Following the overthrow of Tunisian and Egyptian presidents, an anonymous call for a “Day of Rage” in Saudi Arabia on March 11, 2011, was spread. In response, the government deployed heavy police forces in all major cities to ensure that any protest remains virtual.
Khaled Al-Johani, a 40-something-year-old teacher, was the only video-taped protester [1] on that day (Amnesty International reports [2] that at least four other protesters were arrested on that day for their ‘intention’ to protest). Al-Johani spoke to a group of journalists who were brought by a Ministry of Culture and Information bus to the place where the protest was planned to happen. He was arrested on the same day of interview when he returned to his house and continues to be held.
According to @whereiskhaled [3], he is currently being tried in the Specialized Criminal Court in Jeddah. The account also reported that he has boycotted phone calls to protest psychosocial torture.
@SaudiDetainees [4], a Twitter account dedicated for campaigning for Saudis detained arbitrarily, started an online campaign on Monday to support Al-Johani on the hashtag #khalidj [5].
The campaign received very notable attention. Below are some tweets from the hashtag.
Saudi 1,200,000-plus-follower cleric, Salman al-Odah, tweeted [ar]:
Dr Madawi Al-Rasheed, a professor of anthropology of religion and well-known critic of the Saudi regime, writes [ar]:
Saudi prominent Islamist reformist Abdullah al-Hamid said [ar]:
Women2Drive famous figure, Manal al-Sharif, tweeted:
And Saudi Twitter user Haytham al-Tayib noted: