Shahbaz among opposition leaders arrested worldwide in 2018

Following his arrest on October 5 last for his alleged links to a housing scam in Lahore, Mian Shahbaz Sharif had featured in the list of many global opposition leaders who have been handcuffed and consequently sent behind bars during the still-ongoing 2018.

Less than a week after the Pakistani anti-graft body, the National Accountability Bureau, had apprehended the 68-year old Shahbaz, the authorities in Peru had gone on to arrest the country’s opposition leader, Keiko Fujimori, as part of an investigation into money laundering. Keiko is the daughter of the former Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori.

The October 11, 2018 edition of the “BBC News” had stated: “Mrs Fujimori, who is leader of the opposition in the Peruvian congress, was detained along with her husband. The judge said they would be held initially for 10 days along with 19 other suspects. Prosecutors allege she was involved in accepting illegal contributions to her party by the Brazilian firm, Odebrecht. Mrs Fujimori denies any wrong-doing. She was shown on television in a car in handcuffs after being detained.”

The British media house had added: “Prosecutors have accused her of leading a criminal group inside her party that took $1.2m (£920,000) in illegal funds from Odebrecht for use during her 2011 presidential election campaign. Earlier this year, former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned in a scandal linked to the Odebrecht case. In a letter published on social media after her arrest Mrs Fujimori said she was being politically persecuted. Her father, Alberto Fujimori, is expected to return to jail to continue serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses. Keiko Fujimori said her father's arrest was "abusive" too.”

On August 9, 2018, according to “The New York Times,” senior leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party was captured after Zambia had rejected his request for asylum and deported him, escalating fears of a government crackdown following a disputed presidential election. The “New York Times” had reported: “The politician, Tendai Biti, was handed to the Zimbabwean authorities at the border. He was later taken before a magistrate in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, and charged with inciting public violence and with violating election law by announcing unofficial results. The events come as Mr. Biti’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change, prepares a legal challenge to the results of the July 30 election, which President Emmerson Mnangagwa had won narrowly.” The American newspaper had gone on to write: “Tendai Biti has challenged the results of the country’s recent presidential election and accused the governing party of plotting to assassinate him.”

On September 23, 2018, as the “Financial Times” and “The Independent” had reported that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was released from jail, only to be immediately seized again by police. The “Independent” had written: “Mr Navalny had completed 30-day sentence for organizing an unauthorized protest and was freed at daybreak. But a police officer detained the lawyer activist as soon as he stepped outside a detention centre in Moscow. A figurehead for opposition to Vladimir Putin, Mr Navalny was met by supporters and media as he emerged from the facility and was quickly led away.” The noted British newspaper had held: “His spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said he had been taken to a police station to face new charges of staging a rally that caused bodily harm to unidentified people. She later tweeted to say he had been sentenced to another 20 days in jail. Mr Navalny has been a driving force behind a recent series of anti-government protests held in cities and towns across Russia. He claimed authorities had recently imprisoned him for 30 days to prevent him from leading a September 9 protest against the government’s pension reforms." On September 9, 2018, as British news agency “Reuters” had stated, the Cambodian opposition leader, Kem Sokha, was released but put under house arrest soon after.

A “Reuters” report had said: “Hundreds of supporters of the leader of Cambodia’s main opposition party, Kem Sokha, gathered outside his house after he was released on bail after spending more than a year in jail on treason charges.” “He was released on bail and he is under monitoring by the court,” government spokesman Phay Siphan had told the “Reuters.”

Kem Sokha’s daughter, Kem Monovithya, said her 65-year-old father has been placed under house arrest and was in poor health and needed medical attention. Kem Sokha, leader of the now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, was arrested and accused of treason last September as part of a government-led crackdown against critics. On August 16, 2018, the “Al-Jazeera” had reported that the government of Congo had issued an international arrest warrant for opposition leader, Moise Katumbi, who had been in self-imposed exile since 2016.

On April 22, 2018, the Armenian authorities had arrested opposition leader, Nikol Pashinyan. “The Guardian” had said: “Armenian police have detained the opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan as protests against the former president Serzh Sarksyan’s appointment as prime minister entered a tenth day. Police said Pashinyan was forcibly taken from a rally on Sunday, shortly after Sarksyan rejected demands to step down, as riot police and demonstrators clashed in the capital. Nearly 200 protesters were also detained.” On September 26, 2017, Uganda’s opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, was nabbed too.

