Jail for peaceful dissent in Oman sultanate

Omani Sultan Qaboos bin Said

HRW: Oman should stop criminalising peaceful dissidents

Two activists, including a former parliamentarian, were sentenced to prison this month for their social media publications

Sunday 21 February 2016 11:47 UTC

Human Rights Watch on Sunday condemned Oman for sentencing two activists to prison for their social media posts.

The latest case saw a court in the southwestern city of Salalah on 17 February sentence artist and researcher Sayyid Abdullah al-Daruri to three months in prison for a Facebook post in which he stressed his affiliation to the Dhofar region. Dhofar is Oman’s largest governorate known for its strong cultural and linguistic heritage, as well as a large scale rebellion in the 1960s and 1970s.

“If all of the people from Dhofar chanted in one voice ‘We are Omanis’ then I will stand on the opposite side and say with all my unshakeable belief – ‘and I am a Dhofari and I will never be Omani until the day I die’,” Daruri wrote.

A week earlier, Hassan al-Basham, a former diplomat and parliamentarian, was sentenced on 8 February by a court in Sohar, northern Oman, to three years in prison for insulting God and the country’s ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, in a series of Facebook and Twitter posts.

“Omani authorities should stop prosecuting people for peacefully expressing their beliefs and make sure that there’s space for peaceful dissent,” said Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy director in the Middle East.

Arrests of activists has increased since the 2011 popular protests in the country, where dissidents are prosecuted on charges such as “insulting the Sultan” and “undermining the prestige of the state”.

The government has also been able to curtail online criticism by relying on article 61 of the 2002 Telecommunications Act, which punishes “any person who sends, by means of telecommunications system, a message that violates public order or public morals”.

“Courts are basically criminalising peaceful dissent in Oman,” Stork said. “The Oman authorities should immediately release activists who are imprisoned solely for exercising their basic rights.”

Files on Mark Thatcher‘s dealings in Oman to remain secret for now. Documents on Profumo affair and royal family among other records withheld by No 10 from latest National Archive release: here.

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It's absolutely shameful that the @M_Star_Online continues to be the only UK newspaper to report on @declassifiedUK's brilliant work – e.g. on how John Major backed repressive laws in Oman amid efforts to secure energy contracts https://t.co/N3spVs9mxR @medialens @markcurtis30

— Ian Sinclair (@IanJSinclair) January 16, 2021