Cairo on August 9, 2012

ANHRI condemns the verdicts of the Primary Court of Muscat in the hearing  held on yesterday Wednesday, August 8, 2012 for the trial of 11 activists accused of illegal assemble and traffic disruption, in which the verdict stipulated the prison sentence of a year to all activists and a fine of 200 RO and a fine of thousand Omani Rials to stop the execution of the verdict until the appeal.

The Court tried both of the activists “Said bin Sultan bin Ali Al Hashimi,” Director of the Press Department of the State Council and the legal adviser “Basma bent Mubarak bin Saeed Alkyumi”, “Basma Al Rajhi” researcher Administrative Affairs, Ministry of Education, “Nasser bin Saleh bin Khamis Ghilani ” Media and Publishing Consultant in the Authority of Information Technology,  ‘Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Abdullah Ghilani” Media Observer at Muscat International Airport,  “Badr bin Nasser bin Ali Al Jabri” Member of the studies and the follow-up office of General Manager of Information Technology, Ministry of Education, Engineer Municipal of Sohar “Khaled bin Saleh bin Abdullah Nawfali, “,”Mahmoud Ben Hamad Al Thani Rawahi “Arabic language teacher at the Ministry of Education, ” Mukhtar ibn Muhammad ibn Saif al Hinai ” technical supervisor in El-zaman Magazine, “Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Salem Fazari “student at Sultan Qaboos University and “Mahmoud bin Mohammed bin Nasser Aljamodai” care supervisor at Ministry of Health, and charged them with the illegal assemble and the traffic interruption as well as the accused faces Basma Rajhi for insulting an official officer due to participation with  demonstrations in Oman during the month of June to demand the release of the activists who were arrested without any charges but their solidarity with the detainees and then issued its ruling in prison and a fine of  200 Ro at its held yesterday.

The Court also held a private hearing for  a group of activists, most notably “Ismail Almkabbala” and the case was postponed to August 26, 2012 hearing.

In a related context  the Omani authorities continued the distort campaign against activists by publishing the photos of the activists, who were sentenced, through the Oman News Agency and the national television, although activists have an opportunity to appeal and obtain acquittals.

ANHRI said”The verdicts issued against the activists are malicious which seeks the government to silence the activists and opposition who call for reforms.  This is confirmed by the release of some of those arrested and the targeting of activists who participated in the Omani movement continued of from some while, as well as changing the judge three times by the authorities before the issue of the verdict, which raises doubts about the availability of terms and conditions of fair trial ”

ANHRI calls  “the Omani authorities to immediately release activists and dropping all the malicious charges against them, while ensuring their safety and not to legally prosecute them , especially since they did not commit any sin except for peaceful expression of their opinions.