Update: On 21 September 2015 Khalid Al-Nawfali has been released from prison.

On 24 August 2015, the Internal Security Service (ISS) in Oman released three human rights defenders from detention, a day after human rights defender Khalid Al-Nawafli was arrested. This follows a pattern of arresting human rights defenders and Internet activists all month long.

On 23 August 2015, the Internal Security Service arrested Al-Nawafli while he was on his way to Dubai. According to the information received by the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), he was informed that he had to appear before the Special Division of the Omani Police in Sohar. He went there at 5pm the same day and was arrested on the spot. Reports confirm that he is detained incommunicado at the Special Division of the Omani Police General Command in the capital, Muscat. The Special Division represents the executive body of the Omani ISS. 

Al-Nawafli is one of the Internet activists who has written on social media networks about corruption and the defense of prisoners of conscience. He was previously arrested in 2011, where he was one of the prominent activists in protests in Sohar. He was also imprisoned twice in 2012 in relation to alleged charges of “illegal gathering” and “insulting the Sultan.” He was released on 21 March 2013 after a pardon from Sultan Qaboos himself.

Also, on 23 August 2015, human rights defender Fahad Al-Kharousi was summoned by the ISS, to appear at Al-Suwaiq police station in Al-Suwaiq region. He went there and was transferred to the Special Division in Muscat. He was released the following day.

Al-Kharousi is an activist on the Internet who had previously been arrested in 2012 on charges of “illegal gathering” and was released after three days.   

On 24 August 2015, the ISS released four human rights defenders, Dr. Salih Al-Azri, Ali Al-Muqbali, Talib Al-Saedi and Muktar Al-Hanaei, without directing any specific charges against them. (See: https://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/1060 and
https://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/1058.) Also, previously on 06 August 2015, the ISS released Mahmoud Al-Fazari, brother of human rights defender Mohammed Al-Fazari. (See: https://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/1054(

For more information about the human rights violations committed recently by the ISS, please see the following link: https://www.gc4hr.org/news/index/country/6

While the GCHR welcomes the release of Salih Al-Azri, Ali Al-Muqbali, Talib Al-Saedi, Muktar Al-Hanaei and Mahmoud Al-Fazari, it expresses its strong condemnation of the systematic targeting of human rights defenders and Internet activists in the country.

The GCHR urges the authorities in Oman to:

1. Release human rights defender Khalid Al-Nawfali immediately and unconditionally in addition to all detained activists and prisoners of conscience;

2. Stop directing pressures and harassment against the families of human rights defenders;

3. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Oman are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment. 

The GCHR respectfully reminds you that the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1998, recognises the legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders, their right to freedom of association and to carry out their activities without fear of reprisals. We would particularly draw your attention to Article 6 (c) “Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: (c) To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters” and to Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.”