To know the Arab blogosphere, you need to know Ali Abdulemam,
the Bahraini blogger who spent more time in jail than in blogging in
the past year. He is one of the fathers of Arab blogging and Bahrain's
most famous blogger as he was the founder of Bahrain Online,
a forum that the regime blocked in 2002. When Ali’s name comes up, we
think of a man who had the courage to challenge the criminal authorities
and thus became not only an opposition figure but also an icon for his
people and a voice to their struggle. His cell, where he was kept since
September 2010 until February 2011, symbolized the oppression that a new
generation is facing in Bahrain.
As we are witnessing the case of Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdelfatah
challenging the military junta in post-revolution Egypt by refusing to
accredit their military trials of civilians and answering their
questions, we need to remember that 6 years ago, Ali Abdulemam went
through the same challenge when he and his fellow Bahraini blogger
Hussain Yousef refused to be bailed out because they did not want to
admit to the system and its false accusations. Ali, after his release
last February, has disappeared and was sentenced to 15 years in jail for
‘spreading false information and trying to subvert the regime’. Surely,
just the way he was denied a lawyer when he was imprisoned last year,
Ali like all other Bahrainis after the uprising, was denied a fair trial
and was sentenced in absentia.
When speaking to Hussain Yousef
about how he and Ali refused to be bailed out back in 2005, he narrated
the story in details: “It was March 2005, we heard of a solidarity
protest that took place in front of the police station where we were
jailed (Al-Qathibiya police station). We were worried about the safety
of the protesters. The long interrogation sessions ended with us and
Wael Bualai. They faced us with seven charges. Our lawyers said these
charges will lead to the sum up of 107 years in jail! We were laughing
at those charges that regimes usually use to kill freedom of speech,
such as insulting the king or the royal family, spreading false
information, threatening national security, attempting to subvert the
regime etc. We rejected the charges, decided to go on a hunger strike,
and leaked our news out somehow. We heard that the king was out of the
country and that he was faced with our case by journalists wherever he
went. Free people stood in solidarity with us from all over the world
and Bahrain human rights center did a great job campaigning for us.
Statements came out from different organizations and we continued with
our hunger strike.
Then, the Interior minister sent someone to ask us to sign an apology
to let us out. I asked: for whom? For the king? Or for the people? If
it is for the king then let his palace ask us so, and if it is for
people, let the parliament come and talk to us. I asked him in return
for an apology and told him that we are on a hunger strike and that if
we die it will be his responsibility and the responsibility of those who
asked to jail us. He offered to bail us out for 1000 Bahraini dinars
(around 3000$), and again I rejected. I was taken back to the cell, I
explained the situation to my friends, and we agreed. That night we were
taken to somewhere unknown and dark. Our eyes were open when we got
into the bus and we had intensive security around us and a wave of cars
followed us to the new place where we met a person in civilian clothes.
The guy started to threaten to put each of us in a separate cell, I
asked him who he was and we figured out that he was someone brought back
from his vacation just to deal with us. We asked to call our lawyer to
inform him of our place and he said no one would know of our place. I
said it will be his responsibility if we die and the whole world will
know about it. Ali called one of our lawyers. Suddenly, they treated us
differently, asked us which cells we like, and we were released the
following day. It was the statement of the American Association of
Journalists that scared them and we knew more about the calls of the
American embassy by reading the cable documents that came out last month through wiki leaks.”
This is an interesting phenomenon that we are witnessing; bloggers
are going head-to-head against dictatorships and wrestling their ways
out even if they were left alone. It is truly disappointing to see
bloggers still getting jailed, tortured, and/or brutalized in the Middle
East after the uprisings. Iran, Egypt, and Syria are only behind China
when it comes to the number of bloggers and cyber activists harassed or
arrested. Saudi Arabia has recently arrested, later released, three
vloggers for making an episode on poverty, Kuwait interrogated and
arrested five twitter users this year, while a ‘retweet’ in Bahrain
might get you interrogated or even jailed.
When speaking with Nasser Weddady, the Mauritanian blogger and activist talked to us about the campaign
he launched: “When Ali was arrested in September 2010, Arab bloggers
and others from around the globe created one of the nosiest campaigns to
demand his release by putting together a showcase for advocates rising
through different platforms and multiple mediums.” In comment on what
both Ali and Alaa are doing, Weddady added: “This is for liberty; it is a
moral stand. These two bloggers chose their principles over their
freedoms. It is not about politics, it is about principles.”
Weddady exclaimed: “Ali is a delicate case; he is not a member of a
political party because he is above the frame. He was targeted by the
regime because when he speaks, there’s a huge blogging community that
listens to what he has to say; he has international respect. The stand
of world’s democracies towards Ali’s case is shameful. His fate hinges
on the world’s complacency towards Bahrain’s dictatorship. We need to
realize that this is not only an Arab cause, it is a global one.”
Ali Abdulemam is not a case of his own; he is the face of his people,
his generation, and a true example of how online free speech is getting
raped by regimes in the Middle East. Founding the Bahrain Online forum
in 1998 was a tunnel that Ali digged for Bahrainis to walk out to the
world. Revealing his identity in 2002 was seen as a mix of insane
courage and suicidal wrestling against a brutal regime. Refusing to be
bailed out in 2005, losing his job, and living the nightmare of Bahraini
prison in 2010 are all factors that make the world owe this man more
than silence. It is a shame how the Arab world and the globe in general
are watching the crimes done against Ali and his people, adding water on
their revolution to die off. With memory we try to fight for Ali
Abdulemam and with spoken words the world should get the Bahraini regime
to stop its crimes and to respect the sacred human right of free
speech.
Published in Global Voices Advocacy
