Omani writer and blogger, Muawiya Alrawahi was released on 11 August after a month of detention including 28 days in the psychiatric department of Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. Arrested on 12 July 2014 for criticizing the Omani authorities on his blog, Alrawahi was transferred to the hospital where he remained under the custody of police officers.
"Alkarama welcomes the decision of the Omani authorities," says Alkarama's Regional Legal Officer for the Gulf countries, Radidja Nemar, explaining that "arbitrary deprivations of liberty are not only limited to detentions in prison." In an Opinion issued on 20 May 2014 by the Human Rights Council on the case of a Chinese petitioner who suffered a lengthy detention in a psychiatric hospital, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recalled that "psychiatric detention should not be used to jeopardize someone's freedom of expression," and adopted the view that Xing Shiku had been detained arbitrarily in violation of article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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