top Polish officials .
A top Tsikhanouskaya aide told reporters in Warsaw on September 5 that she had been forced to leave Belarus by authorities .
Volha Kovalkova said she was made to lie down on the floor of an intelligence service car driving her to the border , where she was released .
She managed to board a Polish bus after the driver recognized her .
`` Everything that happened these past days and weeks I consider as torture .
They threatened me with lengthy detention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ With reporting by Current Time , Reuters , Interfax , and AFP

MINSK -- Tens of thousands of Belarusians have marched through central Minsk as part of the continuing opposition-led effort to pressure President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to resign.
Scenes from the Belarusian capital on September 6 showed massive crowds marching through the city center chanting "Long live Belarus!" and "Shame!", and carrying red-and-white flags and banners, a symbol of the opposition that has been banned by the authorities.
Shortly after nightfall, journalists were reporting that the 29th-straight day of demonstrations was over, with defenses removed and traffic resuming in front of the Independence Palace.
Police manning the cordon in front of Lukashenka's residence reportedly used tear gas on demonstrators, and at least 20 protesters at the site were detained.
A live blog of the "March of Unity" by RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported that dozens of protesters had been detained in Minsk, and that confrontations between police and demonstrators had taken place in the the western city of Hrodna, and to the east in Mahilyou.
The Belarusian rights group Vyasna placed the number of detentions of protesters in Minsk at more than 180, with a further three dozen detained in Brest, and other detentions recorded in Baranavichy and Hrodna.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists reported on its Telegram channel that two journalists were detained.
Protests were also reported in the southern city of Homel.
Earlier in the day, riot police were seen stringing barbed wire around several government buildings and monuments in central Minsk, and helmeted police were spotted outside several subway stations.
Videos posted to several Telegram channels appeared to show armored vehicles being staged in several locations in the city.
Ahead of the march, security services warned of a crackdown against those who decided to participate in the unsanctioned demonstration.
Lukashenka, who has ruled the country for 26 years, has refused to hold talks with his opponents, and rebuffed calls to hold new elections.
He claims to have won the August 9 elections with over 80 percent of the vote, something his opponents and outside observers say is false.
Opposition groups are also calling for the release of political prisoners and for an independent investigation of the police crackdown that swept up thousands in the days after the election.
Meanwhile, the country's leading opposition figure, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said her country was in "deep political crisis."
"Belarusians have changed, they have woken up," she said in a live stream on September 5 from Vilnius, where she fled in the days after the vote.
The people of Belarus "don't believe in the current government anymore." She said that it was "impossible to force people to back down."
The postelection demonstrations are the greatest challenge to date for Lukashenka.
On September 5, two unsanctioned rallies organized separately by university students and women's groups took place in Minsk. News agencies reported that dozens of students were dragged from the streets and pushed into vans by masked security agents.
Interfax quoted a police representative as saying that 25 students were later released, while nine others remained in detention.
Crisis In Belarus Read our coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election.
The protests have not been limited to Minsk. Several hundred people rallied in the southern city of Homel on September 5, and police detained at least two protest participants.
Tsikhanouskaya was scheduled to visit Warsaw this week to hold meetings with top Polish officials.
A top Tsikhanouskaya aide told reporters in Warsaw on September 5 that she had been forced to leave Belarus by authorities.
Volha Kovalkova said she was made to lie down on the floor of an intelligence service car driving her to the border, where she was released. She managed to board a Polish bus after the driver recognized her.
"Everything that happened these past days and weeks I consider as torture. They threatened me with lengthy detention several times," Kovalkova said.
With reporting by Current Time, Reuters, Interfax, and AFP


rferl--2020-09-07--Logistical Issues Delay Start Of Intra-Afghan Talks In Qatar

KABUL -- Afghan negotiators have postponed a scheduled trip to Doha for long-awaited peace talks with the Taliban because of logistical issues at the venue of the talks in the Qatari capital .
A date for the start of the negotiations has not been set , but both sides have indicated that talks could begin soon after they finalized a months-long prisoner exchange last week .
Afghan negotiators had initially expected to fly to Doha late last week ahead of talks starting as soon as September 7 .
But Afghan officials said the team is not expected to leave until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Taliban ’ s negotiating team arrived in Qatar on September 5 .
Afghan presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on September 7 that both sides were making final preparations .
“ Technical issues and preparations are almost complete .
We hope that the Taliban also finishes their preparations so that our delegation can travel [ to Qatar ] , ” Sediqqi said .
In an interview published on September 6 , Vice President Amrullah Saleh said the Afghan delegation would go to Doha after all logistical issues are sorted , including who should be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should be arranged during the opening ceremony of the talks .
Another issue was the release of six remaining Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan .
In a deal struck with the Taliban last week , the inmates will be transferred to Qatar , where they will be under house arrest , Saleh said .
An Afghan government official , speaking on condition of anonymity , said the six had been transferred to Doha on September 7 .
Earlier , Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the militant group was waiting for the six prisoners to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from both sides were working on the issue .
France and Australia had objected to the release of the men because of their links to the murders of French and Australian civilians and troops in Afghanistan .
The delayed intra-Afghan negotiations are part of a landmark deal signed between the United States and the Taliban in February .
Under the U.S.-Taliban agreement , international forces should withdraw from Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees from the Taliban , which pledged to negotiate a permanent cease-fire and power-sharing deal with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Taliban prisoners would be set free by the Afghan government ahead of the negotiations , in return for 1,000 members of the security forces held by the militants .
The last Taliban prisoners , except the six being sent to Qatar , were released last week .
With reporting by Reuters and AP

