Monday, June 20, 2011

Bahraini Writer and Journalist: Freedom of Expression II

PEN protests the detention of also this Bahraini author:

Abbas Al-Murshid, a well-known Bahraini writer and researcher, and a frequent contributor to the Bahraini daily Al-Waqt as well as numerous online publications. He has written about Bahrain's social unrest, corruption, institutional discrimination and other topics considered sensitive by the government. He was summoned on 15 May 2011 to appear at Al-Naeim police station for interrogation and has not been seen since. No charges have yet been made against Al-Murshid.

On 16 May 2011, he called his family to tell them that he had been placed under arrest and then the line was disconnected. Al-Murshid has been previously arrested on several occasions in relation to his writing and many of his books have been banned in Bahrain. At the end of January 2009, Al-Murshid was hit above his eye with a rubber bullet in a targeted attack and as a result he had to be admitted to hospital.
Background.

Send appeals to for Abbas Al-Murshid welbeing and freedom
and voice your concern concern about the one year of imprisonment of Ayat Al-Gormezi. Help her with her apeal! Stand by free speach.
His Majesty Sheikh Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa
King of Bahrain
Office of His Majesty the King
P.O.Box 555
Rifa’a Palace
Kingdom of Bahrain.
Fax: +973 176 64 587

Defending Freedom of expession is important hence follows an other part of a poem by Ayat A-Gormezi's

We do not like to live in a palace
And we are not after power
We are the people who
Break down humiliation
And discard oppression
With peace as our tool
We are people who
Do not want others to be living in the Dark Ages 
(Translated from the Arabic by Ghias Aljundi)

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