According to “Reuters,” Kizza, the leader for Forum for Democratic Change and a four-time presidential candidate, was taken into custody in downtown Kampala city, where he had gone to rally his supporters against the removal of a constitutional clause that capped presidential age limit at 75 years of age. On May 28, 2018, prominent Egyptian opposition leader, Hazim Abdelazim, was picked up from his home in Cairo on suspicion of publishing false news and inciting against the state, Germany's public international broadcaster “Deutsche Welle” or DW had reported.

Once a Deputy Telecommunication Minister under the ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Abdelazim was later heavily involved with another Egyptian head of state Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's 2014 election campaign in which he had chaired the youth committee. He later described the experience on his Twitter profile as his "biggest sin” and had criticized President Sisi on his Twitter.

In June 2018, a former Turkish opposition politician was arrested on anti-terror charges related to the failed coup against President Erdogan in 2016, just days after the leader was elected for a second term.

Eren Erdem was charged with aiding the group blamed for the 2016 coup against Tayyip Erdogan, the “BBC News” had flashed headlines. Erdem, 31, had tweeted to confirm he had been detained.

He posted on the social media website: “I have been detained. I don’t know the reason. I was detained by police outside my home.” The jailed politician had lost his parliamentary seat in June 2018 Turkish elections. The “BC News” had stated: “Istanbul prosecutors are charging him with assisting the followers of the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who denies orchestrating the failed 2016 coup.”

Earlier, during April 2018, the Turkish police forces had arrested at least 63 people on suspicion of affiliation to a movement led by the US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Ankara government has often accused of having masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt against President Erdogan. On February 8, 2018, a judge in Bangladesh had convicted the opposition leader, Khaleda Zia, of corruption and sentenced her to five years in jail as police clashed with thousands of her supporters outside the court.

“The Guardian” had reported: “The court found the former prime minister guilty of embezzling money meant for an orphanage, a charge she had consistently dismissed as politically motivated. She was immediately taken to a special jail in the old part of the city where she must remain until her lawyers file an appeal.” “This is a false and staged case. No way will we accept this verdict,” the BNP secretary general, Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, said after the hearing. Zia’s lawyer, Khandkar Mahbub Hossain, said the ruling was “political vengeance” and would be overturned by a higher court.

“The Guardian” had maintained: “Zia, who entered politics in the mid-1980s after her military dictator husband was assassinated in an abortive coup, also faces dozens of separate charges related to violence and corruption. She has repeatedly said the charges against her were aimed at excluding her and her family from politics. Her son Rahman lives in exile in London and was convicted of money laundering in 2016. Last month prosecutors sought the death penalty over his alleged role in a deadly 2004 grenade attack that injured Hasina.”

It is imperative to note that earlier in October 2017, the Bangladesh police had reportedly arrested and detained 33 leaders of an Islamic political party in an apparent government-backed crackdown. On February 6, 2018, the Maldives’ opposition leader and two Supreme Court judges were arrested hours after the government had declared a state of emergency, the “Chicago Tribune” had written. The charges against opposition leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom include bribery and attempting to overthrow the government, his lawyer, Maumoon Hameed, had said on Twitter. Gayoom was president from 1978 to 2008, when Maldives became a multiparty democracy, and is the half-brother of the current president.

The 15-day emergency decree had given the government sweeping powers to make arrests, search and seize property, besides restricting freedom of assembly. On June 8, 2017, according to the “Mail Online,” the Indian police had briefly arrested leading opposition figure Rahul Gandhi as he tried to reach farmers striking in the state of Madhya Pradesh, where five protesters were earlier killed in clashes. The 46-year-old Congress party leader was detained as he crossed into the volatile region in central India by bike, having ditched his car to avoid detection by local authorities who denied him permission to visit.” Rahul had almost reached the epicentre of farmer riots that had roiled the area, but was stopped and held by police. By the way, India’s unenviable history of suppressing political rivals dates back to June 26, 1975, when the-then Premier Indira Gandhi had imposed Emergency in the country, which had led to arrests of dozens of opposition political leaders, including the widely respected Jaya Prakash Narayan and former Deputy Prime Minister Morarji Desai. The “New York Times” had reported: “The President of India declared a state of emergency shortly after dawn in what the Government-controlled All-India Radio called “the threat of internal disturbances.”