The education of girls and women is universally accepted in more than 200 countries and territories, including nearly 50 Muslim-majority nations.
But Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamist Taliban rulers have banned teenage girls from attending school after the sixth grade since they returned to power two years ago. The ban was extended in December to women in universities.
Countless protests by Afghans inside the country, pressure from the international community, and lobbying by Muslim scholars and clerics have failed to convince the fundamentalist Taliban leaders to reopen schools.
Experts are divided over whether the ban is rooted in how the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam is shaped by conservative Pashtun tribal customs and cultural practices or if it is prompted by how senior Taliban ideologues interpret Islamic teachings.
Most Taliban leaders are ethnic Pashtun, Sunni Muslim clerics. Many were educated in Deobandi madrasahs in neighboring Pakistan. Deobandism emerged as a puritanical Islamic revivalist movement in 19-century British Colonial India. Based on the Sunni Hanafi school of jurisprudence, it is a prominent strain among Islamists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Tribal Influences
Sami Yousafzai, a veteran Afghan journalist and commentator, argues that the Taliban restrictions against women are linked to social customs and cultural practices in eastern and southern Afghanistan.
Most Taliban leaders come from various Pashtun rural tribal communities in these regions bordering Pakistan.
"They believe that a woman's place is either inside a house or in a grave," Yousafzai said of the basic Taliban belief influenced by the status of women in the families of clerics and religious leaders in these Pashtun regions.
“Women living in the households of the current Taliban policymakers were never educated and never left their homes,” said Yousafzai, who has tracked the Islamist group since it emerged as a ragtag militia in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar in late 1994. “These women never performed any government or nongovernmental jobs.”
Yousafzai says the Taliban backs policies shaped by this worldview by leaning on Islamic teachings supporting such ideas. He says Taliban leaders rely on sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad that discourage women from leaving their homes.
“Their primary belief is that pubescent girls should not leave home under any circumstance,” he said. “This is why they view women leaving home for education or work as engaging in moral corruption.”
In Afghanistan, a Muslim nation of some 40 million people, activists and rights advocates accuse the Taliban of implementing "gender apartheid" by denying women education, work, freedom of movement, and deciding how they can appear in public.
Most Muslims agree that Islam allows women to get an education. Yet the Taliban publicly says that it will allow girls access to education only after ensuring complete gender segregation and other unspecified conditions.
Almost all Afghan secondary schools were gender segregated and universities imposed a strict separation between men and women after the Taliban takeover.
Yousafzai says in conservative and traditional Muslim societies around the world, some clerics also favor restrictions on women's education, work, and their role in public life. But the governments in those countries usually oppose or limit such ideas.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia -- one of the most conservative Sunni Muslim nations -- has allowed women to drive and granted them freedom of movement without a male guardian. These steps are part of a reform and modernity drive by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
The Taliban ban on education has invited universal condemnation from Muslims globally.
“The Taliban's ban on women's education is not rooted in [the Islamic] Shari’a law but rather reflects cultural biases that contradict the teachings of Islam,” said Salam al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in the United States.
He said that contrary to Taliban practices, “Islam emphasizes the importance of seeking knowledge and encourages all individuals, regardless of gender, to acquire an education.”
Historical Conflict
But Islamic scholars and those who have attempted to convince the Taliban about reopening girls schools offer a different explanation.
John Mohammad Butt, an Islamic scholar and former BBC broadcaster who is the only Westerner to graduate from India’s Darul Uloom Deoband, argues that the Taliban's policy on girls' education is not tribal but shaped by the century-old conflict over modern education.
“The problem is that girls' education in Afghanistan -- indeed, contemporary education in general -- has generally been introduced in Afghanistan in line with a secular agenda,” he said.
In the 1920s, a coalition of conservative clerics and tribal and community leaders deposed reformist King Amanullah Khan. He wanted to modernize Afghanistan along Turkish leader Kamal Ataturk's secular lines and championed modern education and rights for women.
This opposition to modernity and secularism continued, and conservative clerics opposed women's education and work. It became a key part of the Islamist opposition to the pro-Soviet Afghan communist governments after the April 1978 military coup that ended the Afghan monarchy. The mujahedin accused the communists of spreading immorality by promoting women’s education and empowerment.
“This has led to particular wariness on the part of conservative circles in Afghanistan with regard to girls' education,” Butt said.
'Deep Ideological Conviction'
Obaidullah Baheer, a political science lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan, became part of an effort to rescind the ban by talking to the Taliban last year.
But he says the effort failed because “the ban is a matter of deep ideological conviction” for the current supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.
Baheer says that the most prominent Taliban leaders have studied in Pakistani madrasahs and were thus disconnected from village and tribal life.
“They have been indoctrinated by the Deobandi school of thought so that they now enforce the strictest version of Islam on the Afghan population,” he said.
He argues that the ban on girls’ schools is a deliberate policy championed by Akhundzada, who he says has endorsed Taliban Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani's Arabic language book The Islamic Emirate And Its System. In this book, Haqqani supports a fringe Islamic opinion of preferring the choice of one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives, Sawdah Bint Zam'ah, who chose to stay at home until her death.
Baheer says Haqqani ignores his other wives and other female companions that played an active role in many sectors of society and how they served as students and teachers for men.
“This fringe opinion is not held by all Taliban leaders but is one that the current absolute sovereign, the Taliban emir, seems to be convinced of,” he said.
Butt says that even Haqqani has acknowledged the principle that if there is something that women need to act upon, then that is also something that women need to learn about.
“I hope the Taliban authorities will come to realize in the not-too-distant future that education for women will make Afghan women into better Muslims,” he says. “It will enable them to make a stronger contribution to the well-being of their country.”
Two years after grappling with the issue, Western diplomats appear to be encouraging Afghan conservative and clerical circles to find ways to end the ban.
Tom West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, recently tweeted that Afghan women must be educated and contribute to the economy to help their country stand on its own two feet.
“If change to policies is made, it will be because Afghans have asked for it, not a result of foreign requests,” he wrote.


rferl--2020-09-07--Visiting Russian Ministers Discuss Economic Ties With Syria

A senior Russian delegation has traveled to Damascus to discuss the expansion of trade and economic ties with Syria , which is attempting to rebuild following nine years of devastating civil war and crippling U.S. sanctions .
Russia has been the chief military and economic sponsor of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad , whose forces have battled opposition rebels since the conflict erupted in 2011 .
Speaking during a meeting in the Syrian capital with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov , Assad said he wanted to expand business ties with Russia .
`` The government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russian allies to implement signed agreements and to ensure the success of Russian investments in Syria , '' the Syrian leader said , according to state media .
Borisov told a press conference he expected the countries to sign an economic deal by December that would provide “ a new framework for trade and economic ties ” for the “ coming years.
” The accord proposed by Moscow includes the rehabilitation of power plants and oil exploration in Syrian waters in the Mediterranean , he said , adding that its aim is to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in Damascus for the first time since 2012 , said Syria needed international help to rebuild its economy and accused Western countries of “ trying to strangle the Syrian people.
” In June , Washington imposed sweeping sanctions targeting Assad in a bid to push Damascus back to the United Nations-led negotiating table to try to end the conflict .
The Syrian government , backed by Russia and Iran , has regained most territory from various rebel factions , except for an enclave in the northwest Idlib Province and some Kurdish-controlled areas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ killed some 700,000 people , has left towns and cities devasted , millions displaced and in poverty , and the economy crumbling under rising prices and currency collapse .
With reporting by Reuters , AFP , and AP

A senior Russian delegation has traveled to Damascus to discuss the expansion of trade and economic ties with Syria, which is attempting to rebuild following nine years of devastating civil war and crippling U.S. sanctions.
Russia has been the chief military and economic sponsor of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have battled opposition rebels since the conflict erupted in 2011.
Speaking during a meeting in the Syrian capital with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Assad said he wanted to expand business ties with Russia.
"The government is determined to continue to work with Russian allies to implement signed agreements and to ensure the success of Russian investments in Syria," the Syrian leader said, according to state media.
Borisov told a press conference he expected the countries to sign an economic deal by December that would provide “a new framework for trade and economic ties” for the “coming years.”
The accord proposed by Moscow includes the rehabilitation of power plants and oil exploration in Syrian waters in the Mediterranean, he said, adding that its aim is to provide relief from U.S. sanctions.
Lavrov, in Damascus for the first time since 2012, said Syria needed international help to rebuild its economy and accused Western countries of “trying to strangle the Syrian people.”
In June, Washington imposed sweeping sanctions targeting Assad in a bid to push Damascus back to the United Nations-led negotiating table to try to end the conflict.
The Syrian government, backed by Russia and Iran, has regained most territory from various rebel factions, except for an enclave in the northwest Idlib Province and some Kurdish-controlled areas.
But the war, which has killed some 700,000 people, has left towns and cities devasted, millions displaced and in poverty, and the economy crumbling under rising prices and currency collapse.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP


