xenophobia and homophobia, as well as descriptions of methods to be used to punish activists in the group.49 • One of the leaders of an LGBT community fled his home after receiving death threats following a complaint he made about police misconduct. The complaint was related to an incident, whereby police officers stopped four men dressed in women’s clothing after an LGBT event and took them to the police station, where they were paraded around and harassed.50 Harassment and intimidation • A woman who headed an NGO and campaigned for farmers’ rights was reportedly threatened with eviction for organizing and participating in a peaceful demonstration to protest the lack of heating and electricity in her region. Since then, she and her relatives have been pressured by the authorities to leave the region.51 • A trade union’s office was closed and five of its activists fired by the port they worked for after the union presented its demands for the protection of workers’ rights in the course of a restructuring process the port was engaged in.52 • The local authorities in a certain city prevented a journalist from attending a press conference with EU ambassadors because, in their view, he was presenting “too negative a view” of the city. He was also strongly advised by the mayor’s bodyguard to apologize for his critical articles.53 • A defender was summoned first to a meeting with a police official and then to a meeting with national-security agents, where he was informed that he should stop his human rights activities. He also started receiving phone calls from unknown people pressuring him to leave the country. He fled the country out of fear.54 • A lawyer who defended a person who had spent a year in detention in Syria before he was extradited to an OSCE participating State to stand trial on terrorism charges successfully argued that the evidence obtained in Syria should be inadmissible at trial, as it was obtained under torture. The defendant was sentenced to nine years in prison. The appeals court increased the sentence to 10 years and criticized the lawyer for stating in his written arguments that the investigating judges were complicit in torture, calling this language “slanderous and overstepping the bounds of freedom of speech of the defence”. The prosecutor’s office asked a disciplinary committee of the bar association to censure the lawyer for making these accusations. Despite the view of the president of the bar that the lawyer’s actions were legitimate in the defence of his client, the prosecutor’s office took its own disciplinary action against the lawyer. Possible punishment includes temporary or permanent disbarment.55 49 Case of Queeria Center (Serbia). Information provided by the OSCE Mission to Serbia, 23 May 2008. 50 Case of the LGBT community in Prishtinë/Pristina. Information provided by the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, 21 May 2008. 51 Case of Saida Kurbanova (Uzbekistan), “Uzbekistan: Acts of intimidation against human rights defender Saida Kurbanova”, Front Line, 28 February 2008. 52 Case of Georgian Trade Union Confederation (Georgia), “Georgia: The end of Freedom of Association”, International Trade Union Confederation, 23 November 2007. 53 Case of Enes Halilovic (Serbia), “Local authorities in a southern region drew up a blacklist of undesirable journalists ahead of press conference”, Reporters Without Borders, 7 September 2007. 54 Case of Yadgar Turlibekov (Uzbekistan). Information provided by Human Rights Watch, 15 May 2008. 55 Case of Sebastian Bono (France). Information provided by Human Rights Watch, 15 May 2008. 15