Free Bahraini Blogger Mohammed Hassan and Photo Journalist Hussain Hubail
- Target:
- United Nations, Ban ki-Moon, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Araab League, State Department
- Region:
- GLOBAL
- Website:
- bahrainrights.hopto.org
More than 45 hours after his arrest, there is still no confirmed information on the whereabouts and wellbeing of arrested blogger Mohammed Hassan, who is now considered subjected to enforced disappeared.
Hassan’s family received a brief call yesterday from him in which they were informed he will be transferred to the dry dock detention center, but when they went there today, 1 Aug 2013, the prison administration denied having him. They were not able to get any further information or get access to Mohammed Hassan. His lawyer has been unable to contact him as well.
In addition to the concern of Mohammed Hassan’s enforced disappearance, an award winning photojournalist and close friend of Hassan’s, Hussain Hubail (21), was arrested last night, 31 July 2013, from Bahrain International Airport while on his way to Dubai, UAE. His family went to ask about him at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) but the administration denied having Hubail in their custody. As such, Hussain Hubail is now also considered subjected to enforced disappearance as there is still no information on his whereabouts and wellbeing. Hubail won 1st place in a photography contest run by Alwasat newspaper in May 2013 for a photograph of protesters amid clouds of tear gas. BCHR has information that a photo in which Hussain appeared covering one of the opposition societies rallies, was shown to detainees in the past months at the CID and the interrogators were trying to find the identity of the photographer in that photo. The Bahrain Center for Human Rights believes that Hussain Hubail has been targeted because of his work as a photojournalist.
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights calls on the international community to apply real pressure on the Government of Bahrain to demand the immediate release of blogger Mohammed Hassan and photojournalist Hussain Hubail. To add to that, the BCHR calls for an end of the Government of Bahrain’s systematic targeting of online users and news providers who are exercising their right to freedom of expression in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
We the undersigned demand that the international community bring all possible to bear upon the government of Bahrain to IMMEDIATELY and UNCONDTIONALLY free both blogger Mohammed Hassan and photo journalist Hussain Hubail.
They are clearly prisoners of conscience arrested solely for their peaceful pursuit of their journalistic profession, which is their guaranteed right under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Additionally, their continued imprisonment is in gross violation of Articles 8, 9, and 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which provide protection against arbitrary arrest and detention, and require a fair and public hearing.
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The Free Bahraini Blogger Mohammed Hassan and Photo Journalist Hussain Hubail petition to United Nations, Ban ki-Moon, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Araab League, State Department was written by John S. Burke and is in the category Human Rights at GoPetition.