rferl--2020-09-07--Berlin Hospital Says Navalny Taken Out Of Coma, Is Responsive

The German hospital treating Aleksei Navalny says the Russian opposition leader ’ s condition `` has improved '' and he is `` responding to verbal stimuli . ''
Berlin ’ s Charite hospital said in a statement on September 7 that the 44-year-old has been `` removed from his medically induced coma '' and `` is being weaned off mechanical ventilation . ''
However , the hospital also said that it remains `` too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning . ''
Navalny , an anti-corruption campaigner who has led nationwide protests against Russian President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on August 22 , two days after falling ill on a flight in Siberia .
German experts say tests show that he was poisoned with a Soviet-style military-grade nerve agent from the Novichok group , prompting the European Union , Germany , the United States , and other countries to demand that Russia investigate the case .
Britain 's Foreign Minister Dominic Raab on September 7 said he had summoned Russia 's ambassador to London to `` register deep concern about the poisoning . ''
`` It 's completely unacceptable that a banned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must hold a full , transparent investigation , '' Raab tweeted .
`` The Russian side noted that unfounded accusations and politization of the issue , which has a strictly medical and legal nature , are unacceptable , '' the Russian Embassy said in a statement , adding that `` an interest in establishing all the facts related to this incident was expressed . ''
Russian authorities have refused to open a criminal investigation , saying that no hard evidence of poisoning has been found .
The Kremlin has also vehemently denied allegations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relatives , and others who believe that Russian authorities are behind the poisoning .
A Novichok nerve agent was used to poison Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter , Yulia , in Britain in 2018 .
A British investigation blamed the Russian state .
On September 5 , leading Russian physician Leonid Roshal , who in recent years has publicly supported Putin and his policies , said that Russia 's National Medical Chamber had called on Germany 's Physicians Chamber ( Aerztekammer ) to create a joint group to evaluate Navalny 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s wife slammed the 87-year-old Leonid Roshal as being little more than a stooge for the Russian leader .
Yulia Navalnaya wrote on Instagram that medical institutions in Russia consider patients their `` property , '' falsifying information they make public via the media while `` deceiving relatives , not letting them see the patient and inventing rules at their own discretion , literally turning the hospital into an analogue of a Russian prison . ''
`` Dr. Roshal , I would like to say that my husband is not your property @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not have , and will not have anything to do with his treatment .
All your public activities in recent years give me no reason to trust and respect you .
You are not acting as a doctor , but as the voice of the state , and you do not want to help a patient whom you do not care about , but to find out information and curry favor for your boss .
Do not take sin on your soul , especially at such a respectable age , '' Navalnaya wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ push for new sanctions against Russia if Moscow fails to explain the poisoning of the Kremlin foe , including a possible shift in German policy regarding the nearly complete Baltic Sea pipeline known as Nord Stream 2 , which would bring gas from Russia to Germany .
Merkel has been under pressure from the United States and other Western countries to scrap the plan .
Asked on September 7 whether Chancellor Angela Merkel would protect the multi-billion-euro pipeline if Germany were to seek sanctions over the Navalny case , her spokesman Steffen Seibert @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be wrong to rule anything out from the start . ''
Navalny 's close associate Lyubov Sobol told RFE/RL on September 4 that she believes that Navalny was poisoned either by Russia 's Federal Security Service or by Kremlin-connected powerful businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin .
`` Neither special services , nor Yevgeny Prigozhin could organize this poisoning without the direct order by [ Russian President ] Vladimir Putin , '' Sobol said , though she did not provide any concrete evidence of a connection .
Sobol believes the Kremlin would want to poison @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that supports independent and opposition candidates in municipal elections later in September .
She added that a wave of instability sparked by protests stretching from Belarus , on Russia 's western border , to the Far Eastern region of the Khabarovsk Krai , have also unsettled Russia 's leadership .

The German hospital treating Aleksei Navalny says the Russian opposition leader’s condition "has improved" and he is "responding to verbal stimuli."
Berlin’s Charite hospital said in a statement on September 7 that the 44-year-old has been "removed from his medically induced coma" and "is being weaned off mechanical ventilation."
However, the hospital also said that it remains "too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning."
Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner who has led nationwide protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin, was flown to Germany on August 22, two days after falling ill on a flight in Siberia.
German experts say tests show that he was poisoned with a Soviet-style military-grade nerve agent from the Novichok group, prompting the European Union, Germany, the United States, and other countries to demand that Russia investigate the case.
Britain's Foreign Minister Dominic Raab on September 7 said he had summoned Russia's ambassador to London to "register deep concern about the poisoning."
"It's completely unacceptable that a banned chemical weapon has been used and Russia must hold a full, transparent investigation," Raab tweeted.
"The Russian side noted that unfounded accusations and politization of the issue, which has a strictly medical and legal nature, are unacceptable," the Russian Embassy said in a statement, adding that "an interest in establishing all the facts related to this incident was expressed."
Russian authorities have refused to open a criminal investigation, saying that no hard evidence of poisoning has been found.
The Kremlin has also vehemently denied allegations by Navalny’s team, his relatives, and others who believe that Russian authorities are behind the poisoning.
A Novichok nerve agent was used to poison Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Britain in 2018. A British investigation blamed the Russian state.
On September 5, leading Russian physician Leonid Roshal, who in recent years has publicly supported Putin and his policies, said that Russia's National Medical Chamber had called on Germany's Physicians Chamber (Aerztekammer) to create a joint group to evaluate Navalny's health.
The next day, Navalny’s wife slammed the 87-year-old Leonid Roshal as being little more than a stooge for the Russian leader.
Instagram Post
Yulia Navalnaya wrote on Instagram that medical institutions in Russia consider patients their "property," falsifying information they make public via the media while "deceiving relatives, not letting them see the patient and inventing rules at their own discretion, literally turning the hospital into an analogue of a Russian prison."
"Dr. Roshal, I would like to say that my husband is not your property. You did not have, do not have, and will not have anything to do with his treatment. All your public activities in recent years give me no reason to trust and respect you. You are not acting as a doctor, but as the voice of the state, and you do not want to help a patient whom you do not care about, but to find out information and curry favor for your boss. Do not take sin on your soul, especially at such a respectable age," Navalnaya wrote.
Germany has signaled that Berlin would push for new sanctions against Russia if Moscow fails to explain the poisoning of the Kremlin foe, including a possible shift in German policy regarding the nearly complete Baltic Sea pipeline known as Nord Stream 2, which would bring gas from Russia to Germany. Merkel has been under pressure from the United States and other Western countries to scrap the plan.
Asked on September 7 whether Chancellor Angela Merkel would protect the multi-billion-euro pipeline if Germany were to seek sanctions over the Navalny case, her spokesman Steffen Seibert said: "The chancellor believes it would be wrong to rule anything out from the start."
Navalny's close associate Lyubov Sobol told RFE/RL on September 4 that she believes that Navalny was poisoned either by Russia's Federal Security Service or by Kremlin-connected powerful businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.
"Neither special services, nor Yevgeny Prigozhin could organize this poisoning without the direct order by [Russian President] Vladimir Putin," Sobol said, though she did not provide any concrete evidence of a connection.
Sobol believes the Kremlin would want to poison Navalny because of his Smart Voting campaign that supports independent and opposition candidates in municipal elections later in September. She added that a wave of instability sparked by protests stretching from Belarus, on Russia's western border, to the Far Eastern region of the Khabarovsk Krai, have also unsettled Russia's leadership.


rferl--2020-09-07--Azerbaijani Hunger Striker Under Pressure To Confess 'Psychological Disorder'

