JEDDAH, 6 January 2008 — Authorities yesterday allowed a family member to meet detained Saudi blogger Fouad Al-Farhan in prison, Arab News has learned.
Al-Farhan’s father-in-law met him for one hour inside at Jeddah’s Dahban Prison where the Saudi blogger has been held for the past 27 days.
“His spirits are high,” said one of his blogger friends. “He hasn’t been told of the charges (against him). He said he’s interrogated for 15 minutes every day.”
Until yesterday, Al-Farhan’s family had been denied access to the 32-year-old Jeddah-based owner of a small IT business who runs a web journal that discusses Saudi social and political issues.
Urging the government to explain the legal procedures and justifications for detaining Al-Farhan, Hussein Al-Sharif, head of the Western Region office of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), said earlier yesterday that the Saudi blogger should have access to a lawyer.
Al-Sharif, a law professor at King Abdul Aziz University, cited Article 4 of the criminal procedure law: “Any accused person shall have the right to a lawyer or (other) representative to defend him during the investigation and trial stages.”
Citing Article 119 of the Saudi law of criminal procedure, Al-Sharif said that investigators could legally deny the detainee’s right to contact his or her family for up to 60 days “if the interests of the investigation so requires without prejudice to the right of the accused to communicate with his representative or attorney”.
While authorities have not outlined the reason for his detention, Al-Farhan said prior to his arrest that he drew the attention of the Interior Ministry for comments he made in defense of a group of academics that were arrested last year.
Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, Interior Ministry spokesperson, denied a report that ran on CNN recently saying Al-Farhan would soon be released. “He is being interrogated and there is no update on his case,” he told Arab News recently, a week after he explained that the blogger had been “detained for interrogation” for “violating non-security regulations”.
“He is not imprisoned,” said Al-Turki. “No one enters jail without a court order. He is being held for interrogation.”
Al-Sharif said that what Al-Turki said is legally correct. The General Investigation and Prosecution Authority (the Saudi equivalent of an attorney general’s office) is allowed to detain people for up to six months, but that during this time the detainee is supposed to have access to a legal advocate.
“In these six months the detainee must be aware of the charges brought against him, allow him his right to an attorney, not be abused, and, most important, the right of a fair and just trial,” said Al-Sharif.
Al-Farhan stated on his blog that the purpose of his commentary is to discuss what is being addressed on the “Saudi Street” and behind closed doors because the media “rarely tells the truth.” In addition to calling for more public participation in governance, as well as reforms to government ministries, Al-Farhan condemned terrorism and extremism.
The blogging community is planning a “Day of Blog Silence”, asking the international blog community to post a banner graphic with Al-Farhan’s picture and to refrain from making posts today.
“It’s a world wide call for all bloggers not only in Saudi,” said one Saudi blogger who runs the online campaign defending her colleague.
Both the governmental Human Rights Commission (HRC) and the NSHR stressed to Arab News yesterday that they are working on the case. The NSHR said it sent a letter to the Interior Ministry asking about the circumstance in which Al-Farhan, a father of two, was arrested.
