Activist’s blog blocked by local Authorities

Activist’s blog blocked by local Authorities

Abduljalil Alsingace

10 February 2009

Yesterday afternoon, February 9th, was the last day I logged into my blog- titled “Al-Faseelah” and addressed alsingace.katib.org- to upload a petition addressed to the ruler Shaikh Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa by 21 activists and policy makers from 19 countries calling for the release of detainees of conscience in Bahrain. I tried to log in today, but received a note stating that “This web site has been blocked by the order of the Ministry of Culture and Information based on Article 19 of Decree Law No. 47, 2002 regarding the organization of the press, printing and publishing in the Kingdom of Bahrain due to the publication of prohibited content on the aforementioned site”.

Earlier and since 27^th January 2009, I was banned from traveling and leaving Bahrain after bogus allegations of being involved in “terror” acts being member of HAQ movement of Civil Liberties and Democracy considering my articles to be provocative and inciting hatred against the regime. The charges are based on Article 6 of Barhaini Terrorism Code no.58 of 2006 and Article 160 and 165 of the Penal Code no.15 of 1976. The punishment in the Terrorism law is life imprisonment, while that in the Penal code amounts to eight years of incarceration.

Today, the Public Prosecution issued a statement indicating that those detained or released on bail, like myself, a total of 35 Bahrainis will be taken to court set at the Higher Criminal Court on 23 February 2009.

Katib (www.katib.org) is a program sponsored and maintained by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (www.anhri.net). I use my blog, Al-Faseelah, to post news, human rights violations in published reports, poems, adverts, and articles (published by others and myself). Al-Faseelah at Katib contains a link to Human Rights Watch news, a questionnaire about the role of NGOs in the prosecution of tortures, a post calling for the arrest of the British torturer Ian Henderson, as well as links to other blogs.

What is next in the way of utter silence and complete censorship in the Kingdom of Silence?

For more information:

Dr Abduljalil Alsingace

Email:asingace@gmail.com

Tel: +973-3966-8179