Oman: Oman: Online activist Saqr Al-Balushi detained by Internal Security Service
Online activist Saqr Al-Balushi has been arrested by the Internal Security Service (ISS) and detained incommunicado since in solitary confinement in the Omani capital, Muscat.
On 05 October 2016, Al-Balushi was summoned by the ISS via telephone to appear immediately for investigation before the Special Division of the Omani Police General Command in Muscat. According to reports received by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), he travelled from his home in Liwa province, which is about 250 km distance from Muscat, and was arrested as soon as he presented himself to the Special Division. He was not given any access to his family or lawyer following his detention.
Al-Balushi is an online activist who uses the social media networks to express his views about various topics including defending people’s rights. Recently he also showed his support for “Azamn” newspaper which was closed by the Ministry of Information last month. He participated in the 2011 popular protests. In 2014, he was sentenced to one year in prison on charges of gathering and disturbing public order and released in 2015.
For more information about recent human rights violations committed by the ISS, see the following link: https://www.gc4hr.org/news/index/country/6
GCHR expresses serious concern at the incommunicado detention of Saqr Al-Balushi. GCHR believes that he is being targeted as part of an ongoing trend against human rights defenders and online activists at the hands of the ISS, which is endangering freedom of expression in Oman.
The GCHR urges the authorities in Oman to:
- Immediately and without any conditions release Saqr Al-Balushi;
- Immediately release all human rights defenders including journalists and prisoners of conscience in Oman whose detention relates only to the peaceful and legitimate work in the promotion and protection of human rights; and
- 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 the Omani authorities 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, recognizes 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.”