Calls for Oman to release wrongfully jailed former MP

Geneva, 11 December 2015

IPU’s Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians is calling for the immediate release of former Omani MP Talib Al-Mamari. It believes he has been wrongfully imprisoned since October 2013 on charges related to his involvement in a demonstration.

In a decision released late November, the Committee deeply regrets that Al-Mamari has remained in prison despite strong official indications from the Omani authorities during an IPU mission to the country earlier this year that he would be released at some point over the past six months. The most recent date indicated for his release had been 18 November.

Al-Mamari, an MP at the time of his arrest, was charged after taking part in a demonstration against pollution in August 2013. The Committee believes Al-Mamari was prosecuted and convicted on charges that infringed his right to freedom of assembly and expression. Having seen video footage evidence of the 2013 demonstration provided by the Omani authorities, the Committee asserted that it in no way shows Al-Mamari as being responsible for any violence or incitement to violence.

“Mr. Al-Mamari should never have been imprisoned in the first place. We strongly encourage the Omani Parliament to make sure this doesn’t ever happen again by changing current laws that undermine the fundamental right to assemble and to speak freely and to bring these laws in line with international standards,” says Ann Clwyd, President of the IPU Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians.

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The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global organization of national parliaments. It works to safeguard peace and drives positive democratic change through political dialogue and concrete action.

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