BAKU -- A lawyer for hunger-striking Azerbaijani opposition politician Tofiq Yaqublu said after a jail visit on September 7 that the 59-year-old prisoner looks unwell and that his captors are pressuring him to confess to nonexistent psychological problems to explain his protest .
Yaqublu was convicted of “ hooliganism ” and sentenced to four years in jail on September 3 over a dispute after a traffic accident that he and rights groups say was a setup for a “ bogus ” case .
Yaqublu is a deputy chairman of the opposition Musavat Party and a senior politician in the National @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Aqil Layic , told RFE/RL ’ s Azerbaijani Service that Yaqublu “ was unwell [ and ] could not walk ” when he saw him on the sixth day of a hunger strike that he began on September 2 to protest perceived injustice in his case .
He said that Yaqublu said officials at the Baku detention center where he is being held are trying to link the hunger strike to `` a psychological disorder '' but that Yaqublu has refused to sign statements to that effect .
Layic said his client @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is solely to protest his conviction on politically motivated hooliganism charges .
Judge Nariman Mehdiyev of the Nizami district court in Baku interrupted Yaqublu in court and prevented him from making a final statement .
Yaqublu was arrested in March after a collision between his car and another vehicle , after which he says the driver of the other car started a heated argument with him .
Investigators accused Yaqublu of `` using a wrench to conduct an act of hooliganism '' against the other driver , a charge he has denied .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's conviction and called on Baku to revisit his case .
Yaqublu , who frequently criticizes the government and authoritarian President Ilham Aliyev , spent 14 months in prison in 2013-14 on charges widely dismissed as politically motivated .
He was also sentenced to several days in jail in October after an opposition rally , during which he claims he was tortured in custody .
Critics of Aliyev 's government say authorities in the oil-rich Caspian Sea state frequently seek to silence dissent by jailing opposition activists , journalists , and civil-society advocates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Azerbaijan since 2003 , taking over from his father , Heydar Aliyev , who served as president for a decade .

BAKU -- A lawyer for hunger-striking Azerbaijani opposition politician Tofiq Yaqublu said after a jail visit on September 7 that the 59-year-old prisoner looks unwell and that his captors are pressuring him to confess to nonexistent psychological problems to explain his protest.
Yaqublu was convicted of “hooliganism” and sentenced to four years in jail on September 3 over a dispute after a traffic accident that he and rights groups say was a setup for a “bogus” case.
Yaqublu is a deputy chairman of the opposition Musavat Party and a senior politician in the National Council of Democratic Forces.
The lawyer, Aqil Layic, told RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service that Yaqublu “was unwell [and] could not walk” when he saw him on the sixth day of a hunger strike that he began on September 2 to protest perceived injustice in his case.
He said that Yaqublu said officials at the Baku detention center where he is being held are trying to link the hunger strike to "a psychological disorder" but that Yaqublu has refused to sign statements to that effect.
Layic said his client is mentally sound and his hunger strike is solely to protest his conviction on politically motivated hooliganism charges.
Judge Nariman Mehdiyev of the Nizami district court in Baku interrupted Yaqublu in court and prevented him from making a final statement.
Yaqublu was arrested in March after a collision between his car and another vehicle, after which he says the driver of the other car started a heated argument with him.
Investigators accused Yaqublu of "using a wrench to conduct an act of hooliganism" against the other driver, a charge he has denied.
European officials have expressed concerns over Yaqublu's conviction and called on Baku to revisit his case.
Yaqublu, who frequently criticizes the government and authoritarian President Ilham Aliyev, spent 14 months in prison in 2013-14 on charges widely dismissed as politically motivated.
He was also sentenced to several days in jail in October after an opposition rally, during which he claims he was tortured in custody.
Critics of Aliyev's government say authorities in the oil-rich Caspian Sea state frequently seek to silence dissent by jailing opposition activists, journalists, and civil-society advocates on trumped-up charges.
Aliyev has ruled Azerbaijan since 2003, taking over from his father, Heydar Aliyev, who served as president for a decade.


rferl--2020-09-07--International Military Exercises Start In Georgia

Some 2,700 troops from the United States , the United Kingdom , Poland , France , and host Georgia have begun major military exercises in the South Caucasus nation .
The Noble Partner 2020 multinational military exercises in Georgia kicked off on September 7 and are expected to last until September 18 .
The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi said in a statement on September 7 that the exercises , the fifth of the series , are `` designed to enhance regional partnerships and increase U.S. force readiness and interoperability in a realistic , multinational training environment . ''
`` Participants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exercises , and combined mechanized maneuvers .
Exercises like Noble Partner 20 continue to demonstrate U.S. commitment to stability and security in the region and show that NATO allies and partners stand stronger together , '' the embassy 's statement said .
U.S. officials in the past have spoken favorably toward Georgian hopes of eventually joining the Western military alliance , a move Russia vehemently opposes .
At a 2008 summit in Bucharest , NATO leaders made a formal pledge that Georgia `` will become a NATO member , '' but alliance leaders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the face of Moscow ’ s opposition .
In August the same year , Moscow recognized Georgia 's breakaway areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries after fighting a five-day war against Tbilisi .
Russia maintains thousands of troops in the two regions .

Some 2,700 troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, France, and host Georgia have begun major military exercises in the South Caucasus nation.
The Noble Partner 2020 multinational military exercises in Georgia kicked off on September 7 and are expected to last until September 18.
The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi said in a statement on September 7 that the exercises, the fifth of the series, are "designed to enhance regional partnerships and increase U.S. force readiness and interoperability in a realistic, multinational training environment."
"Participants will conduct situational training exercises, live-fire exercises, and combined mechanized maneuvers. Exercises like Noble Partner 20 continue to demonstrate U.S. commitment to stability and security in the region and show that NATO allies and partners stand stronger together," the embassy's statement said.
U.S. officials in the past have spoken favorably toward Georgian hopes of eventually joining the Western military alliance, a move Russia vehemently opposes.
At a 2008 summit in Bucharest, NATO leaders made a formal pledge that Georgia "will become a NATO member," but alliance leaders have moved warily toward that goal in the face of Moscow’s opposition.
In August the same year, Moscow recognized Georgia's breakaway areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries after fighting a five-day war against Tbilisi. Russia maintains thousands of troops in the two regions.
With reporting by agenda.ge


rferl--2020-09-07--Serbian, Kosovar Leaders Meet EU Officials In Brussels On Heels Of 'Historic' U.S.-Mediated Deal

