Riyadh (Saudi Arabia): On January 13, 2009 Saudi police arrested Hamoud Bin Saleh (28) and blocked access to his online blog, according to reports from The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.

Saleh had used his blog to express his opinion on religious issues and discuss his conversion from Islam to Christianity.

Saleh was previously arrested for his faith in 2004 and imprisoned for nine months. He was also briefly detained in November 2008 and was released shortly before the Saudi-sponsored interfaith dialogue conference held on November 12-13 at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Sources believe officials released him to avoid tarnishing Saudi Arabia’s image of religious tolerance, as at the conference King Abdullah spoke out against mankind’s “preoccupation with differences between the followers of religions.”

At last report, Saleh was detained in the Eleisha political prison in Riyadh, the nation’s capital.
 

This page is updated on February 6, 2009