Support the “Bookin’ for Daniel” Marathon Run This Sunday

This Sunday, a supporter of eco-defense prisoner Daniel McGowan will run a full marathon – 26 miles and 385 yards – in order to raise funds for Daniel’s educational fund. The fund will assist with payment for Daniel's master's degree, which he will complete while serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison for acts of economic sabotage intended to raise awareness and to stop the destruction of the planet. The runner and those assisting her efforts state, “We believe that Daniel’s voice must not silenced by his imprisonment, and that communication and education are vital in the battle against global warming.”

As this event draws near, please consider a making a pledge. Every little bit counts! (Pledge details below.)

About Daniel McGowan:
Daniel McGowan is an environmental and social justice activist from New York City. He was arrested in a multi-state raid against the environmental community that revealed itself to be part of a much larger wave of repression known as the "Green Scare." On June 4, 2007 McGowan was sentenced to seven years in prison for charges of conspiracy and arson. These charges relate to two eco-defense actions that occurred in Oregon in 2001. While Daniel took a guilty plea and accepted responsibility for his own actions, he and three other defendants refused to name names as part of their "global resolution" plea deal. During his sentencing, Daniel was given a "terrorism" enhancement to his sentence, based on his involvement in acts of property destruction which hurt no living being. The National Lawyers Guild has decried this sentencing enhancement as an "unnecessary and excessive government tactic to discourage the exercise of free speech."

Daniel in his own words:
“Those in power have not dealt with global warming. That, in my opinion, is a crime. Old-growth forests in Oregon are still being logged, genetically engineered trees and crops are still being introduced into the environment and the only success I see is when people organize and pressure governments and corporations to change their behavior.”

About “Bookin’ for Daniel”
Some of you may know the runner, Esther of Portland, Oregon's Eberhardt Press, not only from her publishing efforts, but also from her consistent work around the "Operation Backfire" eco-sabotage cases. In a blog entry, Esther states her reasons for training for and participating in the marathon, writing: "I want to communicate to Daniel and his family that we who support him are down for the long haul. Today, tomorrow, after 26 miles or seven years we will continue to struggle for the health of our planet and the freedom of all humans, including our comrades behind bars."

For more details about the "Bookin' for Daniel!" run, or to make a pledge to Daniel McGowan's educational fund as sponsorship for this event, please visit: http://bookinfordaniel.eberhardtpress.org/

Background on Daniel McGowan's case and general support information is available at: http://www.supportdaniel.org/

Movie Trailer for Factor 8:The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal

A new movie is out which documents the role of the Arkansas prison system’s blood harvesting program and the role that it played in the spread of AIDS and HCV to non prisoners, especially hemophiliacs. Prisoners sold their blood to harvesting companies through the early 1990s, long after it was known many were infected with varius blood borne illnesses. Then governor Bill Clinton and his aide Vince Foster successfully fought all attempts to shut the program down. Of course, Arkansas was not the only state to have such programs, Arizona, Rhode Island and many others did as well. They were just the last to end it. As a result, tens of thousands of people have needlessly died, and are still dying. To my knowledge, the only publications that have reported on this topic very extensively are Prison Legal News and Counterpunch. One of the articles on the topic by Jeff St. Clair is at: http://prisonlegalnews.org/257_displayArticle.aspx

To check out the film go to: http://www.factor8movie.com/factor8.htm

Gathering of the Tribe by Mumia Abu-Jamal

[col. writ. 6/19/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Ona Move! LLJA!

For what do we gather -- we youths and elders -- if not to try to find some clue to how to remake this world that is obviously going wrong?

Why gather, unless there is at least some hope that some words, some key, some insight may be gained that will glow like the proverbial light bulb over the head of the guy in the comics?

But -- as an elder who was a revolutionary before he was 15, please lend your ear to my thoughts.

I wish to share with you some ideas that I've always shared with young folks. I try to remind them that Huey P. Newton, who founded the Black Panther Party, did so at the tender age of 24. Twenty-four years old!

His friend and co-founder, Bobby Seale, was only a few years older.

I say this to remind you, especially young people, of what young folks are capable of, when they put their minds and hearts to it.

Huey didn't ask Martin Luther King, Jr. for permission. He didn't ask Malcolm X for his OK.

