Syria blocks personal blog of human rights activist

By: Jillian C. York on 19 January 2009
Posted in Syria, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Social filtering

This article was originally posted on Global Voices Advocacy by Sami Ben Gharbia

Syrian authorities have blocked access to the personal blog of the 26-year-old Syrian Human rights activist and blogger Mohammad Al-Abdallah who is blogging at Raye7wmishRaj3 (I’m Leaving and I’m Not Coming Back). Syrian Netizens can access the blocked blog via HTTPS or simply by visiting the mirror blog at http://rwmr.wordpress.com/.

Screenshot of the blocked Raye7wmishRaj3 blog in Syria (Source: Raye7wmishRaj3)

Al-Abdallah had twice been arrested for reporting on Syria's human rights situation and for campaigning to free his jailed Father Ali Al-Abdallah - member of Damascus Declaration - by constituting the Committee for Families of Political Prisoners in Syria. Mohammad Abdallah and his father Ali were released from prison on 4 October 2006 after completing a six-month prison sentence for “criticizing the state of emergency laws”.

Photo of blogger Mohammad Al-Abdallah and his father at the Adra prison, Damascus (Source: Raye7wmishRaj3.)

On March 18th, 2006 Mohammad Al-Abdallah's brother, Omar, was arrested by Air Force Intelligence officers for reporting information online on the collective blog Syrian Domari and sentenced to five years in prison by the Syrian authorities. Air Force Intelligence officers have learned the password of Syrian Domari weblog and deleted it completely.