ANHRI denounces the Saudi authorities’ defiance of law and lack of respect for the values and principals of human rights, manifested in the ongoing detention of Habib Ali al-Maatiq, poet and photographer, since 22 February 2012 without stating reasons or details, in addition to the blocking of al-Fajr Cultural Network’s website (http://fajrweb.net)on no legal basis.
The detention of al-Maatiq is a continuation of the detention campaign organized by the Saudi police in the Eastern Province. Thus far, no reasons for his detention have been made public. This incident also coincides with the blocking of al-Fajr Cultural Network website.
Al-Maatiq has received numerous poetry and photography awards within and outside Saudi Arabia. He had been detained nine years ago for three years because of his reformist political opinions. Today, he is detained once again under the silence of the Saudi mass media which is controlled by the Saudi government. Since his detention, no news have been reported about him except on some independent or international websites.
“It is clear that repression and detention in Saudi Arabia have become a systematic approach against any one suspected to oppose the despotic performance of the Saudi government which derives its persistence from the flagrant collision of the international community. The latter has become accustomed to turning a blind eye on the blatant violations of the Saudi government against its critics, especially opinion makers and the Shiite minority. The list of prisoners of conscience is getting longer every day and they find support only from few independent media outlets and many Saudi and Arab pro-democracy activists, a fact that outrightly exposes the international community’s silence that reeks of oil and prioritization of interests at the expense of the rights and freedoms of the Saudi citizens,
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