Twenty-year-old student, Ayat al-Gormezi, who recited poems critical of Bahrain’s rulers at a Shia-led protest in Pearl Square has been sentenced to a year in prison. In the lead up to her trial she claimed that she was beaten in prison and she has...
CATEGORY: Middle East and North Africa
Morocco: Top newspaper editor sentenced to a year in prison
Rachid Nini, the editor of one of Morocco’s leading newspapers, has been sentenced to a year in prison and fined 100 euros after he was convicted of compromising “the security and integrity of the nation and citizens”. Nini had been held for over...
Iranian blogger sentenced to 20 years in prison
Sakhi Rigi was sentenced to 20 years in prison today for critiquing the 2009 Iranian presidential elections on his blog. He was arrested in 18 June 2009 and has received the longest sentence given to an Iranian blogger. Yesterday (8...
Palestinian Authority bans reporting on human rights criticism
The Palestinian Authority has prohibited local journalists from covering a report documenting human rights abuses committed by the authority and Hamas against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority claimed the...
Iranian teacher and blogger arrested
Ali Pour Soleiman, a blogger and teacher was arrested in Iran last week according to HRANA, the human rights activists news agency. He was a member of the Teacher's Association wrote for Sokhane Molem a teacher's blog. The charges he faces are...
Syrian blogger Amina Abdallah abducted
Three armed men seized a Syrian blogger and forced her into a car yesterday evening (6 June), her cousin recorded the incident on her website. Amina Araf, a Syrian-American dual citizen who writes under the pen name, Amina Abdallah, discusses...
Bahrain: Ayat al-Gormezi faces tribunal for poetry reading
Ayat al-Gormezi, the 20 year old woman arrested for reading a poem at a pro-democracy rally in Pearl Square, Bahrain, is due to face a military tribunal later today. Just days after she read the poem which ended “Down with Hamad”, police raided her...
Vodafone Egypt’s PR fail
Take the time to watch the outrageous Vodafone ad that has sparked public outrage in Egypt this week. Vodafone, the company that complied with the Mubarak regimes demands to shutdown communications networks is taking credit for what happened in...
Sectarian strife escalated by new political and religious forces
In the first week of May, in what was essentially a domestic dispute, a Christian woman by the name of Abeer Fakhry, wanting to divorce her husband, announced her conversion to Islam. It was her only option for legal separation, divorce being a...
Yemen: Journalists targeted as clashes continues
Journalists and protesters in Sana’a are facing gunfire and sniper attacks as fighting in Yemen’s capital city intensifies. Private satellite broadcasting station, Suhail TV, was attacked by mortar fire earlier this week. Cameras, archives and...