Hussein Malik al-Salam, Al-Fajr Cultural Network
Medium:Internet
Charge:Anti-state
Imprisoned:February 23, 2012

Security forces arrested al-Salam, manager of the critical news website Al-Fajr Cultural Network, in the city of Jubail in connection with the site's coverage of pro-reform protests in Eastern Province, news outlets reported. Another site manager, Habib al-Maatiq, was arrested on the previous day. The website posts videos from Shia leaders including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, as well as Saudi sheikhs.

According to a court indictment, the two were charged under Article 6 of the Anti-Cybercrime Law, which prohibits the production, storage, and transmission of material on information networks that disturbs public order, as well as establishing a website without a license.

On December 23, 2013 al-Maatiq was sentenced to one year in prison for establishing a website without a license, and al-Salam to three years, news reports said. Two other individuals who were accused of contributing to Al-Fajr and social media outlets were also sentenced: a teacher, Reda al-Baharna, to one year, and an engineer, Montazer al-Aqili, to five years.

On March 4, 2014, news reports said the Specialized Criminal Court increased sentences on appeal to two years for al-Maatiq and five years for al-Salam, according to news reports. The sentence for al-Baharna was increased to three and a half years and for al-Aqili to seven. In a final appeal in June, al-Salam's sentence was increased yet again to six years and al-Aqili's to eight, news reports said.

Al-Maatiq was released on August 5, 2014, after completing his sentence, according to news reports. The director of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Ali Adubisi, told CPJ that al-Salam was being held at the General Intelligence Prison in the city of Dammam.

The kingdom has obstructed coverage of Eastern Province protests, which call for political reforms and greater rights for the country's Shia minority, CPJ research shows. In the absence of independent reporting, coverage of the unrest was carried out by websites such as Al-Fajr Cultural Network.

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