Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has sentenced seven activists from its restive Eastern Province to prison terms ranging from five to 10 years for posting messages on Facebook calling for anti-government protests, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday.
The New York-based rights group urged EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and other European officials who were meeting with Gulf counterparts, including Saudi Arabia, in Manama yesterday to condemn the convictions.
Eastern Province has seen occasional protests by minority Shias over the past two years against alleged discrimination and negligence, which the Riyadh government denies.
“Sending people off to years in prison for peaceful Facebook posts sends a strong message that there’s no safe way to speak out in Saudi Arabia, even on online social networks,” Joe Stork, HRW’s deputy Middle East director, said in a statement.
Saudi Interior Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.
Kurdish president to rule for 2 more years
ARBIL, Iraq: The president of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani is set to stay in office for another two years, after lawmakers voted yesterday to extend his tenure amid scuffles in parliament and an outcry from opposition parties.
Barzani’s presidency had been due to end this summer, when his second term of four years ends, but in recent months members of his party said legal ambiguities might allow him to remain longer or run again.
The region’s presidential law places a limit of two four-year terms on the position.
Once the most impoverished and repressed region in Iraq, Kurdistan now exists as a quasi-state within a state and has successfully insulated itself against the sectarian violence that plagues the rest of the country.
Stability and oil have drawn in foreign investment and the region is prospering, but a domestic opposition has built up a considerable following by railing against corruption, lack of transparency and the hegemony of two ruling parties.
Agencies