Like most young people of his time, he talked to other young folks, and before you know it, a dozen young brothas and sistas were with him, trying to build the Party from scratch.

What's my point?

Am I suggesting that this was/is easy? Or that, if Huey could do it, you could too?

No. It would be dishonest of me, and dangerous for you, to do that.

It's important to remember that old adage by Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

It's important for you to learn mistakes of the past, so that you can side-step them in the future.

Among the Ashanti people in West Africa, the following proverb is used: " A wise man who ceases to learn ceases to be wise."

Study. Study. Seriously study our people's history of resistance, so that you can remake this world {that is} on the brink of chaos.

Huey P. Newton studied the works of Malcolm X; he studied anti-Imperialist movements in Cuba, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. He studied the writings of Mao, of Che, of Kwame Nkrumah and beyond.

Then he put his studies into practice.

The great Frantz Fanon, a revolutionary psychiatrist who helped {in} the Algerian Revolution said, "Every generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, and fulfill it or betray it."

That is your task. It can't be handed to you like a ticket.

It must emerge from the inner recesses of the soul, from the red embers of collective and personal history.

You must own it, and make it yours, by seizing the stage of history - by taking it.

For, as elders return to their ancestors, the earth becomes the inheritance of the living.

The challenge is great; the threats are daunting; but the promise of freedom, of true liberation couldn't be sweeter.

Thank you! Ona Move!

From Life's Row, this Mumia Abu-Jamal

*******

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, with what could be the final decision on his legal appeals possibly coming down this summer. That decision could give Mumia his freedom, a new trial, life in prison, or execution. It is time to turn up the heat against this injustice.

Free Mumia!

For more on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal read:

Top Ten “Fry Mumia” Myths Debunked

(Myth #1) “Five eyewitnesses saw Mumia shoot officer Faulkner.”

http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/19/18436405.php

COMMUNITY ACTION FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO 8

***Please distribute widely***

COMMUNITY ACTION FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO 8

The San Francisco 8 will be in court on August 6. Join Jericho Boston to
help put out the word about their case and gather signatures for a
petition demanding their release.

WHEN: Monday, August 6, 5-7pm
WHERE: Dudley Station, Roxbury

We will be gathering at Dudley Station at 5:00p.m.
Look for the banner:

"COAST TO COAST SOLIDARITY ...  FREE THE SAN FRANCISCO
8!"

***

Who are the SF8?

The San Francisco 8 are community activists who have
dedicated their lives to serving their people; most were members of the
Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. They are now being unjustly charged with
murder for a killing that took place 30 years ago based on confessions
obtained through torture.

In 1973, New Orleans police employed torture over the
course of several days to obtain confessions from members of the Black
Panther Party for the killing of a police officer that had taken place in
San Francisco in 1971.
The men were stripped naked, beaten, covered in blankets soaked with
boiling water, and shocked with cattle prods. A court ruled in 1974 that
both San Francisco and New Orleans police had engaged
in torture to extract a confession, and a San Francisco judge dismissed
charges against three men in 1975 based on that ruling.

In 2003 the case was re-opened and the men were
subpoenaed to a series of grand juries. In 2005 they asserted their
Constitutional rights to refuse to testify and were jailed for civil contempt. In
2007, the prosecution re-filed the charges against the SF8 based on the same
tortured confessions illegally obtained in 1973. The men were arrested on
January 23; 6 of the 8 had bail set at  $3 million.

On August 6, 2007 the SF8 will be appearing in court
for their next bail hearing. Help us build a movement to win their
release!

For more information about the SF8:
http://www.freethesf8.org/
For updates on local actions: www.jerichoboston.org

(We will be showing the film Legacy of Torture: the
War Against the Black Liberation Movement on August 18 as part of an event
for Black August. Stay tuned for more information.)

Jericho Boston
(617)830-0732
jericho_boston@yahoo.com
www.jerichoboston.org




FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS AND PRISONERS OF WAR!

Jericho-Boston
PO Box 301057
Boston, MA 02130

jerichoboston.org

(617)830-0732



____________________________________________________________________________________
Building a website is a piece of cake. Yahoo! Small Business gives
you all the tools to get online.
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---

From: Jericho Boston
To: jericho_boston_announce@lists.riseup.net
Subject: [jericho_boston_announce] Community Action for the San Francisco 8, August 6th
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:09:53 -0700 (PDT)

---

***Please distribute widely***

COMMUNITY ACTION FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO 8

The San Francisco 8 will be in court on August 6. Join
Jericho Boston to help put out the word about their case and gather
signatures for a petition demanding their release.

WHEN: Monday, August 6, 5-7pm
WHERE: Dudley Station, Roxbury

We will be gathering at Dudley Station at 5:00p.m.
Look for the banner:

"COAST TO COAST SOLIDARITY ...  FREE THE SAN FRANCISCO
8!"

***

Who are the SF8?

The San Francisco 8 are community activists who have
dedicated their lives to serving their people; most were members of the
Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. They are now being unjustly charged with
murder for a killing that took place 30 years ago based on confessions
obtained through torture.

In 1973, New Orleans police employed torture over the
course of several days to obtain confessions from members of the Black
Panther Party for the killing of a police officer that had taken place in
San Francisco in 1971. The men were stripped naked, beaten, covered in
blankets soaked with boiling water, and shocked with cattle prods. A court
ruled in 1974 that both San Francisco and New Orleans police had engaged
in torture to extract a confession, and a San Francisco judge dismissed
charges against three men in 1975 based on that ruling.

In 2003 the case was re-opened and the men were
subpoenaed to a series of grand juries. In 2005 they asserted their
Constitutional rights to refuse to testify and were jailed for civil contempt. In
2007, the prosecution re-filed the charges against the SF8 based on the same
tortured confessions illegally obtained in 1973. The men were arrested on
January 23; 6 of the 8 had bail set at  $3 million.

On August 6, 2007 the SF8 will be appearing in court
for their next bail hearing. Help us build a movement to win their
release!

For more information about the SF8:
http://www.freethesf8.org/
For updates on local actions: www.jerichoboston.org

(We will be showing the film Legacy of Torture: the War Against the Black Liberation Movement on August 18 as part of an event
for Black August. Stay tuned for more information.)

Jericho Boston
(617)830-0732
jericho_boston@yahoo.com
www.jerichoboston.org

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS AND PRISONERS OF WAR!

Jericho-Boston
PO Box 301057
Boston, MA 02130

jerichoboston.org

(617)830-0732

Bookin for Daniel: Pledge Now!!

Friends and Comrades,

Hi, this is Esther of Eberhardt Press. I am running the Bookin' for 
Daniel marathon this weekend! That is 26.2 miles and I would love it 
if more of you pledged. Thanks so much to everyone who has already. 
Your support means a lot to me and a whole lot to
Daniel. Remember 
every bit helps!
=====================

From Friends and Family of Daniel McGowan:

Our friend is running a marathon this weekend in San Francisco to 
raise funds and show support for eco-defense prisoner Daniel McGowan. 
All proceeds from this run will go directly to Daniel McGowan’s 
education fund. Daniel will complete his master’s degree while 
serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison. We believe that 
Danniel’s voice must not silenced by his imprisonment and that 
communication and education are vital in the battle against global 
warming.

“ those in power have not dealt with global warming. That, in my 
opinion, is a crime. Old-growth forests in Oregon are
still being 
logged, genetically engineered trees and crops are still being 
introduced into the environment and the only success I see is when 
people organize and pressure governments and corporations to change 
their behavior.” - Daniel McGowan


Global warming is caused by burning fossil fuels and deforestation. 
Daniel McGowan  is a social justice and environmental activist from 
NY. Around ten years ago, at a time when the media was protecting 
corporate interests by pandering to global warming deniers, Daniel 
took action.
He used economic sabotage (including two arsons in which no one was 
harmed) to raise awareness and stop the deforestation of the planet. 
He will now spend the next seven years in prison.
While the earth heats up, forests are still being unsustainably 
logged, as a result
humans are displaced by environmental 
catastrophe, and more species die each day. The state will continue 
to crack down on those who resist. Someday, your children may ask 
you, “what did you do?” Will you tell them, “I recycled ?”

By supporting Daniel, you can contribute
in a meaningful way to creating a more
honest, healthy, and sustainable life
for all creatures of planet earth.

Pledge at www.BookinforDaniel.eberhardtpress.org

Check out Daniel's support site at www.SupportDaniel.org

Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you so much to 
everyone who has decided to pledge. Feel free to forward this to 
anyone who you might think would be interested in supporting Daniel. 

