Breaking news
At long last, after 137 days of detention without charge or trial, Saudi Arabian blogger Fouad al-Farhan has been released.
Jeddah-based Arab News journalist Ebtihal Mubarak has reported this good news today.
“He was released around 5.30 in the morning,” Mubarak reported Fouad’s wife as saying. “He is all right, Alhamdulillah.”
Fouad was unavailable for comment because he had gone out to “enjoy his freedom,” Mubarak reported.
A Saudi blogger close to Fouad, who didn’t want to be named, said he spoke to the blogger yesterday.
“It was a very emotional conversation,” said the friend. “I just wanted to make sure he is all right. We did not speak in detail.”
Fouad was arrested on December 10 because, in his own pre-arrest words, “I wrote about the political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia and they think I’m running an online campaign promoting their issue.” In one of his last posts before his detention, Fouad also sharply criticised 10 influential Saudi business, religious, and media figures.
His arrest provoked a storm of protest in the international blogosphere, as he was regarded as a moderate campaigner for greater freedom of expression in the repressive Saudi society, which has no freedom of speech, political expression or religious beliefs.
The good news has been announced on his blog tonight. “Fouad is free,” it says. “He is back home in Jeddah after 137 days in custody.”
I would like to think that the international attention given to Fouad, which included our own Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeping a low-key eye on his detention, helped to ensure he was not ill-treated beyond the outrageous fact that Saudi Arabian law allows critics to be detained without charge.
