GCC follows Saudi directives to intensify arrests and convictions of cyber critics

Gulf: rise in arrests and convictions of cyber critics
25 March, 2013 – ANSAmed

(ANSAmed) – DUBAI, MARCH 25 – In the cyber-savvy but socially conservative Persian Gulf, the duel between modernity and tradition, free speech and subservience to king and country is being played out on the social media platform, as shown by a rise in trials of activists, bloggers and tweeters on charges of blasphemy or sedition.

The latest conviction came yesterday in Kuwait, where blogger Rashid al-Hajiri was sentenced to two years in jail for offending the emir and encouraging people to join in illegal demonstrations. Two similar cases are pending in Kuwaiti courts, while a third ended with a fine. In June 2012, blogger Hamad al-Naqi, 26, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for blasphemy. While bloggers have been arrested from Bahrain to Oman to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait is the only country with a bill pending that calls for capital punishment for social media users convicted of offending Allah and the Prophet Mohamed.

In Saudi Arabia, Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Shaiki has spoken out against social networks, without explicitly banning them. In December, the UAE arrested the country’s youngest activist, an 18-year-old blogger, after a presidential decree set jail time of up to three years for anyone convicted of using cyber media to deride or damage the country’s reputation, institutions or symbols.

In Bahrain, where a Sunni minority rules over a Shiite majority, the most glaring case of repression is the life sentence handed to activist and blogger Abdel Hadi al-Khawaja, thought to be among the promoters of the Bahraini Arab Spring uprisings. His daughter Zainab is also in prison, and both father and daughter went on thirst strike after they were denied visits from relatives, according to the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, which is chaired by Khawaja’s other daughter, Maryam.

Zainab is in danger of cardiac arrest, doctors said.

Oman has so far been the only country to buck the regional trend of repressing free cyber speech. While dozens of critical social media users have been arrested over the past months, the authorities have pardoned them all. …more