Dr Ibrahim Al-Balushi, Omani human rights defender and protest leader, is a civic activist and participant in nationwide peaceful protests demanding job opportunities, social reform and an end to corruption. He was arbitrarily arrested in front of his home in Sohar, Oman on 26 May 2021 following his involvement in widespread peaceful demonstrations that began on 23 May 2021 and spread to multiple governorates, including Salalah, Ibri, Sur, Ibra and Rustaq, actions that authorities responded to with excessive force and mass detentions of demonstrators exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and expression under international human rights law with dozens of protestors held in custody and coerced into signing pledges not to participate in future demonstrations as a condition of release. On arrest, Dr Al-Balushi was placed in solitary confinement by the Special Division of the Omani Police Headquarters and reportedly started an open hunger strike in protest against his detention and the broader crackdown, before being transferred to Central Prison in Sohar where he continued to be held under harsh conditions. He had a documented history of peaceful activism, including participation in the 2011 protests and multiple prior arrests, among them a ten-month imprisonment, and had previously been detained in the United Arab Emirates in May 2014 before his release. Following international and domestic pressure, including reporting and advocacy by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights and the Omani Association for Human Rights that highlighted serious violations of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, Ibrahim Al-Balushi was released from prison on 02 June 2021.