[1]Blogger and activist Ahmad Mansoor after his release last November
Ahmad Mansoor, UAE's most famous blogger [2]who was detained last year for several months with four other activists for signing an online petition calling for reforms in his country, was denied entry to Kuwait few days ago. The UAE5 including Mansoor were released [3]with a pardon on the 28th of November. Recently, Human Right Watch press conference in Dubai which was planned to release the organization's report on the decline of freedom of expression in the Gulf wealthy state was raided [4]by state security police called off.
Through his twitter account, Mansoor was the one who reported the details of this raid on HRW's press conference. More than a week after, Mansoor went to Kuwait and was denied entry, which makes him the second human rights defender to be denied entry in Kuwait in a very short time period after Kassab Al-Otaibi (@Dr_Kassab [5]) a Saudi opposition activist based in the UK. Mansoor reported what happened to him in the airport through twitter, as Kuwait was having its vote for parliamentary elections; one of the reasons why there wasn't much attention paid for the incident the UAE blogger had to go through.
Mansoor tweeted:
I'm Kuwait airport now. Prevented from entering. Too bad that this happens in Kuwait; the only democracy in #gcc [6] !!
— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012 [7]
#gcc [6]: after an interrogation for about an hour, I was told that I can not enter by the State Security officers.#kuwait [8] #uae [9]
— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012 [10]
#gcc [6] #kuwait [8] #uae [9] further told that if I can not find a ticket back, I would be detained until then.
— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012 [11]
#gcc [6] #kuwait [8] #uae [9]: off course, preventing me from entering kuwait was based on instruction from UAE authorities.
— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012 [12]
Not sure though why authorities in UAE first let me leave Sharjah airport to start with and put Kuwait in this situation. #gcc [6] #kuwait [8] #uae [9]
— Ahmed Mansoor (@Ahmed_Mansoor) February 2, 2012 [13]