Roukana Hamour

SHORT INFO

Name: Roukana Hamour / Roukana Moti’ Hamour
Nationality: Syria
Arrested: 15 Oct 06 and 25 Oct 07
Blog: عفوا أيها الفساد (Arabic)
Global Voices Advocacy: Roukana Hamour kidnapped

BIOGRAPHY

Roukana Hamour is a Syrian blogger who has repeatedly been threatened, assaulted and kidnapped. She is the daughter of Mohammad Moti’ Hamour, the former deputy of Saudi Air Lines who had his fortune which reached billions evaporate from Syrian banks by alleged forgery. Roukana has been threatened by her brothers and high ranking Syrian officials and officers to be sexually assaulted and raped if she doesn’t give up her share of her father’s fortune and be silent about its suspicious evaporation. Roukana has appealed several times at the office of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to expose the thievery of her father’s money ((Decentering Damascus » Syrian blogger Rukana Hammour kidnapped)).

On October 15, 2006, Hamour was taken from her home and dragged into the street after being threatened at gunpoint in front of her young children by members of the country’s Criminal Security forces, reportedly for blogging her experiences with the Syrian legal system, exposing administrative, banking and juristic corruption ((Global Voices Advocacy » Syrian blogger Roukana Hamour has been kidnapped)).

In October, 2007, Hamour was running for parliament when she received a call from the Political Security Interior Branch in Damascus demanding her presence for interrogations. She refused to go due to the lack of legal and systematic motion. On October 25, 2007, she got subsequently kidnapped by police forces. As Hammour was parking the car in front of her place and helping her three young children to step out, six men came and attacked her. Reportedly these men violently pushed the children away from their mother, and aggressively pushed Hamour into a car. The men prevented someone from approaching Hammour and ran away.

Hamour herself was released three hours after the incident. She later stated to have been interrogated by the Syrian Secret Services about a comment left on her blog ((Global Voices Advocacy » Syrian blogger Roukana Hamour has been kidnapped)).