Skip to main content

On 5 November 2015, members of the Security Forces stormed into the house of 31-year-old security manager Ali Issa Ali Al Tajer and arrested him without presenting a warrant, taking him to an unknown location, where he was detained incommunicado for 25 days. On 30 November, he was charged with terrorism based on confessions obtained under torture.

On 9 December 2015, the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) expressed its concern over the practice of torture in Jordan in its concluding observations, issued after the Committee analysed Jordan's National Report and engaged in a constructive dialogue with the St

On the occasion of Human Rights Day, the Alkarama Foundation presented its 7th annual award for Human Rights Defenders in the Arab World on 8 December 2015 to Omani human rights advocate and former parliamentarian, Talib Al Mamari, in recognition of his important work defending human rights in his country, in particular since the crackdown on civil society that followed the 2011 protests.

In April 2011, car painter Jassim Al Shehab disappeared after his arrest by members of the Military Intelligence Division at a checkpoint in the Homs Governorate. Since then, his family has not been able to obtain any official information on his whereabouts.

In late December 2014, Hamrein Hussein, a 15-year-old Syrian Kurdish student from Amuda, was abducted on her way to school by a patrol of the People's Protection Units (YPG) – Syrian Kurdistan's armed forces – and forcibly enrolled.

On 3 December 2015, as members of the opposition coalition, the National Salvation Union (USN) were going to Ali Sabieh for meetings, they were stopped for a police control during which one of them, Mohamed Abdallah Dabaleh, was fired tear gas to his chest, leaving him unconscious.

On 25 November 2015, human rights defender Said Ali Said Jadad was arrested once more for "using the internet to disseminate material that would prejudice public order" after his sentence of one year in prison was upheld by the Salalah Court of Appeal on 18 November 2015. Known for his criticism of the Omani authorities' systematic repression of peaceful dissent, Said Jadad has been the victim of numerous acts of reprisals.

On 21 October 2015, members of the Homeland Security, together with other law enforcement officers, raided the 6th of October City building where independent NGO Mada Foundation for Media Development has its offices, arresting the 51-year-old head of the foundation, Hisham Ahmed Awad Jafar.

In February 2015, Hussain Ali Radhi Abdulrasool, a father and driver, was violently arrested by a group of policemen leaving him unconscious and severely injured. Eight months later, he was acquitted of all charges against him, but left paralysed from the waist down, he is unable to work.

On 6 November 2014, human rights defender and writer Mikhlif Al Shammari was sentenced to two years imprisonment and 200 lashes after a single hearing for a tweet stating that he had faith in tolerance between Sunni and Shia and announcing that he will pray for that in a Shia mosque as a sign of solidarity, being himself Sunni.

Subscribe to