கட்டாய விவாகரத்து: அல் டிமானுக்கு தொடரும் பிரச்னைகள்

புதன் கிழமையன்று அவரையும் அவரது மகளையும் கைது செய்த சவுதி போலிஸ் அடுத்த நாள் காலைவரை வைத்திருந்து விடுவித்தார்கள்.

அவர் பத்திரிக்கையாளர்களோடு பேசக்கூடாது என்று கட்டளையிட்டு அவரை கட்டாயமாக கையெழுத்திட வைத்திருக்கிறார்கள்.


Al-Timani Forced to Sign Another Gag Order
Ebtihal Mubarak, Arab News

JEDDAH, 20 July 2007 — On Wednesday night Mansour Al-Timani, the 37-year-old forcibly divorced husband, and his three-year-old daughter Noha were detained without charges at an Alkhobar police station only to be released yesterday morning at 8:30 a.m.

A source from Alkhobar said that Al-Timani was detained by police officers while playing with his daughter on Alkhobar’s corniche at around 11:30 p.m. He was taken to a police station and spent two hours there without any charges being filed and, for the second time, was forced to sign a gag order preventing him from speaking to the press.

The source added that Al-Timani was then taken to a police station in Dammam at 2 a.m., where officers refused to detain him. He was then sent back to the Alkhobar police station.

At around 5 a.m., Al-Timani, together with his daughter, was taken to the Civil Rights Department at the police station, which also refused to be held accountable for his detention.

“Officials at the Civil Rights Department told the police officers that they would not detain Al-Timani and that they couldn’t break rules,” said the source. Al-Timani was then kept in custody with his daughter only to be released at 8:30 a.m. He has now been summoned to attend court in Dammam in mid-September in connection with a case his first wife, who is seeking a divorce from him, has filed against him.

Al-Timani refused to talk to Arab News, saying he is bound by a gag order. An insider from Alkhobar police station confirmed that Al-Timani spent Wednesday night at the police station with his child.

Hussein Al-Sharif, the head of the National Society of Human Rights (NSHR) in the western region, said that he was aware of the incident and was following the case closely.

“I’m mostly concerned about the mental state of Al-Timani’s child. She is surely facing difficult conditions in meeting policemen and spending time in prison with no counsel or social workers,” Al-Sharif said, adding that he is unsure of details surrounding Al-Timani’ detention and the court summons.

“We completely reject the gag order that forbids him from talking to the press. If, as a citizen, he wants the public to hear his unjust story then that’s his right,” he said.

This is the second time that Al-Timani has been detained by police without being charged with any crime. On June 26, Al-Timani said he was detained for three hours at a police station in Alkhobar. He told Arab News that the criminal prosecution took him from his home at 10:30 p.m. and that he was forced to sign a gag order preventing him from talking to the media. Col. Yousif Al-Qahtani, a police spokesman for the Eastern Province, said that senior officials had ordered that Al-Timani sign the pledge.

In July 2005, a judge nullified Mansour Al-Timani’s marriage to his second wife, Fatima, 34, after her half brothers filed a case claiming that the husband had lied about his tribal background. The annulment was issued in spite of the couple having two children together.

Fatima, who refuses to return to her brothers, who are recognized as her legal guardians, is currently in a women’s shelter with her one-year-old child.

Human Rights Watch recently condemned the forced divorce and the subsequent harassment experienced by the couple on Tuesday after speaking to Al-Timani. “The Saudi government should provide fair treatment to the couple,” said an HRW statement.