The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) expresses its deep concern for the sentence issued from the Criminal Court (the Court of First Instance) today – 15 May 2013- against 5 Twitter Users with one year of imprisonment, on the charge of ‘defaming the King’ Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa.

The Court issued its rulings against:

1.Mr. Mahmood Abdul-Majeed Abdulla Al-Jamri (34 years old): arrested on 12 March at dawn.
2.Mr. Hassan Abdali Isa (33 years old): arrested on 12 March at dawn.
3.Mr. Mohsen Abdali Isa (26 years old): arrested on 12 March at dawn.
4.Mr. Ammar Makki Mohammed Al-Aali (36 years old): arrested on 12 March at dawn.
5.Mr. Mahdi Ebrahim Al-Basri (25 years old): arrested on 11 March at dawn. His relatives confirmed to the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) that the contents of the house were destroyed and they were verbally abused. Mahdi also faced mistreatment in the Criminal Investigations. Mahdi is a practicing lawyer.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) emphasizes that the Bahraini Authorities had violated the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and what the Authorities are doing is considered a security campaign against freedom of opinion and expression.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) demands:

1. the immediate release of those who were arrested due to freedom of opinion and expression and to drop all charges against them;
2. put an end to the restrictions against social media in Bahrain;
3. protect the free exchange of information on the Internet and not restrict it.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human (BYSHR) Rights launched yesterday the website “Bahrain Hub ” which is a website that monitors the human rights conditions in Bahrain by using photos and videos, as well as monitoring the articles and news published about Bahrain in the international media.

The BYSHR said that, “the correspondents, journalists, those working in the media and citizens can send photos and videos about the daily events in the different areas and the human rights violations.”

Mr.Mohammed Al-Maskati – BYSHR president – confirmed that, “the website has been divided into three parts, and a number of volunteer photographers will contribute with the BYSHR by monitoring human rights violations and publishing them in Arabic and English.

Mr.Al-Maskati clarified that the “website has been divided according to the Bahraini villages and towns and this will facilitate the search for international organizations and media.”

Bahraini authorities have blocked a website that broadcasts live events on Twitter (http://twitcam.livestream.com/), after signing up on the site, it provides a link that the user can use to broadcast live events on the Internet and the broadcast is viewed on Twitter pages.

Bahrain Youth Society For Human Rights (BYSHR) believes that blocking the site because that the protesters in Bahrain broadcast live events on Twitter, especially the events of repression of the demonstrators demanding political reforms.

Since the protests in Bahrain (14 February), the demonstrators have used social networking websites extensively to call for the protests in the areas and the authorities have arrested many of the users of those social networking websites. The authorities have dismissed many of the students for expressing their political opinion on those sites.

BYSHR expresses its deep concern about blocking popular websites by Bahraini authorities to prevent exposing human rights violations.

Due to the Authority’s Failure in Blockading the Political, Religious and Social Electronic Websites

Demands for Creating an Electronic Security Apparatus to Blockade the Human Rights Organizations and Political Movements

26th December 2009

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights is following up with great concern what was published in the Bahraini Al-Watan Newspaper – closely associated with the Government – on 26th December 2009, which was interviews with a group of Members of the Shura Council – who are appointed by the King – where they demanded the Authority to create an electronic security apparatus in order to contribute in monitoring the websites that harm the reputation of Bahrain and threatens its security[i].

The Members of the Shura Council indicated in the interview that the Bahraini Ministry of Information is not carrying out its role in controlling the websites that harm the reputation of the Authority and publishes false facts about the conditions in Bahrain.

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