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Riyadh: The Saudi National Human Rights Association, a non-governmental human rights organisation, said it has sent a letter to the Interior Ministry about the arrested blogger, Fouad Al Farhan.
Al Farhan, 32, is a popular blogger who used his blogs to criticise corruption and to call for reform. He was detained on December 10. Interior Ministry spokes-man Major General Mansour Al Turki said, in remarks published last week, that Al Farhan was detained for "violating rules not related to state security".
Dr Saleh Al Khathlan, chairman of the monitoring and follow-up committee at the National Human Rights Association (NHRA), said in press statements yesterday the association has learned of Al Farhan's arrest from the media and later called his family to confirm the news.
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"We wrote to the Interior Ministry inquiring about his detention and asked the ministry to allow his family to visit him," Al Khathlan said.
The NHRA official noted that the Saudi publication law guarantees freedom of opinion for all and that the kingdom is a signatory of the Arab Human Rights Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and both guarantee freedom of expression.
Before his detention, the blogger wrote in his blog that he was told there is an order from a high-ranking official to arrest him for questioning.
"They will pick me up at any time," he wrote. He added that he was asked to write an apology but he refused because he does not know what to apologise for.
The US-educated blogger is 32 and is married with two children.
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