In wrongful convictions, justice system turns up guilty

By Adam Liptak

The New York Times

Published: Monday, July 23, 2007

In April, Jerry Miller, an Illinois man who served 24 years for a rape he did not commit, became the 200th American prisoner cleared by DNA evidence. His case, like the 199 others, represented a catastrophic failure of the criminal justice system.

When an airplane crashes, investigators pore over the wreckage to discover what went wrong and to learn from the experience. The justice system has not done anything similar.

But a new study does. Brandon Garrett, a law professor at the University of Virginia, has, for the first time, systematically examined the 200 cases, in which innocent people served an average of 12 years in prison. In each case, of course, the evidence used to convict them was at least flawed and often false - yet juries, trial judges and appellate courts failed to notice.

``A few types of unreliable trial evidence predictably supported wrongful convictions,'' Garrett concluded in his study, ``Judging Innocence,'' which will be published in the Columbia Law Review in January.

The leading cause of the wrongful convictions was erroneous identification by eyewitnesses, which occurred 79 percent of the time. In a quarter of the cases, such testimony was the only direct evidence against the defendant.

Faulty forensic evidence was next, present in 55 percent of the cases.

In some of those cases, courts put undue weight on evidence with limited value, as when a defendant's blood type matched evidence from the crime scene. In others, prosecution experts exaggerated, made honest mistakes or committed outright fraud.

Most of the forensic evidence involved problems with the analysis of blood or semen. Forty-two cases featured expert testimony about hair, an area that is, Garrett wrote, ``notoriously unreliable.''

Informants testified against the defendants in 18 percent of the cases. (In three cases, it turned out they had an unusually powerful motive for their false testimony, as DNA evidence proved they were in fact guilty of the crime they had pinned on the defendant.)

There were false confessions in 16 percent of the cases, with two-thirds of those involving defendants who were juveniles, mentally retarded or both.

The 200 cases examined in the study are a distinctive subset of criminal cases. More than 90 percent of those exonerated by DNA were convicted of rape, or of both rape and murder, rape being the classic crime in which DNA can categorically prove innocence.

For other crimes, there is often no biological evidence or, if there is, it can give only circumstantial hints about guilt or innocence.

Only 14 of those exonerated had been sentenced to death, 13 in rape-murders. There is a widespread misconception that DNA evidence has freed many inmates from death row, but it is actually a rare murder not involving rape in which biological evidence can provide categorical proof of innocence.

``DNA testing is available in fewer than 10 percent of violent crimes,'' said Peter Neufeld, a founder of the Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School, which was instrumental in securing many of the exonerations.

``But the same causes of wrongful convictions exist in cases with DNA evidence as in those cases that don't.''

Garrett's study strongly suggests, then, that there are thousands of people serving long sentences for crimes they did not commit but who have no hope that DNA can clear them.

In a second forthcoming study of false convictions, this one focused on capital cases, two law professors - Samuel Gross of the University of Michigan and Barbara O'Brien of Michigan State - cautioned that ``exonerations are highly unrepresentative of wrongful convictions in general.''

``The main thing we can safely conclude from exonerations is that there are many other false convictions that we have not discovered,'' the Michigan study said. ``In addition, a couple of strong demographic patterns appear to be reliable: black men accused of raping white women face a greater risk of false conviction than other rape defendants; and young suspects, those under 18, are at greater risk of false confession than other suspects.''

Garrett also found that exonerated convicts were more apt to be members of minority groups than was the prison population generally.

For instance, 73 percent of the convicts cleared of rape charges were black or Hispanic, compared with 37 percent of all rape convicts.

The courts performed miserably in ferreting out the innocent. The U.S. Supreme Court, for instance, refused to hear appeals from 30 people who turned out to be innocent.

Of course, appeals courts do not typically reconsider a jury's factual findings, focusing instead on asserted procedural errors. Only 20 of the 200 even appealed on the ground that they were innocent; none of those claims was granted.

Perhaps the most troubling finding in Garrett's study was how reluctant the criminal justice system was to allow DNA testing in the first place.

Prosecutors often opposed it, and 16 courts initially denied requests for testing.

Yet DNA evidence can do more than free the innocent. In many cases, it also identified the person who actually committed the crime.

