Kuwaiti Blogger Arrested
By Curt on Aug 22, 2007 in Bashar Al-Sayegh, Imprisoned bloggers, Kuwait
Mideast Youth reports that Kuwaiti blogger Bashar Al-Sayegh was arrested on August 19, according to the blog Forza Kuwait. According to the blog The Kuwaiti, “Bashar Al-Sayegh was arrested and beaten yesterday by the Kuwaiti Secret Police for an anonymous comment on Bashar’s forum regarding the Amir (which was deleted).”
An update on The Kuwaiti’s post says Bashar has been released. The Kuwaiti confirms it and sends pictures.
Update: After three days in prison, Bashar, who now claims he was not beaten, though who can be sure he’s not just attempting to avoid further beatings, signed (with a thumbprint and apparently blindfolded) a “confession” and gave the interrogators the IP address of the commenter, who is said to now be in prison. Jassim Al-Qames, a colleague of Bashar’s at the Al-Jareeda Newspaper, was arrested for taking pictures of the arrest of Bashar and beaten. Of course.
Apparently, the “crime” that Bashar committed was not to post something that was “insulting” to the Emir of Kuwait. Nor was it to welcome or even allow a disparaging comment to be posted on his blog. It was to not get the comment in question down off his blog soon enough. (It was up for 15 minutes.)
