Watchdog

Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has been released from jail after serving 50 days for organizing antigovernment protests.

Navalny left a detention center south of Moscow in the early morning of October 14 and was driven away in a waiting car after thanking supporters and briefly speaking to reporters.

“Over the 50 days I have been in jail, we have seen yet more evidence that this regime is in complete decline," he said, citing recent allegations related to Russia’s intelligence services and the harrowing emergency landing after the failed launch of a Russian space rocket.

"If anyone thinks that with arrests...they can scare or stop us, that is clearly not the case," he added.

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Navalny was sentenced on September 24 to 20 days in jail for organizing an opposition protest earlier in the year.

The ruling sent him back to jail just a day after he had been freed following completion of a monthlong sentence for a previous conviction.

A vocal foe of President Vladimir Putin, the often-jailed Navalny has organized large street protests on several occasions and published a series of reports alleging corruption in Russia's ruling elite.

In August, Navalny was detained by police in Moscow and sentenced to 30 days in jail for helping to organize a street rally in the Russian capital in January.

That demonstration in Moscow, along with similar protests in other Russian cities, drew thousands of people dismayed by the prospect of six more years under Putin, who was first elected president in 2000.

The authorities have turned up the pressure on Navalny at a time when Putin’s popularity has declined with the public over the government's proposal to raise the retirement age.

Navalny has said his jail sentence was designed by the authorities to prevent him from leading protests against the unpopular pension reforms.

Navalny has been handed suspended prison sentences following guilty verdicts in two financial-crimes trials he and his supporters contend were Kremlin-orchestrated efforts to punish him for his opposition activity and for reports he has published alleging corruption among Putin's allies.

The convictions also prevented him from being an official candidate in Russia's March 2018 presidential election.

The suspended sentences kept him out of prison, but Navalny has repeatedly been arrested and jailed for what courts have ruled were administrative offenses, mostly in reaction to street protests he helped organize.

According to Navalny spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, the 42-year-old has spent nearly 200 days in jail since 2011 and 140 days since the start of his attempt to campaign for the 2018 presidential election.

Amnesty International called Navalny "a prisoner of conscience [who] has not committed any crime."

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

Relatives of a Christian mother who faces becoming the first person to be executed for blasphemy in Pakistan have expressed hope that the Supreme Court will set her free.

"We are hopeful that whatever the court proceedings are, it will come out as positive for us," Ashiq Mesih, the husband of the imprisoned Asia Bibi, told the AFP news agency on October 13.

Her daughter, Eisham Ashiq, said: "I will be very happy the day my mother will be released. I will hug her and will cry meeting her and will thank God that he has got her released."

In 2010, Bibi was the first woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan's blasphemy laws in a case that has generated global headlines and indignation.

Pakistan's Supreme Court on October 8 heard what media described as the final appeal of the woman, who has denied all charges.

The three-judge bench listened to Bibi's defense lawyer challenge statements by those who accused her of making derogatory remarks about Islam.

Bibi, a mother of four and a laborer, was accused in 2009 by a Muslim woman she was working with in a field.

Following the hearing, the Supreme Court said it had made a decision in the case, but it did not reveal its judgment.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) speculated that the Supreme Court’s refusal to publicly announce its decision could be a sign of hope for Bibi.

"Given the religiously charged atmosphere of the country regarding blasphemy cases, it is understandable that the court would avoid announcing its decision… especially if it is in Asia Bibi's favor," the ACLJ said on October 9.

Several thousand Islamist hard-liners protested in Lahore on October 12 against the women and some have threatened to kill her if she is released.

A hard-line Pakistani Islamist party warned of "terrible consequences" if she is granted leniency in her appeal.

"If there is any attempt to hand her over to a foreign country, there will be terrible consequences," Tehrik-e Labaik said in a statement.

Bibi's family members are in London on a trip organized by Aid to the Church in Need, a charity that helps Christians worldwide who are believed to be in danger.

While Pakistan's laws carry the death penalty for blasphemy and offenders have been sentenced to death, no convict has ever been executed so far. People charged with blasphemy but later freed have had to flee the country for their safety.

At least 1,472 people were charged under Pakistan's blasphemy laws between 1987 and 2016, according to the Lahore-based Center for Social Justice.

It said Muslims constituted a majority of those prosecuted, followed by members of the Ahmadi, Christian, and Hindu minorities.

Rights groups say the laws are increasingly exploited by religious extremists as well as ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores.

With reporting by AFP and The Baptist Press