Hindu fisherman Rasraj Das has been detained in Bangladesh since October 2016. He was arrested for allegedly posting an “offensive” image on Facebook and charged with “hurting religious sentiment”. He could face up to 14 years in prison if convicted. Even though police have recently stated that he was not responsible for posting the image, the charge has not been dropped and he was denied bail on 3 January. His next bail hearing is scheduled for 16 January.

A court in China’s Henan province has convicted and sentenced Xu Youchen to death for killing a policeman when authorities were taking him and his wife away for peaceful petitioning.

In the first week of January, over 90 men were killed (shot dead, beheaded or quartered) in prisons in Amazonas and Roraima states in northern Brazil, as a result of riots and conflicts between criminal gangs.

The speaker of the Chechen parliament used his Instagram account to threaten prominent journalist Grigory Shvedov on 6 January.

Since the beginning of January activists Salman Haider, Waqas Goraya, Asim Saeed, and Ahmed Raza Naseer have gone missing in a suspected enforced disappearance by state security forces in Pakistan.

Jabir Zain, an activist residing in Libya, continues to be detained in an unknown location over 100 days following his enforced disappearance by a militia in Tripoli.

Iranian prisoner of conscience Ali Shariati is in poor health in Evin Prison, 67 days into an ongoing hunger strike against his imprisonment.

Bahraini activist Dr Sa’eed Mothaher Habib al-Samahiji has been released after completing his one-year prison sentence. He was a prisoner of conscience.

Authorities confirm that Beijing human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, last heard from on 21 November 2016, has been placed under “residential surveillance in a designated location” on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”.

A youth fundraising update for January. Contains news of a Syria themed fundraising event and some ideas for fundraisers to kick off the new year