Leaders of Serbia and Kosovo met with senior EU leaders in Brussels on September 7 on the heels of a U.S.-brokered deal last week to normalize the two Balkan neighbors ' economic relations .
EU officials hope momentum from the economic breakthrough carries over into political progress between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti , whose country still is not recognized by Serbia , Russia , and a handful of EU countries .
EU special envoy for the recently rekindled Serbian-Kosovar dialogue , Miroslav Lajcak , said the sides discussed in Brussels the issues of non-majority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claims on property .
A joint statement ahead of the talks in Brussels said the Serbian and Kosovar leaders confirmed `` they attach the highest priority to EU integration and to continuing the work on the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue which is a key element of their respective EU paths . ''
The statement , issued by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell , said Vucic and Hoti were `` committed to redoubling '' their efforts at EU alignment .
Serbia is a candidate for EU membership and Kosovo is a potential candidate .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ September 4 to cooperate on a raft of economic issues to spur their economies and job growth after two days of intensive meetings with U.S. officials in Washington , the first concrete progress since a tariffs war broke out nearly two years ago .
They have so far resisted a deal on recognition for Kosovo and a normalization of diplomatic relations , which are at the center of a decade of EU mediation efforts .
The parallel U.S. diplomatic effort , although focused on economic development , has not been fully embraced by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on September 7 said the Washington agreement was `` building on previous dialogue-related commitments undertaken by the two parties , [ and ] could provide a useful contribution to reaching a comprehensive , legally binding agreement on normalization of relations . ''
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on September 4 that Serbia and Kosovo had agreed to `` a truly historic commitment '' on economic normalization as part of U.S.-brokered talks that included Belgrade moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem , and mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo .
Hoti said moving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ huge step forward '' and cited rail links and other vital infrastructure projects .
Serbia agreed to a one-year pause of any campaign against Kosovo 's efforts for membership into international organizations and new recognition from other countries .
Casting a shadow over the Brussels talks , the European Commission on September 7 voiced `` serious concern '' over Belgrade 's commitment to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem .
“ There is no EU member state with an embassy in Jerusalem , ” spokesman Peter Stano said .
“ Any diplomatic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ EU ’ s common position on Jerusalem are a matter of serious concern and regret.
” In Belgrade , Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said the final decision would have to be discussed by the government and will depend on “ a number of factors , ” including future development of ties with Israel .
In all , a total of four countries now recognize contested Jerusalem as Israel ’ s capital , including the United States and Guatemala .
Turkey on September 6 said it was `` disappointing '' to see `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taking such a step '' as the recognition of Israel and the setting up of Pristina 's mission in Jerusalem .
Mostly Sunni Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize predominantly Muslim Kosovo 's independence in 2008 and is a vocal advocate of the Palestinian cause .
Most Western nations have recognized Kosovo ’ s independence , but Serbia and its allies Russia and China have not .
Kosovo ’ s parliament declared independence from Serbia in 2008 , nine years after NATO conducted a 78-day airstrike campaign against Serbia to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Kosovo .
With reporting by Reuters , AP , and AFP

Leaders of Serbia and Kosovo met with senior EU leaders in Brussels on September 7 on the heels of a U.S.-brokered deal last week to normalize the two Balkan neighbors' economic relations.
EU officials hope momentum from the economic breakthrough carries over into political progress between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, whose country still is not recognized by Serbia, Russia, and a handful of EU countries.
EU special envoy for the recently rekindled Serbian-Kosovar dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, said the sides discussed in Brussels the issues of non-majority communities and the settlement of mutual financial claims on property.
A joint statement ahead of the talks in Brussels said the Serbian and Kosovar leaders confirmed "they attach the highest priority to EU integration and to continuing the work on the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue which is a key element of their respective EU paths."
The statement, issued by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, said Vucic and Hoti were "committed to redoubling" their efforts at EU alignment.
Serbia is a candidate for EU membership and Kosovo is a potential candidate.
Serbia and its former province agreed on September 4 to cooperate on a raft of economic issues to spur their economies and job growth after two days of intensive meetings with U.S. officials in Washington, the first concrete progress since a tariffs war broke out nearly two years ago.
They have so far resisted a deal on recognition for Kosovo and a normalization of diplomatic relations, which are at the center of a decade of EU mediation efforts.
The parallel U.S. diplomatic effort, although focused on economic development, has not been fully embraced by some EU officials.
The pre-meeting statement on September 7 said the Washington agreement was "building on previous dialogue-related commitments undertaken by the two parties, [and] could provide a useful contribution to reaching a comprehensive, legally binding agreement on normalization of relations."
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on September 4 that Serbia and Kosovo had agreed to "a truly historic commitment" on economic normalization as part of U.S.-brokered talks that included Belgrade moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo.
Hoti said moving ahead with economic normalization was a “huge step forward" and cited rail links and other vital infrastructure projects.
Serbia agreed to a one-year pause of any campaign against Kosovo's efforts for membership into international organizations and new recognition from other countries.
Casting a shadow over the Brussels talks, the European Commission on September 7 voiced "serious concern" over Belgrade's commitment to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
“There is no EU member state with an embassy in Jerusalem,” spokesman Peter Stano said. “Any diplomatic steps that could call into question the EU’s common position on Jerusalem are a matter of serious concern and regret.”
In Belgrade, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said the final decision would have to be discussed by the government and will depend on “a number of factors,” including future development of ties with Israel.
In all, a total of four countries now recognize contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, including the United States and Guatemala.
Turkey on September 6 said it was "disappointing" to see "even the thought by Kosovar officials of taking such a step" as the recognition of Israel and the setting up of Pristina's mission in Jerusalem.
Mostly Sunni Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize predominantly Muslim Kosovo's independence in 2008 and is a vocal advocate of the Palestinian cause.
Most Western nations have recognized Kosovo’s independence, but Serbia and its allies Russia and China have not.
Kosovo’s parliament declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nine years after NATO conducted a 78-day airstrike campaign against Serbia to stop a bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP


rferl--2020-09-08--Turkmen Lawyer Arrested After Protests Abroad, Rights Groups Say

Rights groups say a Turkmen lawyer has been arrested and accused of having links to Turkmen activists residing abroad who recently staged a number of rallies in the United States , Turkey , and Northern Cyprus to protest against constitutional amendments in the tightly controlled Central Asian state .
The Moscow-based Memorial human rights center and the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation ( THF ) said in a joint statement dated September 7 that police detained 48-year-old Pygamberdy Allaberdyev , a lawyer at a state oil company , after a man attacked him near a grocery store in the western city of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hooliganism , but later officers for the National Security Ministry took over the case and charged him with having ties with the activists abroad .
According to the statement , a source in Turkmenistan 's law enforcement told Memorial that the case against Allaberdyev was initiated by national security officials and is now considered a terrorism case .
Allaberdyev was interrogated without a lawyer and denied any links with the protesters abroad , while attempts by his relatives to pass him water , food , medicine , and other necessities were rejected by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a witness as saying that Allaberdyev 's house was cordoned off by police on September 6 .
`` Allaberdyev 's arrest is part of the Turkmen authorities ' campaign to prevent further spread of protest mood [ across the country ] , '' the statement says .
In recent weeks , Turkmen citizens have held rallies in several countries around the world to protest a plan by authoritarian leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to introduce amendments to the constitution .
Berdymukhammedov initiated the changes a year ago and has led a commission he established that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ citizens have yet to be informed about most of the changes to the constitution of the energy-rich country , except that the single-chamber parliament , the Mejlis , will merge with the People 's Council and become a two-chamber institution .
Memorial says that the amendments also envision stricter control over the Internet and telephone communication .
The People 's Council ( Halk Maslahaty ) was created in 2017 on the basis of the Council of Elders .
Berdymukhammedov is the council 's chairman .
On August 19 , the commission announced that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the People 's Council , which is expected to approve them at its session on September 25 .
The protesters in the United States say that Berdymukhammedov plans to use the constitutional amendments to secure his lifetime presidency and its eventual succession to his son and grandchildren .
Turkmen opposition activists based abroad have said they plan to organize peaceful demonstrations against the constitutional amendments inside Turkmenistan .
They have proposed holding the protest on September 14 -- the day when the death of Ogulsapar Muradova , a Turkmen journalist , THF @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made public 14 years ago .
Muradova was tortured to death in custody in 2006 .
Government critics and human rights groups say Berdymukhammedov has suppressed dissent and made few changes in the restrictive country since he came to power after the death of autocrat Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006 .

