Thumar al-Marzouqi

Saudi blogger and columnist Thumar al-Marzouqi was one of several journalists arrested by Saudi authorities in April 2019. Al-Marzouq wrote about sectarianism in the region, and he ran a blog to which several other journalists arrested at the same time contributed. Marzouqi had also been active with the movement to end the ban on women driving.  Al-Marzouqi was arrested April 4, 2019, according to The Associated Press and the London-based human rights organization Al-Qst. CPJ could not determine where al-Marzouqi was arrested or where he was initially held. Al-Marzouqi ran his own blog and contributed to local and regional outlets, including the Saudi newspaper Okaz and the U.K.-based, Qatari-funded outlet The New Arab, according to his author pages on each website. His blog brought together contributions by other journalists and intellectuals who wrote about topics including sectarian divides in the Syria conflict, the Wahhabi ideology that undergirds the Saudi religious and political establishment, women’s rights, and regional political issues, according to a CPJ review. Marzouqi, like several other journalists arrested around the same time, had also been active with the movement to end the ban on women driving, according to The New York Times and Reuters. As of October 2019, CPJ was not able to determine where al-Marzouqi was being held, or whether he has been charged or brought in front of a court. CPJ not determine any details about al-Saffar’s health status or treatment in prison. Al-Qst also told CPJ it had no new information about a-Marzouqi since his arrest.