RUSSIA: Court rejects appeal by jailed scientist

A court in the Russian city of Arkhangelsk has rejected an appeal for the release of academic Igor Stygian, who is serving a sentence of 15 years for espionage. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reported that Stygian, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Institute of Canada, was convicted in 2004 for allegedly passing classified information about nuclear weapons from Russia to a company based in London.

Academic denies the charges and in 2007 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe demanded his immediate release. Amnesty International has also named a prisoner of conscience Stygian. According to RFE / RL, the court rejected the latest appeal for his release on the grounds that he had broken the rules of the prison.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE / RL)

Iran: Student arrested and denied access to lawyers

Maids Tavakkoli, Amir Jabir University student, still deprived of access to their lawyers and visits from his family, said the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Three months ago, Tawakoni was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison and five years to ban travel abroad. He was taken to Even Prison on 20 April 2010 after serving 125 days in solitary confinement.

Tawakoni, known for his dedication to human rights, was violently arrested on December 7 after giving a speech to students at the university to commemorate the Day of the students. While trying to leave the campus, was beaten by security guards and arrested.

He had previously been arrested and imprisoned twice, once in 2008 during the manufacture of student publications and again in February 2009, during his participation in a memorial service Bargain Midi, a prominent Iranian scholar.

International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

UK: Cambridge changed rules to make firing easier

The changes in the statute of the University of Cambridge may make gifts easier dismissal difficult, says The Guardian. The University Council, headed by the rector, is proposed strip Regent House (parliament gifts' that includes a medium university staff) of their right to approve the names indicated by staff redundancy.

The new proposals could mean that academics who are facing redundancy will face an audience of equal treatment librarians, laboratory technicians and other non-academic staff, says The Guardian. Until now, scholars have had the right to have their cases heard by the president and a committee of seven, which acts as a court of appeal university.