Rights groups say a Turkmen lawyer has been arrested and accused of having links to Turkmen activists residing abroad who recently staged a number of rallies in the United States, Turkey, and Northern Cyprus to protest against constitutional amendments in the tightly controlled Central Asian state.
The Moscow-based Memorial human rights center and the Turkmen Helsinki Foundation (THF) said in a joint statement dated September 7 that police detained 48-year-old Pygamberdy Allaberdyev, a lawyer at a state oil company, after a man attacked him near a grocery store in the western city of Balkanabat.
Police initially accused Allaberdyev of hooliganism, but later officers for the National Security Ministry took over the case and charged him with having ties with the activists abroad.
According to the statement, a source in Turkmenistan's law enforcement told Memorial that the case against Allaberdyev was initiated by national security officials and is now considered a terrorism case.
Allaberdyev was interrogated without a lawyer and denied any links with the protesters abroad, while attempts by his relatives to pass him water, food, medicine, and other necessities were rejected by the authorities.
Memorial and THK cited a witness as saying that Allaberdyev's house was cordoned off by police on September 6.
"Allaberdyev's arrest is part of the Turkmen authorities' campaign to prevent further spread of protest mood [across the country]," the statement says.
In recent weeks, Turkmen citizens have held rallies in several countries around the world to protest a plan by authoritarian leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to introduce amendments to the constitution.
Berdymukhammedov initiated the changes a year ago and has led a commission he established that prepared a bill of amendments.
Turkmen citizens have yet to be informed about most of the changes to the constitution of the energy-rich country, except that the single-chamber parliament, the Mejlis, will merge with the People's Council and become a two-chamber institution.
Memorial says that the amendments also envision stricter control over the Internet and telephone communication.
The People's Council (Halk Maslahaty) was created in 2017 on the basis of the Council of Elders. Berdymukhammedov is the council's chairman.
On August 19, the commission announced that it had sent the proposed constitutional amendments to the People's Council, which is expected to approve them at its session on September 25.
The protesters in the United States say that Berdymukhammedov plans to use the constitutional amendments to secure his lifetime presidency and its eventual succession to his son and grandchildren.
Turkmen opposition activists based abroad have said they plan to organize peaceful demonstrations against the constitutional amendments inside Turkmenistan.
They have proposed holding the protest on September 14 -- the day when the death of Ogulsapar Muradova, a Turkmen journalist, THF co-founder, and RFE/RL correspondent, was made public 14 years ago. Muradova was tortured to death in custody in 2006.
Government critics and human rights groups say Berdymukhammedov has suppressed dissent and made few changes in the restrictive country since he came to power after the death of autocrat Saparmurat Niyazov in 2006.


rferl--2020-09-08--Iran Sentences Iraqi, Iranian IS Teens To Prison Over Planned Attack

A court in Tehran has sentenced two Iraqis and one Iranian to prison over their participation as minors in a purported suicide mission planned by the Islamic State ( IS ) extremist group , according to the government-run Iran daily .
All were said to be part of a 21-member team that had crossed the Iraq-Iran border some three years ago to carry out the planned attack , which was not described in any detail .
Their sentences were handed down on September 6 .
Reports on trials of alleged IS members in Iran are rare .
The extremist group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The Iraqis , who were 14 and 17 at the time of their arrest , were each sentenced to five years in prison on the charge of `` moharebeh , '' or waging war against God , which in Iran may be punished by death .
They got additional one-year sentences for possessing weapons .
They will reportedly be handed over to Iraq 's intelligence service .
The Iranian national was 16 at the time of this arrest , according to Iran daily , and was sentenced to five years in prison @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the three were not given the death penalty because they were under the age of 18 at the time of their arrest .
The report said that 16 members of the alleged IS team were arrested by Iranian forces while five others , including the leader of the group , were killed in clashes .
Three Iranian security troops were also killed in the clashes , it said .
Prosecutors reported jailing 16 female IS members in 2018 after their return from Syria .
At least 17 people were killed and dozens more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's parliament and the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic republic , Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , that were claimed by IS .


rferl--2020-09-08--Russian Actor, Kremlin Critic Yefremov Sentenced To Eight Years For Deadly Car Accident

MOSCOW -- Russian actor Mikhail Yefremov , an outspoken Kremlin critic , has been sentenced to eight years in prison for killing a person while driving under the influence of alcohol .
Judge Yelena Abramova of the Presnensky district court in Moscow found Yefremov guilty on September 8 and sentenced him the same day .
When the trial started on August 5 , Yefremov pleaded not guilty , insisting that he could n't remember anything that took place in the evening of June 8 .
But on September 3 , he suddenly changed his stance and said in court that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Galiullina had asked the court to sentence Yefremov to 11 years in prison .
Judge Abramova said in pronouncing the verdict that the testimony of three witnesses who said that Yefremov was not alone in his car when it hit another vehicle in June was inadmissible .
Police say Yefremov was inebriated when he drove his car at high speed into an oncoming lane in central Moscow on the evening of June 8 , hitting another car .
Yefremov was not injured in the accident , but the driver of the other vehicle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was rushed to hospital with multiple injuries and died hours later .
After Zakharov was pronounced dead , Yefremov was charged with `` causing a deadly traffic accident while driving under the influence '' and placed under house arrest .
Authorities later said that medical tests confirmed that Yefremov had traces of drugs , including cocaine , in his blood at the moment of the accident .
Performances by the 56-year-old Yefremov satirizing President Vladimir Putin and his policies have been very popular in recent years .

MOSCOW -- Russian actor Mikhail Yefremov, an outspoken Kremlin critic, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for killing a person while driving under the influence of alcohol.
Judge Yelena Abramova of the Presnensky district court in Moscow found Yefremov guilty on September 8 and sentenced him the same day.
When the trial started on August 5, Yefremov pleaded not guilty, insisting that he couldn't remember anything that took place in the evening of June 8. But on September 3, he suddenly changed his stance and said in court that he was admitting guilt.
Prosecutor Diana Galiullina had asked the court to sentence Yefremov to 11 years in prison.
Judge Abramova said in pronouncing the verdict that the testimony of three witnesses who said that Yefremov was not alone in his car when it hit another vehicle in June was inadmissible.
Police say Yefremov was inebriated when he drove his car at high speed into an oncoming lane in central Moscow on the evening of June 8, hitting another car.
Yefremov was not injured in the accident, but the driver of the other vehicle, identified as 57-year-old Sergei Zakharov, was rushed to hospital with multiple injuries and died hours later.
After Zakharov was pronounced dead, Yefremov was charged with "causing a deadly traffic accident while driving under the influence" and placed under house arrest.
Authorities later said that medical tests confirmed that Yefremov had traces of drugs, including cocaine, in his blood at the moment of the accident.
Performances by the 56-year-old Yefremov satirizing President Vladimir Putin and his policies have been very popular in recent years.
With reporting by Meduza


rferl--2020-09-08--Death Toll In Pakistani Mine Accident Rises To 19, Several Others Still Trapped

Pakistani officials say a landslide at a marble mine in the country 's northwest has killed at least 19 miners @ @ @ @ @ as rescuers comb the scene .
Six more miners were reportedly injured .
The accident @ @ @ @ @ in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province , near the border with Afghanistan , late on September 7 .
@ @ @ @ @ the rubble during an initial rescue operation , authorities said more victims were found on @ @ @ @ @ were also injured at the site , authorities said , adding that an investigation was @ @ @ @ @ cause of the accident .
Based on reporting by AP and AFP

Pakistani officials say a rockslide at a marble mine in the country's northwest has killed at least 19 miners and left five others still trapped as rescuers comb the scene.
Six more miners are reportedly injured.
The accident occured in the Mohmand district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, near the border with Afghanistan, late on September 7.
After pulling eight bodies from the rubble during an initial rescue operation, authorities said more victims were found on September 8.
An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the accident.
Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal, AP, and AFP


rferl--2020-09-08--Number Of Political Prisoners On Rise In Kazakhstan, Activists Say

