Saudi Bloggers Demand Rights in One of World’s Most Repressive Regimes

SaudiPrisoners: Saudi Bloggers Demand Rights in One of World’s Most Repressive Regimes
14 December, 2012 – by Morgan Hargrave – Movements.org

Saudi activists and bloggers are launching an awareness campaign on Twitter to publicize the issue of the political prisoners in Saudi Arabia. The campaign, starting on December 17th and using the hashtag #SaudiPrisoners, aims to draw attention to the reported 30,000 political prisoners currently under detention, and increase pressure on Saudi Arabia to reform. The Saudi regime is considered to be one of the world’s worst abusers of human rights. As the BBC put it last year: “Demonstrations are illegal in the autocratic kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a country with no legal political parties or mass movements that has been governed by the House of Saud for 80 years.” Yet reports on the severe lack of freedom are relatively rare worldwide, and there is little discussion of the Mabahith (the Saudi secret police) and the horrific plight of Saudi political prisoners that are put behind bars simply for expressing their thoughts and beliefs peacefully.

The primary contributer to the campaign is Saudi blogger Hadeel Mohamad, who blogs at thehadeel.wordpress.com and tweets via @The_hadeel. We will follow up with Hadeel next week via a live Twitter and Facebook chat, so keep an eye on the blog and our Twitter feed (@AYM), but suffice it to say that we will be following the #SaudiPrisoners campaign closely. Can an important issue like political prisoners catch on with the growing wave of social media users in the kingdom? Can a young woman and her fellow bloggers get their voices heard in a country where the people are far from free to express themselves?

Hadeel translated the campaign statement for us, and it reads as follows:

“Arbitrary arrest” and “arbitrary detention” are described as the arrest or detention of an individual in a case in which there is no evidence of a crime committed, and/or not permitted due process of law. These human rights violations are characteristic of dictatorships and police states. The Saudi government routinely conducts both arbitrary arrest and arbitrary detention, providing no explanation for the arrest, not showing an arrest warrant, and completely divesting a citizen’s rights to a lawyer and often trial courts. The detainees are often held in solitary confinement, without access to phone their families, for over 24 hours, and subjected to physical or psychological torture during interrogation. The detainees’ families are often kept in the dark about their whereabouts.

According to “The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association,” or ACPRA and other organizations, the number of arbitrary detainees in Saudi Arabia is estimated to be 30,000. Most of them are detained because of crimes of conscience and political opposition.

Many prisoners have been in jail for years without proof of crime, or charges made; and when charged, they’re usually charges without merit, like contacting foreign organizations (UN, Amnesty,etc), discrediting the country, supporting the Bahraini revolution and “obstruction of the development wheel” for those who call for a constitutional monarchy.

In case of any peaceful demonstration or “sit-in,” the participants, usually, family members of prisoners, are arrested. Then, other family members gather in protest and are arrested as well. It’s not unusual to meet a Saudi family that is comprised of two or three generations that have been detained and or imprisoned. Today, anyone and everyone face the risk of arrest; those who write, tweet, protest, upload a video to youtube. No one citizen can be secure in staving off the risk of being detained.

The Saudi government believes that these rampant human rights violations will go unchecked, and the victims’ plight will go unchallenged. In the name of human rights for all, we ask you to stand in solidarity with 30,000 prisoners, their families and the rest of us, who might run the risk of arrest at anytime. On December, 17, Hadeel Mohamad among many others will launch a campaign for those people.

Follow the campaign, or join in the discussion, using hashtag #SaudiPrisoners on Twitter. And stay tuned for more analysis from Movements.org here on the blog and on our Twitter feed @AYM. We will feature Hadeel next week in our ongoing #ActivistChat series where you will able to join the discussion and ask questions liv

Saudi activists and bloggers are launching an awareness campaign on Twitter to publicize the issue of the political prisoners in Saudi Arabia. The campaign, starting on December 17th and using the hashtag #SaudiPrisoners, aims to draw attention to the reported 30,000 political prisoners currently under detention, and increase pressure on Saudi Arabia to reform. The Saudi regime is considered to be one of the world’s worst abusers of human rights. As the BBC put it last year: “Demonstrations are illegal in the autocratic kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a country with no legal political parties or mass movements that has been governed by the House of Saud for 80 years.” Yet reports on the severe lack of freedom are relatively rare worldwide, and there is little discussion of the Mabahith (the Saudi secret police) and the horrific plight of Saudi political prisoners that are put behind bars simply for expressing their thoughts and beliefs peacefully.

The primary contributer to the campaign is Saudi blogger Hadeel Mohamad, who blogs at thehadeel.wordpress.com and tweets via @The_hadeel. We will follow up with Hadeel next week via a live Twitter and Facebook chat, so keep an eye on the blog and our Twitter feed (@AYM), but suffice it to say that we will be following the #SaudiPrisoners campaign closely. Can an important issue like political prisoners catch on with the growing wave of social media users in the kingdom? Can a young woman and her fellow bloggers get their voices heard in a country where the people are far from free to express themselves?

Hadeel translated the campaign statement for us, and it reads as follows:

“Arbitrary arrest” and “arbitrary detention” are described as the arrest or detention of an individual in a case in which there is no evidence of a crime committed, and/or not permitted due process of law. These human rights violations are characteristic of dictatorships and police states. The Saudi government routinely conducts both arbitrary arrest and arbitrary detention, providing no explanation for the arrest, not showing an arrest warrant, and completely divesting a citizen’s rights to a lawyer and often trial courts. The detainees are often held in solitary confinement, without access to phone their families, for over 24 hours, and subjected to physical or psychological torture during interrogation. The detainees’ families are often kept in the dark about their whereabouts.

According to “The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association,” or ACPRA and other organizations, the number of arbitrary detainees in Saudi Arabia is estimated to be 30,000. Most of them are detained because of crimes of conscience and political opposition.

Many prisoners have been in jail for years without proof of crime, or charges made; and when charged, they’re usually charges without merit, like contacting foreign organizations (UN, Amnesty,etc), discrediting the country, supporting the Bahraini revolution and “obstruction of the development wheel” for those who call for a constitutional monarchy.

In case of any peaceful demonstration or “sit-in,” the participants, usually, family members of prisoners, are arrested. Then, other family members gather in protest and are arrested as well. It’s not unusual to meet a Saudi family that is comprised of two or three generations that have been detained and or imprisoned. Today, anyone and everyone face the risk of arrest; those who write, tweet, protest, upload a video to youtube. No one citizen can be secure in staving off the risk of being detained.

The Saudi government believes that these rampant human rights violations will go unchecked, and the victims’ plight will go unchallenged. In the name of human rights for all, we ask you to stand in solidarity with 30,000 prisoners, their families and the rest of us, who might run the risk of arrest at anytime. On December, 17, Hadeel Mohamad among many others will launch a campaign for those people.

Follow the campaign, or join in the discussion, using hashtag #SaudiPrisoners on Twitter. And stay tuned for more analysis from Movements.org here on the blog and on our Twitter feed @AYM. We will feature Hadeel next week in our ongoing #ActivistChat series where you will able to join the discussion and ask questions live. …more