20 August, 2007

Kuwaiti bloggers tortured by Kuwaiti secret police

Two Kuwaiti bloggers, Jassim Al Qames and Bashar Al-Sayegh, were arrested by Kuwait's secret police after someone posted a negative comment about Kuwait's Emir on their website.

Even though they deleted it immediately, they were still arrested:

Bashar was detained because of a comment written about the Amir of Kuwait, Shaikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, on his website's forum by an annonymous person, it was deleted by Bashar because of its inappropriateness but he was 15 minutes late deleting it, the police held him accountable even after it was deleted. As for Jassim he was released but beaten severely and blind folded and forced to use his fingerprint as signature to a document he couldn't read because of the blindfolds.


This is disgusting behaviour by the Kuwait authorities and brings disgrace on all of Kuwait.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just one negative comment and they got pissed off? I wonder what would have happened if it was two?

No matter how advanced Kuwait portrays itself, deep down it's still stuck to its stone-age ways.

Anonymous said...

Tortured by the Secret Police - Somehow this sounds quite familiar to me …. :-( - poor fellows!

Thanks SD, for letting us know about this tragic event. I already contacted a few relevant institutions in Germany to get this info about this notorious behavior spread around the globe.

Strangely I discovered that “Reporters Without Borders” has a rating for the UAE (Noticeable Problems – damn!) that is somewhat an antagonism to the reality of censorship. They got the appropriate correspondence from me as well, which actually was not all that friendly. :- )

Cheers

Kiwi Boy said...

I wonder how the police found the comment.. what, they scour the website for comments every 5 minutes or what? Or was it one of their own men - the comment WAS anonymous.

It's shameful how respect isn't earned anymore, but enforced.

Anonymous said...

It is not the first time, I know about a court case against blogger monitored by few others & the other story in Egypt few months back......even passed some info here betwen the comments some time ago......

Anonymous said...

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/-/world/middle-east-north-africa/

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/02/08/bahrain-blogger-released-on-bail/

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/found/?cof=FORID%3A9&q=blogger+%2B+court&btnG=Search+%C2%BB&cx=000932313665553177304%3Adg67ra11mvs

ali900 said...

well you understand your technically under a dictatorship lol - the sheikhs and so on DO rule the country - if you say something negitive, you will pay for it - just DONT SAY ANYTHING NEGITIVE or force yourself in trouble - mind your own business.

If you do want to say something out, better WATCH what your saying.

Anonymous said...

KIWI BOY,
They have technology that is very efficient (maybe even developed in your home country! ) so that is an easy one. Moreover they also check your SMSs and if you happen to get yourself on some list (for whatever reason – e.g. animal rights activist or tree planting addict) even your calls. So Ali900 is very correct in saying - be careful with what you say! (big brother is listening) The problem is that not everyone actually knows – especially tourists – what exactly you are not meant to talk about! Ok fine, what is in the Constitution – understood and absolutely respected, but what about all the other stuff? Why didn’t they arrest the guy that actually sent the comment? So this was obviously just an excuse for – who knows – wow and I never figured Kuwait could lower itself like this. (Almost my favorite place in the GCC :-( - absolutely disappointed)

ANON, I believe that we know about those cyber-dissidents in Egypt and it is seriously bad in China (see my link above) It is however important that those that have the ability, NZM, Nick (on vacation, I know), b.d., Kyle, etc. take the appropriate action to inform the relevant agencies in your home countries. If they do not have YOUR support, they will not have sufficient data to take any legal (peaceful) international actions.

Anonymous said...

Kuwait is the source of racism in the arab land, strange how you find transsexuals all over the place, while alcohol is banned.

Maybe someone should spread a rumour and tell them that Saddam is back from the dead.

Dubai Jazz said...

SD, those are actually journalists, and they got kidnapped by the state security forces while they were walking out of their office, however, Al Saygh runs an Internet forum, so he's also a blogger ...
There was nothing mentioned about a bad comment toward the Emir being the reason for this arrest in the news story run by Al Arabiya TV, and to be honest with you I don't think that this is the real reason, Kuwaitis are not that petulant, I think the whole thing has to do with the political showdown between the government and the house of Parliament (Majlis Al Umma), I might be mistaken though, we shall wait and see....

Anonymous said...

I heard alot of people saying that Kuwait is the last place to think of living in, due to their bad treatment to foriegners.

Post a Comment

NOTE: By making a post/comment on this blog you agree that you are solely responsible for its content and that you are up to date on the laws of the country you are posting from and that your post/comment abides by them.

To read the rules click here

If you would like to post content on this blog click here