``In 40 percent of our cases, we not only exonerated but also identified the real perpetrator,'' Neufeld of the Innocence Project said.

``In every single one of those cases, that perpetrator had committed violent crimes in the intervening years.''

The era of DNA exonerations should be a finite one. These days, DNA testing is common on the front end of prosecutions, meaning that in a few years, the window that the 200 exonerations has opened on the justice system will close.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Jammiing Janet Africa?: The Latest On A MOVE Woman

Jammiing Janet Africa?: The Latest On A MOVE Woman

[col. writ. 7/19/07] (c) '07 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Janet Africa is one of several MOVE women who are serving an unjust term of 30 to 100 years stemming from the police assault on MOVE's home and headquarters on Aug. 8, 1978.

On that fateful day the police attacked their home at 33rd & Powelton Avenue in West Philadelphia, and tried mightily to kill them all. Launching hundreds of shots into the house, and even using water cannons against them.

Miraculously, MOVE survived this onslaught, but only to face the quieter and less obvious weapons of judges and lies to convict 9 MOVE men and women of killing a cop who was attacking their homes -- a cop, Incidentally, who apparently died from the same cause as did former NFL star Pat Tillman in Iraq -- so-called "friendly fire."

That was 29 years ago.

Recently, Janet, when returning from her prison job, was approached by a male guard who wanted to search her. Janet said she would consent to a search, but would prefer a female guard do so.

When the female guard ( a C/O Dover) was approached, she went off into a rant of "she ain't special", and told a passing Sgt. to write Janet up, and throw her into the hole.

But what Janet asked for wasn't anything special at all.

It's a rule at the state's newest woman's prison, Cambridge Springs, that any women there can utilize.

Janet quite rightly wondered, "Why is a regular guard telling a Sgt., supposedly her superior, what to do?'

And than it dawned on her. 'This is a set-up. They're trying to create a pretext to deny me and my sisters parole.'

August 8, 2008 marks the minimum term of the MOVE 9 -- 30 years.

But someone in the hole can't even get a hearing before the agency.

MOVE 9 supporters are burning up the phone lines to let prison officials know that they know what's up.

MOVE members and supporters are organizing to support their people by caravans through Philadelphia neighborhoods to teach folks about the MOVE 9, and their upcoming parole dates.

If you want more information, call the MOVE organization at: (215) 387-4107.

Or write:

The MOVE Organization

P.O. Box 19708

Phila., PA 19143

NOW IS THE TIME TO PAROLE THE MOVE 9!

As MOVE's Ramona Africa recently wrote in an e-mail update: "This year's activity is more important than ever because of the upcoming parole hearings. It is not simply a commemoration of the Aug. 8, 1978 police attack on MOVE but it is the launch of our campaign for the paroled of innocent MOVE people.

Join us in the fight for Freedom!"

--(c) '07 maj

*******

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States, with what could be the final decision on his legal appeals possibly coming down this summer. That decision could give Mumia his freedom, a new trial, life in prison, or execution. It is time to turn up the heat against this injustice.

Free Mumia and the MOVE 9 Now!

For more on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the MOVE 9 read:

Top Ten “Fry Mumia” Myths Debunked

(Myth #1) “Five eyewitnesses saw Mumia shoot officer Faulkner.”

http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/07/19/18436405.php

Transgender inmate sues state over prison rape claims

July 24, 2007 Southern Voice

A transgender woman who claims she was repeatedly raped and beaten by
a male cell mate went to court this week to challenge a state policy
that assigns inmates like her to men's or women's prisons depending
on whether they have undergone sex-change surgery. Alexis Giraldo,
30, claims that Folsom State Prison guards ignored her complaints of
abuse and returned her to the same cell until a subsequent assault
got her placed in protective custody and eventually moved to another
facility.

A transgender woman who claims she was repeatedly raped and beaten by
a male cell mate went to court this week to challenge a state policy
that assigns inmates like her to men's or women's prisons depending
on whether they have undergone sex-change surgery.

Alexis Giraldo, 30, claims that Folsom State Prison guards ignored
her complaints of abuse and returned her to the same cell until a
subsequent assault got her placed in protective custody and
eventually moved to another facility.

Giraldo, who was born a man but lives as a woman and takes hormones
to feminize her appearance, is suing the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation for emotional distress and violating
her constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.

