The Omani Centre for Human Rights condemns the arrest of Omani writer Musallam Masoud al-Mashani on Thursday, 14 November 2019 in connection with his as yet unpublished new book. The OCHR also expresses concern over al-Mashani’s current fragile state of health, and calls on the Omani authorities to release him immediately. Al-Mashani was arrested at an Omani border post on the Yemen-Oman border as he was returning from Yemen after securing an agreement with a publishing house to publish his new book on the Hakli tribal confederation.
It is worth noting that Musallam al-Mashani was previously arrested in 2013 after he tried to publish a chronicle of the 2011 protest movement in Dhofar. That case ended with al-Mashani being given a suspended prison sentence and made to pay a fine.
