ASIA TODAY Iran, 10 years in prison for a convert for “propagating Christianity”

Today’s news: China, more students injured after a car crashes in front of a school in Hunan. In Delhi, traffic restrictions and online classes due to poor air quality. In Hong Kong, democratic leaders sentenced to prison for “subversion” under the National Security Law. Street protests against the Georgian Dream continue in Tbilisi.

IRAN

A Christian convert sentenced to 10 years in prison for “propaganda” of Christianity. Identified as Toomaj Aryan-Kia, he was also found guilty of “collaborating” with the “hostile governments” of Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States and belonging to “anti-regime groups.” The charges were pronounced on November 5 in the Third Chamber of the Karaj Revolutionary Court by Judge Mostafa Narimani, who also prohibited Toomaj from joining any group for two years after his release.

CHINA

Several Students injured after car crashes outside primary school in central China’s Hunan Province. If it is proven that it was intentional, it would be the third attack in a few days. An eyewitness told local media that the incident occurred around 7:50 in the morning. Between eight and nine people were injured, including students and parents, he added, explaining that all the victims were taken to the hospital.

INDIA

Poor air quality persists in northern states of India. India suffers from air pollution every winter as the cold, heavy air traps dust, emissions and smoke from illegally set farm fires in the neighboring agricultural states of Punjab and Haryana. The Air Quality Index (AQI) reached a high of 491 in Delhi, forcing the government to introduce restrictions on vehicle movement and construction activities, as well as conduct online classes in schools.

HONG KONG

A Hong Kong court sentenced senior democratic leaders to years in prison for subversionin one of the most notorious national security trials. Benny Tai and Joshua Wong were part of the so-called Hong Kong 47 group. Tai was sentenced to 10 years, and Wong to more than four. The majority of the group was found guilty of conspiracy to commit attempted subversion. The trial marked the widest use of the harsh national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong shortly after the city’s explosive pro-democracy protests in 2019.

GEORGIA

Street protests continue in Tbilisi – accusing the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party of electoral fraud – with large numbers of protesters spending the last few nights in around 30 tents located at one of the city’s main intersections, completely blocking traffic, with many citizens carrying blankets, rugs and hot tea to shelter from the cold, and setting up biological toilets.

ISRAEL – GAZA

A Israeli airstrike on a five-story residential building in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, killed at least 34 people, according to the local civil defense agency. Many of them were women and children, and dozens are feared still under the rubble. A convoy of 109 UN aid trucks carrying food was violently looted in Gaza on Saturday, according to UNRWA. Ninety-seven of the trucks were lost and their drivers were forced at gunpoint to unload aid after crossing the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

RUSSIA

The Nizhny Novgorod court sentenced historian Sergei Lukashevsky, former director of the Sakharov Center closed by the authorities, to eight years in prison, with a ban on accessing any Internet resources, for his “defamatory” posts about the war in Ukraine, in which denounced the crimes of Russian soldiers against the civilian population.