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• Bloc’s new Freeze and Seize task force reports latest numbers
• EU urges nations to report back about sanctions enforcement

 A court in Kazakhstan has rejected a request for early release filed by jailed activist Almat Zhumaghulov, whom rights organizations in the Central Asian country have recognized as a political prisoner.

Long synonymous with Sherlock Holmes, the building at 221B Baker Street in London now represents a tragic irony: The fictional crime-fighter’s address has been linked to the kleptocratic regime of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the de facto authoritarian ruler of Kazakhstan from 1990 until recently. His first daughter, Dariga, has been reported as owning this property and a significant number of other London residences. (Dariga Nazarbayeva, through an attorney, declined to comment when asked about this.)

Russia and Iran are among the top authoritarian states extending their tentacles of repression abroad to target exiles, a new report by Freedom House says.

The political systems have more similarities, with super-presidential regimes in all except the Kyrgyz Republic

For years, Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel was known as an outspoken critic of Equatorial Guinea’s government, despite decades of brutal repression and staggering corruption.