Three Chadian activists have been arrested by agents of the National Security Agency in N’Djamena. Nadjo Kaina Palmer, Bertrand Sollo and Dingamnayal Nely Versinis are being held in secret and incommunicado. They are prisoners of conscience.

Dr Stella Nyanzi, a Ugandan university lecturer, was arrested on 7 April and subsequently charged with insulting the president and violating his right to privacy.

Residents of Puerto Lleras, Jiguamiandó collective territory in the department of Chocó, report threats and raids from paramilitaries near the Humanitarian Zone of Pueblo Nuevo, putting all the inhabitants at risk.

Venezuelan prisoner of conscience, Leopoldo López, has been kept incommunicado since 8 April. He has been placed in solitary confinement for reasons that have not been disclosed by the authorities.

The execution of Don Davis, scheduled for 17 April in Arkansas, did not go ahead. Minutes before midnight, when the death warrant was set to expire, the US Supreme Court refused to lift the stay issued by the Arkansas Supreme Court that afternoon.

The staff of Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and journalists supporting them have been threatened following the newspaper’s publication of reports about the abduction and torture of gay men in Chechnya.

Leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND), Mr Hakainde Hichilema was arrested on 10 April.

On 3 April, the Court of Cassation in Bahrain reduced the prison sentence against opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman to four years in prison for the second time. He is a prisoner of conscience.

Human rights defenders David Boniface and Juders Ysemé fear for their lives following the sudden death of their colleague, Nissage Martyr, one day after service of a lawsuit filed by the three men in the US for grave human rights violations against Jean Morose Viliena, the former mayor of their hometown in Haiti. The men have reported repeated death threats and attacks from the former mayor since 2007, and must be provided adequate protection.