ALMATY , Kazakhstan -- The number of political prisoners in Kazakhstan has risen to nine , local human rights defenders say in an update of a register they keep of such persons .
The chairwoman of the Almaty-based Ar .
Rukh .
Khaq .
( Dignity , Spirit , Truth ) rights group , Bakhytzhan Toreghozhina , said on September 8 that six more Kazakh citizens prosecuted in recent months or being prosecuted have now been recognized as political prisoners on the list , which does not include numerous cases where rights and political activists are jailed for less than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ named on the list are Sanavar Zakirova , Asqar Ibraev , Serik Ydyrysov , Askhat Zheksebaev , Abai Begimbetov , and Qairat Qylyshev .
Zakirova , whose initiative to create a new political party , Our Right , was rejected by the authorities , was sentenced to one year in prison in July for `` inflicting bodily damage '' on a woman , which the civil rights activist denies .
Ibraev , from the northern city of Qostanai , is serving a one-year prison term for taking part in the activities of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a resident of the East Kazakhstan region , was initially handed a parole-like , one-year sentence for supporting a banned opposition group in December 2019 .
But he was subsequently arrested for organizing a flash mob that demanded an investigation into the death of activist Dulat Aghadil while in custody .
Ydyrysov remains in pretrial detention .
Zheksebaev , Begimbetov , and Qylyshev are well-known civil rights activists who have been sentenced to several days in jail on numerous occasions for taking part in unsanctioned rallies .
The three men are currently in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are charged with being members of a banned political group called Street Party .
Prominent poet and dissident Atabek has been serving an 18-year prison term since 2007 .
He was convicted of helping organize protests that resulted in the death of a police officer , which he denies , calling the case against him politically motivated .
Boqaev was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 for organizing massive unsanctioned protests in Kazakhstan ’ s west against land reform .
Elshibaev , an activist from the restive southwestern town of Zhanaozen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prison in October 2019 for leading protests staged by jobless youths earlier in 2019 .
He was found guilty of hooliganism , which he and his supporters reject .
Businessman Erimbetov , who is a brother of a lawyer of fugitive Kazakh ex-banker and opposition figure Mukhtar Ablyazov , and Dzhakishev , a former chief of Kazakhstan 's state nuclear company , Kazatomprom , were released from prison in December and March , respectively .
They and their supporters have said that their cases were also politically motivated .

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- The number of political prisoners in Kazakhstan has risen to nine, local human rights defenders say in an update of a register they keep of such persons.
The chairwoman of the Almaty-based Ar. Rukh. Khaq. (Dignity, Spirit, Truth) rights group, Bakhytzhan Toreghozhina, said on September 8 that six more Kazakh citizens prosecuted in recent months or being prosecuted have now been recognized as political prisoners on the list, which does not include numerous cases where rights and political activists are jailed for less than 30 days.
The new political prisoners named on the list are Sanavar Zakirova, Asqar Ibraev, Serik Ydyrysov, Askhat Zheksebaev, Abai Begimbetov, and Qairat Qylyshev.
Zakirova, whose initiative to create a new political party, Our Right, was rejected by the authorities, was sentenced to one year in prison in July for "inflicting bodily damage" on a woman, which the civil rights activist denies.
Ibraev, from the northern city of Qostanai, is serving a one-year prison term for taking part in the activities of a banned political opposition movement.
Ydyrysov, a resident of the East Kazakhstan region, was initially handed a parole-like, one-year sentence for supporting a banned opposition group in December 2019. But he was subsequently arrested for organizing a flash mob that demanded an investigation into the death of activist Dulat Aghadil while in custody. Ydyrysov remains in pretrial detention.
Zheksebaev, Begimbetov, and Qylyshev are well-known civil rights activists who have been sentenced to several days in jail on numerous occasions for taking part in unsanctioned rallies. The three men are currently in a pretrial-detention center in Almaty. They are charged with being members of a banned political group called Street Party.
The previous list included Aron Atabek, Maks Boqaev, Erzhan Elshibaev, Eskendir Erimbetov, and Mukhtar Dzhakishev.
Prominent poet and dissident Atabek has been serving an 18-year prison term since 2007. He was convicted of helping organize protests that resulted in the death of a police officer, which he denies, calling the case against him politically motivated.
Boqaev was sentenced to five years in prison in 2016 for organizing massive unsanctioned protests in Kazakhstan’s west against land reform.
Elshibaev, an activist from the restive southwestern town of Zhanaozen, was sentenced to five years in prison in October 2019 for leading protests staged by jobless youths earlier in 2019. He was found guilty of hooliganism, which he and his supporters reject.
Businessman Erimbetov, who is a brother of a lawyer of fugitive Kazakh ex-banker and opposition figure Mukhtar Ablyazov, and Dzhakishev, a former chief of Kazakhstan's state nuclear company, Kazatomprom, were released from prison in December and March, respectively.
They and their supporters have said that their cases were also politically motivated.


rferl--2020-09-08--Serbian Court Overturns Convictions In 1999 Murder Of Milosevic Critic

An appeals court in Serbia has overturned four convictions linked to the 1999 murder of news publisher Slavko Curuvija and ordered a retrial , local media reported on September 7 .
Four former intelligence officers had been given lengthy prison terms over the killing of Curuvija , a prominent critic of Yugoslavia 's president at the time , Slobodan Milosevic .
In a ruling handed down on July 15 but only reported this week , the court cited `` significant violations of the provisions of criminal procedure . ''
It reportedly concluded that the convictions from April 2019 went beyond @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evidence .
Two of the men , Rade Markovic , the former head of state security , and Milan Radonjic , who was in charge of Belgrade 's intelligence branch , received 30-year prison sentences each for instigating the murder .
Markovic is already serving a 40-year sentence for other political killings .
The court also handed 20-year prison terms to former intelligence officers Ratko Romic and fugitive Miroslav Kurak , who was sentenced in absentia .
They were convicted of carrying out the murder .
Curuvija founded the Dnevni Telegraf , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the 1990s .
He stood out as a sharp critic of Milosevic , who involved Serbia in wars in Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia-Herzegovina , and Kosovo during his heavy-handed 12-year rule .
Curuvija was gunned down outside his home in Belgrade on April 11 , 1999 , just days after the start of NATO ’ s bombing campaign that helped end Belgrade 's military operations against ethnic Albanians in its then-province Kosovo .
Curuvija 's family has accused Milosevic of personally ordering the killing .
Milosevic was arrested in 2001 and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hague for genocide and other war crimes committed during the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s .
The former Serbian president died in the tribunal 's detention unit in 2006 before a verdict was reached .
Based on reporting by dpa and Balkan Insight