"Prisons are violent places, and male prisons are especially violent
places," said Greg Walston, a San Francisco lawyer who took on
Giraldo's case pro bono. "You take that boiling cauldron and you put
one woman in there – which is exactly what happened here – and it's
like throwing a fresh piece of meat into a lion's cage."

The San Francisco jury hearing the case has been asked to award
Giraldo unspecified damages. Superior Court Judge Ellen Chaitin has
been asked to order prison officials to come up with a new system for
housing transgender inmates.

The California Attorney General's office, which is representing the
corrections department and Folsom staff members also named as
defendants in the lawsuit, said Friday that it would not comment on
the case.

Briefs filed by the state argue that Giraldo initially was in a
consensual sexual relationship with her cell mate in violation of
prison policy, did not report specific rape claims, and refused
offers to be moved to a different cell. Once she made it clear she
was being forced to service her cell mate against her will and
strangulation marks were found on her neck, she was removed to
protective custody, the state maintains.

"Plaintiff alleges that he informed prison staff on a number of
occasions about these events. However, the documentation maintained
by prison personnel – including some of the defendants in this case –
does not bear out these assertions," the state's brief states.

Several counties in California, including San Francisco, have created
separate units specifically for transgender prisoners. But like other
states and the federal Bureau of Prisons, California assigns inmates
to prisons based on their genitalia rather than physical appearance.

Biological men who dress and act like women but have not had sex
reassignment surgery can be assigned to a psychiatric prison like the
one to which Giraldo eventually transferred or the general population
of a regular men's prison.

Teda Boyll, a retired guard and supervisor in California, testified
for Giraldo as an expert witness on Friday, saying that in her
opinion Folsom officials failed to adequately investigate Giraldo's
concerns and assure her safety.

"There are some warning signs," Boyll said. "When an inmate says, 'I
am getting pressured for sex,' it means it is already happened or it
is imminent he will have to provide nonconsensual sex to another
inmate."

Giraldo was sent to Folsom for shoplifitng and a parole violation in
January 2006 and spent three months there before she was transferred
to the medical prison. She was paroled earlier this month and is
scheduled to testify on Friday afternoon.

Her former cell mate, who is serving a sentence for armed robbery, is
also scheduled to testify in the case.

http://www.southernvoice.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=13499

Finish anti-war prisoner

Urgent ELP! Bulletin (24th of July 2007)

Dear friends

ELP has just learnt that a very well known Finnish prisoner support
activist, Antti, who has links to the Anarchist Black Cross and who
once served a prison sentence for refusing to be conscripted into the
Finnish army, is back in prison.

Antti has been jailed for 16 days for refusing to the fines issued as
part of his previous sentence.

An e-mail account has been sent up and we urge everyone to send
urgent messages of support to supportantti@hotmail.com

Please do send a message of support to Antti.  As we said, Antti is a
well known prisoner support activist who has always been the first to
help others in the past, therefore it is now our turn to help him.

============

British Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
BM Box 2407
London
WC1N 3XX
England
www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk

Reporter stitches up mouth to protest jailing

July 23, 2007 AP

BAKU, Azerbaijan - An Azerbaijani journalist has gone on a hunger strike to protest his prison sentence and stitched up his mouth to strengthen his demand, a media freedom activist said Monday.

Faramaz Allahverdiyev, a reporter from the opposition Nota Bene newspaper, sewed up his mouth when he went on a hunger strike last week, said Emin Huseynov, who heads the Institute for Freedom and Security of Reporters.

Huseynov told The Associated Press that he learned about Allahverdiyev’s move from other prisoners.

Justice Ministry’s spokesman Rafiq Ramazanov said that Allahverdiyev went on a hunger strike Sunday, but added that he was unaware of him stitching up his mouth.

Allahverdiyev was sentenced to two years in prison in January on charges of slandering the interior minister. The Organization or Security and Cooperation in Europe, a top trans-Atlantic democracy and security body, criticized the verdict as another blow to media freedom in the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation.

Independent media and opposition parties in Azerbaijan have come under increasing pressure from its authoritarian leadership.

Azerbaijan is ruled by President Ilham Aliev, who succeeded his father, Geidar — a former KGB general who had been in power for a decade — in a 2003 election that was criticized by foreign observers and dismissed as fraudulent by the opposition.