Saudi police arrest 20-30 activists, including two bloggers, for taking part in protests

Saudi police have arrested 20-30 activists, including two bloggers, for taking part in protests in oil-rich Eastern province.

The arrests have been made over the past two days mainly in Al-Qatif city and nearby towns which witnessed recent demonstrations urging the release of prisoners and voicing solidarity with Bahraini people.

"Arrests have been ongoing for some time, but in the past few days it focused on bloggers and writers," an activist told AFP asking not to be identified. "The number of Shiites arrested since the start of the protests and (those who) remain in jail is 140," said the activist.

The people were either called to police stations and then detained, or arrested after security forces raided their homes, the activist said.

Another activist told AFP 22 activists have been arrested in the past few days and authorities have been systematically rounding up people.

The latest arrests included prominent writer Hussein al-Yusef and his son.

More than 100 protesters had been in jail for several weeks after they were arrested at the start of the demonstrations in early March.

Gulf and Saudi human rights bodies have called for their immediate release. Two weeks ago, Saudi Human Rights First Society urged the oil-rich kingdom to release the protesters saying that some of them had been tortured.