GLOBAL: Academic freedom news universal

A specialist in constitutional law and Chinese activist Yao Life has been released but suffered multiple injuries after spending nearly a month in jail. In Iran, religious scholar Ahmad Gable suffering deteriorating health in prison Fakirabad where serving a sentence for insulting the country's supreme leader. Ashcan Arabian, a student activist imprisoned in northern Iran, has started a hunger strike to protest the conditions of their detention and confusion about their case. The family of Abdolreza Soudbakhsh, Tehran University professor and doctor who was killed by unidentified men in September 2010, said that his death was related to his work with victims of rape and torture.

CHINA: Academic released from secret detention

Yao Life, a scholar and constitutional activist in Hubei province in central China, has been released in complex circumstances and suffering from multiple injuries after spending nearly a month in secret detention, Radio Free Asia reported on 5 September.

Yao was allowed home on September 4. The circumstances and date of his release remain unknown but apparently was hospitalized with a false name to a disease of the gallbladder before going home.

His wife, Lin Fang reported that Yao had multiple injuries, including to his wrists and back as a result of having been tortured while in detention. He also endure hunger and psychological abuse as a denial of the opportunity to clean clothes or wash their clothes.

Yao was detained in Beijing by police from national security last month while staying at a friend's house. He was attacked and harassed by the authorities for his leadership role in the national movement for independent candidates for local elections People's Congress that taken place this year throughout the country.

Human rights groups have expressed concern about the increasing number of extrajudicial detentions in China, and there are deep concerns about a change in the penal code currently being debated in the National People's Congress. If approved, legalizing secret detentions and become routine.

According to Qin Youngman, a political activist based in Wuhan, Yao is under strong police surveillance for national security but still want to stand for local elections as an independent candidate.