An appeals court in Serbia has overturned four convictions linked to the 1999 murder of news publisher Slavko Curuvija and ordered a retrial, local media reported on September 7.
Four former intelligence officers had been given lengthy prison terms over the killing of Curuvija, a prominent critic of Yugoslavia's president at the time, Slobodan Milosevic.
In a ruling handed down on July 15 but only reported this week, the court cited "significant violations of the provisions of criminal procedure." It reportedly concluded that the convictions from April 2019 went beyond the indictment and were not based on evidence.
Two of the men, Rade Markovic, the former head of state security, and Milan Radonjic, who was in charge of Belgrade's intelligence branch, received 30-year prison sentences each for instigating the murder. Markovic is already serving a 40-year sentence for other political killings.
The court also handed 20-year prison terms to former intelligence officers Ratko Romic and fugitive Miroslav Kurak, who was sentenced in absentia. They were convicted of carrying out the murder.
Curuvija founded the Dnevni Telegraf, the first independent daily newspaper in postcommunist Serbia in the 1990s.
He stood out as a sharp critic of Milosevic, who involved Serbia in wars in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo during his heavy-handed 12-year rule.
Curuvija was gunned down outside his home in Belgrade on April 11, 1999, just days after the start of NATO’s bombing campaign that helped end Belgrade's military operations against ethnic Albanians in its then-province Kosovo.
Curuvija's family has accused Milosevic of personally ordering the killing.
Milosevic was arrested in 2001 and held at the UN court in The Hague for genocide and other war crimes committed during the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The former Serbian president died in the tribunal's detention unit in 2006 before a verdict was reached.
Based on reporting by dpa and Balkan Insight


rferl--2020-09-08--Angry Students Continue To Occupy  Budapest Film School To Protest Changes

BUDAPEST -- Dozens of students continue to occupy a key building at the University for Theater and Film Arts ( SZFE ) in central Budapest on September 8 amid growing international support for their protest against a sweeping overhaul by the government that they say threatens the school 's autonomy .
The dispute over control of the landmark film and theater school in Hungary boiled over into the streets of the capital two days earlier as thousands of students , staff , and supporters formed a human chain to protest changes ushered in by nationalist , conservative Prime Minister Viktor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forced a transfer of control of the public institution to a private foundation as of September 1 and a new structure to guide key decisions at the storied SZFE .
The management of the school and a number of top professors have resigned in protest , and a group of students has been barricaded inside the university since September 1 .
According to Hungarian media , several internationally recognized artists , writers , directors , actors , and academics -- including actresses Cate Blanchett and Helen Mirren , and author Salman Rushdie -- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ changes are `` part of a general cultural war to plunder the autonomy of all cultural spaces and institutions . ''
`` It is , in fact , the privatization of public property , the benefits of which are migrating into the pockets of the prime minister ’ s clients .
We , the signatories , stand up for the authentic leadership of the university and its students , '' the letter says .
The 155-year-old university has produced several Oscar winners , including Casablanca director Michael Curtiz .
The dispute prompted film @ @ @ @ @ @ @ FreeSZFE T-shirt for the premiere of his new film , Pieces Of A Woman , at this month ’ s Venice Film Festival .
`` We deplore the fact that the University Senate has been deprived of its decision-making power and that the University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest has essentially lost its academic autonomy , '' European Film Academy President Wim Wenders , and the group 's chairman , Mike Downey , said in a statement .
`` We fully support the students and the Senate of the University in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the new board .
The art of cinema can only breathe in an atmosphere of openness , transparency , and democracy .
In support and solidarity for a successful outcome of the occupation , '' they added .
In recent years , Orban ’ s government has controversially placed several major universities under the control of private groups that critics say are dominated by loyal allies .
Orban , prime minister for the past decade , has also been accused by detractors of choking off independent Hungarian media critical of the government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appointed theater and film director Attila Vidnyanszky -- who also heads Hungary ’ s National Theater and has described himself as a “ cultural nationalist ” -- to be chairman of the board of trustees that will effectively control the university .
A number of the other trustees and supervising board members are said to be close to the government .
While previously a Senate elected by the university itself decided on issues that might fundamentally affect the university , the new charter hands that control to a board of trustees .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a rector , as well as for picking department heads and even determining when classes begin .
The Ministry of Innovation and Technology maintains that the university “ can only win ” under new leadership .
It said in a statement that “ institutions will be better able to meet new challenges by renewing their operating model , which has remained unchanged for decades.
” The ruling conservative Fidesz-KDNP alliance introduced a bill to implement the changes in May and dominated the vote to pass the legislation on July 3 , leaving less @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Orban 's government introduced legislation in 2017 that angered many Hungarian and international critics by mandating that higher-education institutions from outside the European economic area can only operate in the country if their home country has a bilateral treaty with Budapest .
The change sparked angry protests and was blamed for forcing the prestigious Budapest-based Central European University to move its operations to Austria .
The CEU case prompted an infringement proceeding from the European Commission in 2017 and a referral to the Court of Justice .

BUDAPEST -- Dozens of students continue to occupy a key building at the University for Theater and Film Arts (SZFE) in central Budapest on September 8 amid growing international support for their protest against a sweeping overhaul by the government that they say threatens the school's autonomy.
The dispute over control of the landmark film and theater school in Hungary boiled over into the streets of the capital two days earlier as thousands of students, staff, and supporters formed a human chain to protest changes ushered in by nationalist, conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government. The moves forced a transfer of control of the public institution to a private foundation as of September 1 and a new structure to guide key decisions at the storied SZFE.
The management of the school and a number of top professors have resigned in protest, and a group of students has been barricaded inside the university since September 1.
WATCH: Thousands Form Human Chain Protesting Hungarian Government Obstruction Of University's Independence
According to Hungarian media, several internationally recognized artists, writers, directors, actors, and academics -- including actresses Cate Blanchett and Helen Mirren, and author Salman Rushdie -- have signed an open letter saying the changes are "part of a general cultural war to plunder the autonomy of all cultural spaces and institutions."
"It is, in fact, the privatization of public property, the benefits of which are migrating into the pockets of the prime minister’s clients. We, the signatories, stand up for the authentic leadership of the university and its students," the letter says.
The 155-year-old university has produced several Oscar winners, including Casablanca director Michael Curtiz. The dispute prompted film director Kornel Mundruczo to don a #FreeSZFE T-shirt for the premiere of his new film, Pieces Of A Woman, at this month’s Venice Film Festival.
"We deplore the fact that the University Senate has been deprived of its decision-making power and that the University of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest has essentially lost its academic autonomy," European Film Academy President Wim Wenders, and the group's chairman, Mike Downey, said in a statement.
"We fully support the students and the Senate of the University in their decision to not recognize the legitimacy of the new board. The art of cinema can only breathe in an atmosphere of openness, transparency, and democracy. In support and solidarity for a successful outcome of the occupation," they added.
Private Groups In Control
In recent years, Orban’s government has controversially placed several major universities under the control of private groups that critics say are dominated by loyal allies.
Orban, prime minister for the past decade, has also been accused by detractors of choking off independent Hungarian media critical of the government.
Innovation and Technology Minister Laszlo Palkovics appointed theater and film director Attila Vidnyanszky -- who also heads Hungary’s National Theater and has described himself as a “cultural nationalist” -- to be chairman of the board of trustees that will effectively control the university.
A number of the other trustees and supervising board members are said to be close to the government.
While previously a Senate elected by the university itself decided on issues that might fundamentally affect the university, the new charter hands that control to a board of trustees.
The trustees’ approval is required to name a rector, as well as for picking department heads and even determining when classes begin.
The Ministry of Innovation and Technology maintains that the university “can only win” under new leadership.
It said in a statement that “institutions will be better able to meet new challenges by renewing their operating model, which has remained unchanged for decades.”
The ruling conservative Fidesz-KDNP alliance introduced a bill to implement the changes in May and dominated the vote to pass the legislation on July 3, leaving less than two months to effect the transfer.
Orban's government introduced legislation in 2017 that angered many Hungarian and international critics by mandating that higher-education institutions from outside the European economic area can only operate in the country if their home country has a bilateral treaty with Budapest.
The change sparked angry protests and was blamed for forcing the prestigious Budapest-based Central European University to move its operations to Austria.
The CEU case prompted an infringement proceeding from the European Commission in 2017 and a referral to the Court of Justice.