Police brutality

As Kosovo opposition parties look ahead to a major rally on Friday against the government's agreements with Serbia and Montenegro, the police are conducting a country-wide campaign of arrests in relation to the violent protests of recent weeks.

In a report released on Monday, Human Rights Watch accused the Macedonian police of beating and insulting refugees and migrants from countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia.

"It's plain to see that Macedonia has a problem with police violence against asylum seekers and migrants," said Emina Cerimovic of Human Rights Watch.

A prosecutor has demanded acquittal for 35 members of Be?ikta? football fan group çAr?? for charges of plotting and organizing to topple the government during the 2013 Gezi Park protests, while asking for jail sentences for disobeying a law on meetings and demonstrations.

The police officer who shot and killed Gezi protester Ethem Sar?sülük during the 2013 Gezi Park protests has been discharged from jail, even though he had been sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison.

The 6th Court of Serious Crimes in Ankara ordered on Sept. 3 the discharge of Ahmet ?ahbaz, the police officer who shot Sar?sülük in 2013. 

Dalibor Djordjevic, a member of the Serbian Gendarmerie special police unit, told the Higher Court in Belgrade on Monday that the prime minister's brother Andrej Vucic hit him in the face while trying with three companions to break through police lines during a gay pride parade on September 28, 2014.

Mykola Gnatovskyy, President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), has argued that police brutality constitutes a systemic problem in Bulgaria.

Armenian authorities launched a criminal investigation July 3 into police officers involved in a brutal crackdown on demonstrators protesting against electricity price hikes.

Turkey?s Constitutional Court has delivered a landmark ruling in favor freedom of expression, saying governments must tolerate even the toughest criticism and ordering the authorities to pay 5,000 liras in non-pecuniary losses to a columnist who had been sentenced for ?insulting? MPs through the media.

The Turkey branch of Amnesty International has sent special tear gas-scented candles to its activists and supporters in a bid to revive Gezi memories and commemorate the second anniversary of the nationwide anti-government uprising. 

Amnesty came up with the project in order to commemorate the second anniversary of the nationwide anti-government Gezi Park protests on May 31. 

China has criticized the United States for violations of human rights, condemning it for police brutality, racism and worldwide spying.