Ali Abdulemam

Ali Abdulemam (middle) along with Nabeel Rajab (left) and Abdulhadi Alkhawaja (right) taking part in a pro-democracy march in 2011

Ali Hassan Abdullah Abdulemam (Arabic: علي حسن عبد الله عبد الامام), widely known as Ali Abdulemam (علي عبد الإمام) is a Bahraini liberal blogger and contributor to Global Voices. He is the founder of Bahrain Online, a popular online forum and pro-democracy news website,[1][2] and a member of the research and advocacy group Bahrain Watch.[3] Although he went into hiding in March 2011[4] to escape the Bahraini Government's crackdown on protesters, he was convicted in absentia for plotting to overthrow the Government, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Global human rights organizations are unconvinced of Abdulemam's guilt and have voiced opposition to the persistent censorship and obstruction of journalists in the region. In 2013, Abdulemam escaped to the UK where he was swiftly granted political asylum.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference layalina.tv was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Bahrain shuts down two news websites". ITP.net. 22 September 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
  3. ^ Bahrain Watch 'About Us' page Archived 2014-04-20 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 13 May 2014
  4. ^ Halvorssen, Thor (10 May 2013). "Escape From Bahrain: Ali Abdulemam Is Free". The Atlantic. Retrieved 11 May 2013.