Blogging in Saudi

The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the ongoing detention of a leading pro-reform Saudi blogger who has been held without charge since early December.

On December 10, Fouad Ahmed al-Farhan, a blogger who runs the site Alfarhan, was detained by Saudi security agents at the Jeddah office of the IT company he owns. Security agents later visited al-Farhan’s home and confiscated his laptop.

In an e-mail sent to friends prior to his arrest, al-Farhan explained that he had received a phone call from the Saudi interior ministry instructing him to prepare himself to be picked up in the coming two weeks for an investigation by a high-ranking official.

The issue that caused all of this is because I wrote about the political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia and they think I’m running an online campaign promoting their issue, al-Farhan wrote in the e-mail, which is currently posted on his blog. He wrote that the agent promised to detain him for only a short period if he agreed to sign a letter of apology. I am not sure if I am ready to do that. Apology for what? he asked in the e-mail, adding that he does not want to be forgotten in jail.

Al-Farhan is one of the few Saudi bloggers who does not use a penname while commenting on political and social life in the country. In one of his last posts before his detention, al-Farhan sharply criticized 10 influential business, religious, and media figures close to the Saudi royal family. His public support of a group of 10 Saudi academics arrested earlier this year allegedly for “financing terrorism” has apparently angered Saudi authorities, he reported on his blog.

The blog of the detained Saudi blogger Fouad Alfarhan has been blocked today in Saudi Arabia, along with Freefouad website dedicated to Alfarhan's case and the pro-reformist blog Freedoms .

Users trying to access these blogs from Saudi Arabia were met with a notice saying “Blocked URL. Dear User, Sorry, the requested page is unavailable.

115 days after his arrest, on 10 December 2007, Fouad Alfarhan remains jailed for unspecified violation of non-security regulations.

Prominent Saudi blogger Fouad Alfarhan was freed today. He is back home in Jeddah after 137 days in custody.

Alfarhan was arrested on 10 December 2007 for unspecified: violation of non-security regulations.

According to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHR), Saudi authorities have arrested the 28-year-old blogger Hamoud Bin Saleh and blocked his blog Masihi Saudi (A Saudi Christian).

The ANHR adds further that blogger Hamoud Bin Saleh was arrested due to his opinions and announcement at his blog that he converted from Islam to Christianity.

It was pointed out the blogger was released prior to the Saudi sponsored UN interfaith conference but was re-arrested once it was over.

Hamoud Saleh Al-Amri, a Saudi blogger imprisoned in January for writing about his decision to convert to Christianity, was released by Saudi authorities at the end of March 2009 instead of being put death as an apostate as prescribed by Sharia.

However, he has been banned from travelling outside Saudi Arabia or appearing in the media.

According to Hamoud himself, who is back writing on his Christ for Saudi blog, his release is due to pressure brought on Saudi authorities by the Cairo-based Arab Network for Human Rights Information, one of several rights groups that have campaigned for his release.

Following his arrest in January, the Saudi authorities blocked access to his blog inside Saudi Arabia. Google then censored the blog with a bollox claim of a technical violation of their terms of service, before restoring it on 5 February 2009 following public pressure.

The relative leniency of the Saudi police and regime in this case has surprised some analysts, given Hamoud's explicit claim to have left Islam, which amounts to apostasy punishable by death, and his outspoken criticism of the regime, something which is not normally tolerated.

The Ministry of Culture & Information spokesman Abdul Rahman Al-Hazzaa did a quick volte-face after saying that bloggers and Web forums in Saudi Arabia would have to register themselves under a proposed new electronic media law.

Earlier that same morning, Al-Hazzaa told Al-Arabiya channel that electronic publishing would be included in the publication and printing bylaws applied in the Kingdom. He added that blogs and online forums would be included in this ruling. Approval has been given to provide the ministry with the power to view any case related to blogs and online forums, he said, adding that online media would be treated the same as the print media.

The remarks sparked a storm among Saudi online users, leading to a further statement from Al-Hazzaa who said the new law would require online news sites to be licensed, but would only encourage bloggers and others to register.

We do not want to license them. There are so many we cannot control them, he said of the thousands of Saudi bloggers and online forum operators. He claimed that his remarks on Al-Arabiya had been taken out of context, but stressed it would not be compulsory to be registered.It's not required, no; it's not in the plan, he told AFP.

He said there were more than 100 news websites and that licensing them would permit their reporters to take part in regular media activities alongside the traditional media.

In the interview, Al-Hazzaa had said that the new regulations being finalized are mainly to give his department supervisory authority over electronic media, as it has over traditional print and broadcast media and publishing houses in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi authorities should immediately drop all charges against the detained editor of a website created to foster debate about religion and religious figures in Saudi Arabia.

On December 17, 2012, the Jeddah District Court, which had been hearing the case against the editor, Raif Badawi, referred it to a higher court on a charge of apostasy, which carries the death penalty. The charges against him, based solely to Badawi's involvement in setting up a website for peaceful discussion about religion and religious figures, violate his right to freedom of expression.

Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch said:

Badawi's life hangs in the balance because he set up a liberal website that provided a platform for an open and peaceful discussion about religion and religious figures. Saudi Arabia needs to stop treating peaceful debate as a capital offense.

A member of Badawi's family told Human Rights Watch that during the December 17 hearing, Judge Muhammad al-Marsoom prevented Badawi's lawyer from representing his client in court and demanded that Badawi repent to God. The judge informed Badawi that he could face the death penalty if he did not repent and renounce his liberal beliefs, the family member said.

Badawi refused, leading Judge al-Marsoom to refer the case to the Public Court of Jeddah, recommending that it try Badawi for apostasy.

Prior to the December 17 hearing, Badawi had been charged with insulting Islam through electronic channels and going beyond the realm of obedience, neither of which carries the death penalty. A different judge presided over five sessions of the trial but was replaced without explanation for the December 17 hearing by Judge al-Marsoom.

Security forces arrested Badawi, a 30-year-old from the port city of Jeddah, on June 17. Badawi in 2008 was co-founder of the Free Saudi Liberals website, an online platform for debating religious and political matters in Saudi Arabia.

Update: Jailed for 7 years and 600 lashes

30th July 2013. See  article from  france24.com

A Saudi court sentenced  Raef Badawi to seven years in jail and 600 lashes for setting up a "liberal" network and alleged insults to Islam, activists said.

A judge had referred Badawi in December to a higher court for alleged apostasy, a charge that could lead to the death penalty in the ultra-conservative kingdom. But thankfully the charge of apostasy was dropped.

Update: Jailed for 10 years and 1000 lashes

11th May 2014. See article from theguardian.com

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced the editor of an internet forum he founded to discuss the role of religion in the country to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes, according to reports in the Saudi media.

Raif Badawi, who started the Free Saudi Liberals website, was originally sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes in July last year, but an appeals court overturned the sentence and ordered a retrial.

Apart from imposing a stiffer sentence on Badawi in his retrial, the judge at the criminal court in Jeddah also fined him 1m riyals. Badawi's website has been closed since his first trial.

His lawyers said the sentence was too harsh, although the prosecutor had demanded a harsher penalty, the news website Sabq reported. The ruling is subject to appeal.