Nigeria: community service to reduce prison crowding

The proposed bill could see LGBTQ community members imprisoned between five to 10 years for identifying or advocating for their rights.

The former president has died while serving a life term in prison for crimes against humanity. Local media reported that the 79-year-old died of coronavirus.

Eighty political prisoners detained by Alpha Conde's government, including a number who had campaigned against his third term, were released on Tuesday (september 7) evening following a military coup which deposed the now former Guinean president. Ismael Conde, a former member of Alpha Conde's party who rallied against a third term, left Conakry's central jail thanking the people of Guinea for his liberation and embracing a close relative before disapearing into the crowd.

Critics say a plan to consolidate media regulatory agencies will further shrink press freedom in the country. Journalists and opposition parties have decried the law as "draconian" and unconstitutional.

This week on The Observers, we start with the story of Ethiopian migrants who have been kept in Saudi Arabian prisons for months in poor conditions, with dirty surroundings and little to eat or drink. We spoke to Arafat Jibril Bakrii, a human rights activist who has been helping migrants to share photos and videos of their living conditions.

Relatives of prisoners in an Ecuadorian jail where gang clashes left over a hundred dead speak of their fears for their loved ones. "It's very painful," said the mother of one prisoner outside the jail, "I don't know if my son is well or not."

Rifaat al-Assad, dubbed the butcher of Hama, was exiled by the Syrian president's late father. He was facing four years behind bars in France for laundering embezzled funds.

Zhang Zhan traveled to Wuhan in February last year to report on the chaos at the epicenter of the first coronavirus outbreak. She is on hunger strike after receiving a 4-year jail sentence for "provoking trouble."

Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso deployed police and the military to "take control of all the country's prisons" after scores of inmates were killed in gang clashes.

The rioter made famous for his tattoos and horned headdress was sentenced to 41 months behind bars for his role in the deadly storming of the US Capitol building. It is one of the stiffest sentences yet handed down.

France and Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema was found guilty of complicity in the attempted blackmail of a former international team mate over a sex tape on Wednesday and sentenced to a one-year suspended jail term. He was also fined 75,000 euros ($84,170). Benzema's lawyer said the player would appeal against the verdict.

The former South African president's medical parole was found to be "unlawful". He was instructed to return to jail to serve out the remainder of his sentence.