“Tell them about how you`re never really a whole person if you remain silent.” - Audre Lorde
On 31 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 twenty-six-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 7 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 14 August to call for freedom, justice, and change.
As bloggers from all around the world, we issue 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 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. Collective efforts such as this have caused great embarrassment for the Bahraini regime, which subsequently hired public relations 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 find cause to arrest them. The regime`s electronic war on Bahrainis 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 stand in solidarity with Mohammed Hassan and to highlight his case. Our blogging community cannot rest until our fellow blogger Mohammed Hassan, and others like him who have been arbitrarily jailed, are back with their 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