Bahrain: 51 Bloggers Demand the Release of Bahrain’s Mohammed Hassan

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“Tell them about how you’re never really a whole person if you remain silent.” – Audre Lorde

On the 31st of July, our friend Mohammed Hassan (also known as Safy in the blogging sphere and social media) was arrested from his parents’ house in the Bahraini town of Sitra without an arrest warrant. According to Amnesty International, the 26-year-old blogger is still at the Criminal Investigation Directorate in al-‘Adliya located in the capital city of Manama.

Friends of Hassan and his lawyer stated that the blogger has been tortured by security officers. Hassan’s lawyer Abdulaziz Mousa was also arrested on the 7th of August for disclosing names of detainees and details of the investigation without permission. Hassan is accused of “promoting a forced change of the regime.” It is believed that the arrest of Hassan (and others) in the past few weeks is part of the regime’s crackdown against the upcoming protests that are planned on the 14th of August to call for freedom, justice, and change.

We are bloggers from all around the world issuing this statement in solidarity with our friend Mohammed Hassan. Bahrain continues to expand its record of crimes against bloggers, journalists, and social media users among many others. As the country’s press fails to escape state-censorship, the internet has become a powerful tool for oppressed Bahrainis to expose the crimes practiced against them on a daily basis. Such collective efforts caused severe embarrassment for the Bahraini regime which decided to hire PR companies to troll activists and spread propaganda. The regime does not shy away from spying on internet users and hacking their accounts in order to arrest them. This electronic war on Bahrainis by their regime is only a fraction of the widespread persecution they face.

We call on the international community and all organizations and bodies dedicated to defending freedoms to pressure the Bahraini regime and demand the release of Mohammed Hassan. We ask all journalists, bloggers, and activists to offer their solidarity for Mohammed Hassan and to highlight his case. Without our fellow blogger Mohammed Hassan and those arbitrarily jailed, our blogging community cannot rest until he is back to his family and friends.

 

Signatories:

1- Mona Kareem – Kuwait

2- Mahmoud Omar – Palestine

3- Joey Ayoub – Lebanon

4- Leila Nachawati – Spain

5- Mosa’ab Elshamy – Egypt

6- Imad Stitou- Morocco

7- Hayder Hamzoz – Iraq

8- Ali Abdulemam – Bahrain

9- Ali Alsaffar – Saudi Arabia

10- Ebaa Rezeq – Palestine

11- Youssef Cherif – Tunisia

12- Lilian Wagdy- Egypt

13- Sarah Naguib – Egypt

14- Mohammad Almutawa – Kuwait

15- Wael Abbas – Egypt

16- Mohamed ElGohary – Egypt

17- David Ferreira – United States

18- Ziad Dallal – Lebanon

19- Yusur Al Bahrani- Canada

20- Sara Salem – Egypt

21- Mehreen Kasana – Pakistan

22- Nasser Weddady – Mauritania

23- Tarek Amr – Egypt

24- Mohamed Ali Chebaane – Tunisia

25- Zeinab Mohamed -Egypt

26- Ellery Roberts Biddle – United States

27- Nada Akl – Lebanon

28- Sarah Carr – Egypt

29- Solana Larsen – United States

30- Elizabeth Rivera – Chile

31- Marc Owen Jones – United Kingdom

32- Dima Khatib – Palestine

33- Fazel Hawramy – Kurdistan

34- Samia Errazzouki – Morocco/D.C

35- Raafat Rahim – Egypt

36- Ahmed Mansoor – UAE

37- Anas Qtiesh – Syria

38- Ruslan Trad – Bulgaria/Syria

39- Nora Abdulkarim – Saudi Arabia

40- Afrah Nasser – Yemen

41- Salam (Pax) Abdulmunem – Iraq

42- Ahmed Awadalla – Egypt

43- Budour Hassan – Palestine

44- Yasser Al-Zaiat – Syria

45- Mohamed Mesrati – Libya

46- Hasna Ankal – Belgium/Morocco

47- Ghazi Gheblawi – Libya

48- Rebecca MacKinnon – United States

49 – Marcia Lynx Qualey – United States/Egypt

50 – Jillian C. York – United States

51 – Maryam Al-Khawaja – Bahrain