Cairo September 19, 2012
ANHRI condemns the arrest of the authorities to the blogger “Abdulaziz Bou-Hamid”, after investigating him due to the record filed against him by a police officer accused him by slender and libel.
The authorities called him yesterday to investigate him in the accusation pressed by a police officer, in which he alleged that “Bou-Hamid” swore at him, the minister of interior and other security leaders in the ministry and after two hours of investigation in the police station of “Salhiah”, he was arrested. Then they trans-located, hand-cuffed, him to the general administration of the criminal investigation building, in which the officer who filed the record is existed, despite the witnesses denied his allegations, which arouse doubts about his destiny.
The facts of the case took place on September 10, during the sit-in of the Kuwaiti opposition in “El-Eradah” square entitled “we will not let it lost”. The ministry of interior had warned from the sit-in or organizing any marshes, as they considered it to be violation to the security and public order, that will deserve imprisonment or fine. After the end of the event and while the getting out from the square an argument happened between him and a police officer. The argument witnessed by the people who were there. The dispute was dissolved between them, but in the next day the officer filed two records against “Bou-Hamid”, in which he accused him of slender and libel against the minister of interior and some leaders in the ministry. Then “Bou-Hamid” filed a record in which he stated that the police officer threaten and swore at him.
The arrest of “Bou-Hamid” has made a huge blast among the activists and bloggers, as they called for the sit-in in front of the criminal investigation today on 5 o’clock to condemn the arrest of “Bou-Hamid” via Hashtag#freedom_Abdulaziz_Bouhamid (#الحرية _لعبد العزيز بو حيم)
ANHRI said that “the arbitrary arrest of the blogger and trans-locating him to the location of the criminal inspection, deemed to be a clear violation to the law and arouses a lot of doubts related to the credibility of the investigations. This matter proves the use of law to address the activists and the opinion makers for their role and participation in the popular movement that took place in the country and their calls of political and social reforms in the country”.
ANHRI called the Kuwaiti authorities to immediately release the blogger, drop all the charges pressed against him and to gurantee his saftey.
ANHRI helds the Kuwaiti authorities responsible for any damages or harm that could be done to him during the detention