Muwatin
Muwatin (“Citizen”) is an independent website that Mohammed Al-Fazari, a journalist, blogger and human rights defender, founded in Oman in June 2013 shortly after being released from prison.
Arrested along with other activists in June 2012 and charged with “gathering with the intent of rioting” and “insulting the Sultan,” he had been freed the following March under a royal pardon.
He was arrested again in 2014 and was held incommunicado for six days before being released. He managed to leave Oman in 2015 and sought asylum in the United Kingdom, but the authorities prevented his wife from joining him there and jailed his brother for three weeks.
Every year, Muwatin publishes a compilation of the past 12 months’ articles and interviews in book form, but the book was banned from the Oman Book Fair in 2017. The website was also blocked in 2017. Thereafter, Muwatin created a new website that is still accessible in Oman but both sites are blocked in Saudi Arabia. From his base in London, Al-Fazari is currently trying to increase the website’s visibility.
