Pakistan Supreme Court: illegal arrest of Imran Khan

Today's headlines: Muhammad Ince withdraws from the presidential race in Turkey, another opportunity for the anti-Erdogan front. Hong Kong has decided that the chief executive can decide whether to exclude foreign lawyers from national security cases. In Malaysia, the Islamist PAS party does not want the Coldplay concert. For prisoner mobilisation in Ukraine, Russia bans sentence discounts.

PAKISTAN

After the Supreme Court ruled the arrest of former premier Imran Khan illegal, supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) announced a march to the capital Islamabad in solidarity with their leader. In response, the Pakistani police, who have so far harshly suppressed the protests, passed an emergency order to prevent the gatherings.

HONG KONG

The Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) unanimously passed a bill allowing the city's chief executive to decide whether foreign lawyers can take part in cases involving the National Security Act. The approval comes after Jimmy Lai, founder of the Apple Daily newspaper, which closed in 2020, had repeatedly tried to have himself defended in court by a British lawyer.

MALAYSIA

A politician belonging to the Islamist party Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) who had called for the cancellation of Coldplay's concert, scheduled for November this year, was harshly criticised by the local government's Development Minister, Nga Kor Ming, who confirmed that Malaysia would welcome the British band. "Does the government want to cultivate a culture of hedonism and perversion in this country?", Nasrudin Hassan had written on Facebook, adding that the concert will not benefit "religion, race and country".

PHILIPPINES

A Philippine court has exonerated former Senator Leila de Lima, 63, who was imprisoned during the Duterte administration for criticising the former president's 'war on drugs'. Remained in prison for six years, she had first been charged with colluding with drug gangs in 2017, just months after launching a Senate investigation into the crackdown on illicit drugs, during which thousands of users and dealers were killed by police.

TURKEY

The withdrawal from the presidential race just three days before the election of Muhammad Ince, a CHP splinter who was running as an independent, sent Turkey's main stock index up by 6% while polls show 43.7% support for current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against 49.3% for the main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who has promised to reverse the unorthodox economic policies implemented so far.

RUSSIA

Russian courts systematically refuse early release and sentence discounts to prisoners, due to the mass recruitment of prisoners for the war in Ukraine, including for labour-power needs in the camps. In 2022, out of 60,000 requests, only a little over 10,000 were granted.

CENTRAL ASIA

The Geographical Societies of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Hungary have signed an agreement for the creation of a Geographical Council of the Turkic Countries, the Kazinform news agency reports, at a solemn joint ceremony in Tashkent, where the office, headed for three years by Uzbek Ojbek Norinbaev, will be based.

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