Arab League chief sacks employee over blog

Dhabia Khamis, the director of the Mission Affairs Department in the Arab League was sacked last month for writing a review in her blog of a book titled The Arab League – What is Left of It? authored by a former employee of the organization, reported the UAE-based Gulf News.

However, the Arab League affiliated disciplinary court has yet to rule on the case filed by Dhabia against Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League.

In return, a human rights group has urged Mousa to revoke the decision to sack Dhabia who had criticized his way of running the pan-Arab organization in her blog.

"Freedom of expression is not a mere slogan to be framed on a wall. Regrettably, the Arab League has set a bad example for upholding this important value," the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, a Cairo-based non-governmental group, said in a statement.

Human rights violations

Dhabia, who held the post since 1992, said that her rights were violated and she was maltreated by what she describes as Moussa's agents in the Arab League. She also accuses the chief of security in the organization of raiding her office, damaging her documents and preventing her from entering.

Officials in the Cairo-based organization declined to comment on the case, which first erupted in September 2009.

In a letter to the Arab Writers Union, the Emirati blogger, Dhabia said she had received threats and that Egyptian security agencies refused to officially register her complaint about those threats.

"The issue did not stop at the dismissal of the writer. But it has reached the extent of barring her from the organization and confiscating her belongings," said the Arab Network for Human Rights Information in the statement, a copy of which was made available to Gulf News.