Oman jailed two social media users this month for posts they made on Facebook and Twitter. First, an Omani court sentenced Hassan al-Basham, a former diplomat, to three months in prison on charges of “insulting God and the country’s leader,” Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said. The charges are related to a series of posts on[…]
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Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), Freedom Now, Amnesty International, English PEN, PEN International, and Split this Rock held demonstrations on Thursday, 25 February, in London and Washington to call for the release of Mohammed al-Ajami, a Qatari poet who has been imprisoned since 2011. Qatari authorities arrested al-Ajami in November of[…]
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As Saudi Arabia continues to deal with the effects of declining oil prices, Standard and Poor’s lowered the country’s credit rating last week for the second time in several months, placing it at A-. Standard and Poor’s made this decision because it believes the decline in oil prices will have a “marked and lasting impact”[…]
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Saudi Arabia has some of the harshest penalties for drug use in the world, and drug trafficking is punishable by death. Last week, the authorities beheaded one Saudi and two Yemenis for allegedly smuggling hashish and amphetamines into the country. In addition to drug crime, the kingdom’s legal code warrants death sentences for murder, apostasy,[…]
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In January 2016, Bahraini authorities issued an administrative decision revoking Sheikh Mohammed Khojasta’s citizenship. On February 21, authorities deported him from the country. They charged him with committing illegal acts, including “defaming the image of the state, inciting against the state, and defaming brotherly countries.” Responding to his deportation, al-Wefaq, Bahrain’s largest political opposition group,[…]
