Three Barhainonline.org moderators freed

Barhainonline.org moderator Ali Abdulemam and his assistants, Mohammed Almosawi and Hussain Yousif, were freed yesterday after two weeks of detention, but they are still under investigation and have been told they cannot leave their homes until the case is closed. Reporters Without Borders welcomed their release from detention and called for the lifting of the restrictions on their movements. Abdulemam told Agence France-Presse that he and his colleagues still did not know when they would be summoned for further questioning and had not received any response to their request for the appointment of an expert to consider the technical aspects of the case. Abdulemam was detained on 27 February, while Almosawi and Yousif were detained on 1 March. The charges against them including "defaming the king." They day before their release, they refused to pay bail to get out of prison, saying their release should be unconditional. _______________________________ 1.03.05 Two more online forum moderators arrested Two other moderators of the Internet discussion forum Bahrainonline - Mohammed Almosawi (right), 21, and Hussain Yousif (left), 23 - were detained today after going to the police in Manama in response to a summons. The first Bahrainonline moderator to be arrested was Ali Abdulemam, on 27 February. Reporters Without Borders condemns the arrests and calls for all three to be freed at once. ------------------------------ 28.02.05 Online forum moderator arrested Reporters Without Borders has called for the release of Ali Abdulemam, moderator of the discussion forum Bahrainonline, who was arrested by security services on 27 February 2005. He faces five possible charges, including defaming the king. "Imprisoning someone for their journalistic work or posting an article on the Internet cannot be acceptable in any circumstances", the worldwide press freedom organisation said in a letter to information minister, Muhammad Abdul Ghaffar. "This incident demonstrates that the November 2002 press law is in urgent need of reform," the organisation added. Bahrainonline gives Internet-users the opportunity to post their comments on political, social and religious issues and it regularly posts messages that are very critical of the authorities. Like vob.org, the website of Movement for the Liberation of Bahrain (MLB), it cannot be accessed within the country. The five possible charges facing Abdulemam are: defaming the king, inciting hatred against the regime, publishing information to undermine the country's security and violating the press and communications laws. Abdulemam also edits a weblog (http://abdulemam.blogspot.com) which promotes itself as providing "another perspective from Bahrain". A diplomat in post in Bahrain, who requested anonymity, said Abdulemam had not been imprisoned. "He is being held in custody for a maximum of two weeks, for the purposes of the investigation. If no charge is made against him he will quickly be released," he said. King Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa promulgated a press law in November 2002 that guaranteed the right to "express one's opinion and to disseminate it orally or in writing". However offences "against the Islamic faith, the unity of the people and the person of the king," and "inciting division or sectarianism" were to be punishable by six months to five years in prison. The government has said on several occasions that it wanted to amend the law, of which the Bahrain independent journalists' union has been highly critical, but it has as yet failed to act.