Blogger’s Family Urges Authorities to Allow Prison Visits

Ebtihal Mubarak, Arab News

JEDDAH — The family members of the detained Saudi blogger Fouad Al-Farhan said yesterday that although Saudi authorities allowed Al-Farhan for the first time to make a telephone call from Jeddah’s Dahban Prison on Feb. 12 they would still like to continue to visit him. Prior to the telephone call, the 32-year-old Saudi father of two has only been seen once by his father-in-law during a brief visit on Jan. 5. Al-Farhan told him that he was being kept in solitary confinement and subjected to questioning for 15 minutes a day. He has also not been informed of the charges against him. The family’s requests for further visits have so far been denied. Speaking about Al-Farhan’s telephone call on Feb. 12, his wife told Arab News, “He talked to his mother briefly over the phone assuring her that he is all right and that he is not being harassed.” She added that he initially called home and that she was out with their children and so he telephoned his elderly mother, who lives in Taif. She said although her husband spoke to his mother on the phone, they were still unaware of whether he was facing charges, whether he was still in solitary confinement and whether he had been given the right to legal access. “Since he was talking to his mother for less than 10 minutes for the first time in more than two months, she was mainly concerned about his health. You know how mothers are,” she said. Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told Arab News earlier this month that there is no update on the Al-Farhan case other than the ministry’s previous statement that the blogger was being held for “interrogation for violating non-security regulations.” Al-Turki would not clarify exactly why Al-Farhan was being held and whether it was in connection with his blog www.alfarhan.org. Al-Turki was unavailable for comment yesterday. “Since his arrest, I rarely leave home hoping he might call. That Tuesday I had to leave to buy some things for the children,” said Al-Farhan’s wife, who has not seen her husband since Dec. 10 after officials — following his arrest at his office the same day — brought him home to search his belongings. “I was in one of the rooms with my children accompanied by women officers when they searched the house,” she added. Saleh Al-Kathlan, head of the Monitoring and Follow-Up Committee at the National Society of Human Rights (NSHR) in Riyadh, said that the NSHR had sent a second letter to the Interior Ministry last week inquiring about Al-Farhan. Al-Khathlan said the letter mentioned the issue of allowing Al-Farhan’s family to visit him. “According to Saudi Criminal Law detainees should not be denied visits after more than 60 days. They also have the right to see a lawyer for advice,” he added. In five days’ time, Al-Farhan will have been in prison for 80 days. Article 119 of Saudi Criminal Law states that “the investigator shall order that the accused may not communicate with any other prisoner or detainee, and that he not be visited by anyone for a period not exceeding 60 days if the interest of the investigation so requires, without prejudice to the right of the accused to communicate with his representative or attorney.” This is the second letter the NSHR has sent to the Interior Ministry regarding Al-Farhan’s case. “So far we have not received a response. But we will keep on following up the case,” said Al-Khathlan. Hussein Al-Sharif, head of the NSHR’s Western Region office and a professor of law at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, told Arab News earlier that the General Investigation and Prosecution Board (the Saudi equivalent of an attorney general’s office) is allowed to legally detain people for up to six months. After six months, detainees are either freed after investigation is done or presented in a court for trial if they are charged. Al-Farhan can be thus detained for another three months. His wife said she was perplexed how to answer her children’s queries about their missing father. She told Arab News that her youngest child Khetab, who is only 5 years old, shocked her the other day when he said that his father was not traveling but in prison. “I’ve tried to keep disturbing news away from them. However, after more than two months the kids miss their father dearly,” she said. Last Tuesday she remained all day at home beside the phone. “I thought to myself maybe phone calls are only allowed on that particular day. But he didn’t call last week,” she said. Al-Farhan’s blog leads with the slogan: “Searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, public participation (shoura), and all the rest of lost Islamic values, and for Raghad and Khetab” (Farhan’s two children). Al-Farhan is considered in the Saudi blogosphere as being the “Dean of Saudi Bloggers” for blogging under his real name. www.alfarhan.org has tackled social issues in the Kingdom, condemned terrorism and called for “open” and “real” dialogue within the Kingdom.