Blogger arrested for violating Saudi laws

 

The blogger, Fouad al-Farhan, was being questioned by security authorities, Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Monsour al-Turki said. He added the blogger "might be released" on Wednesday but did not elaborate.

The Saudi English daily, Arab News, said al-Farhan had "violated non-security regulations." The paper said the 32-year-old Jeddah resident was arrested at his office December 10 and taken to his home where police conducted a search. There were no other details on the arrest.

Meanwhile, his family has contacted the governmental Human Rights Commission, asking for help in the case, the paper said.

Al-Farhan's blog headline reads: "Searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, shoura and all the rest of lost Islamic values."
Shoura means public consultation, in Arabic.

Following the arrest, al-Farhan"s friends who are now running his Web site, posted a letter allegedly from the blogger claiming he was told by an official there was an Interior Ministry order "to investigate me and they will pick me up anytime in the next two weeks."

In it, he also said he believed Saudi authorities were after him because he "wrote about political prisoners in Saudi Arabia."

"They think I am leading a campaign promoting their case, reforms and change, but all I did was write some articles and columns, and I asked other bloggers to do the same," the letter said.

Al-Farhan added in his purported letter that officials asked him to sign an apology but that he wasn't ready to do that. "An apology for what? Apologizing because I said the government is liar when it accused those people of supporting terrorism," he said.

Another Saudi blogger, Ahmad Al-Omran, told Arab News that al-Farhan's arrest could have been an attempt to intimidate other bloggers. Al-Omran was quoted as saying that the writings of al-Farhan, one of few that blog in his real name, "were not at all provocative but very much rational." (AP)