Kashgari was apprehended at the Kuala Lumpur airport Wednesday by the Malaysian authorities, at the request of Saudi Arabia, with whom Malaysia has no extradition treaty. Sunday morning, Saudi officials took custody of him at the airport and flew him back to Saudi Arabia in a private plane, according to a source close to the situation.

Kashgari's tweets were identified as blasphemous by members of the country's Wahhabist clerical establishment, including the "weeping cleric," Nasser Al-Omar. Their supporters piled on, racking up 30,000 tweets of their own in the next 24 hours, most calling for his prosecution and execution.

Malaysian newspaper, The Star, reported that a High Court judge "granted an interim order to lawyers representing (Kashgari), to bar his deportation by Malaysian authorities." It is uncertain whether the order was granted before or after Kashgari had left Malaysia. If after, it may have been a way to both assuage Saudi demands and public sentiment.

However Monday morning, Kashgari's lawyers "have filed a habeas corpus application against the Home Minister, Inspector-General of Police and two others to get a declaration that his arrest and deportation were unlawful."

Kashgari's crimes have been defined by Wahhabi religious courts as "apostasy," or rejection of Islam, which, in Saudi Arabia's religiously conservative courts, is punishable by death.

Both defenders of Kashgari and Saudi watchers believe the event was stage-managed by the Wahhabi establishment as a way to regain political ground lost when the head of the Saudi religious police was replaced by a moderate.

Malaysian Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein denied there was any court order delaying Kashgari's deportation. He also called the notion that the Saudi writer would be executed "ridiculous," the minister told a group of reporters on Saturday.

"This is a credible country that they are talking about, and allegations that 'blood is in my hand' and such for sending him back - were baseless," Hussein said.

Given that Saudi religious law is clear about the punishment for apostasy - it is death - and given the country's proven and persistent willingness to execute religious offenders, the fear seems far from ridiculous.

Justifying the return of the 23-year-old to Saudi hands, Hussein said, "The ministry will never let Malaysia to be perceived as a haven for terrorists, criminals and wanted person, who want to seek hiding."

Given his return to his home country, one of Kashgari's friends told us, "expect a very slow update since Saudi is an expert in media blackouts."

Kuala Lumpur and Riyadh photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

Burma unblocks websites. The Burmese government unblocked international media sites as well as websites run by Burmese exiles.

Hong Kong bans online sharing of election information. Facebook, Twitter and other social media is now considered "political advertising" in Hong Kong, and therefore limited.

Syria blocks WordPress. In the midst of the protests in Syria, the government has blocked the blog host.

Cuban blogger arrested after Twittering. Luis Felipe Rojas was arrested in the town of Duaba after announcing his intent to take part in a protest for dead hunger strike activists.

Pakistan plans to block Google and YouTube. Pakistan has threatened Google and YouTube with blocking if they do not "help" the government with its alleged terrorism concerns.

Morocco arrests online activists. Blogger Mohamed Douas and others have been arrested in the midst of that country's pro-democracy protests.

International Code of Conduct for Information Security presented to the U.N. by cohort of anti-freedom governments. In a move of operatic Andy Kaufmanesque absurdity, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan created and submitted a hilarious "code" for information security. (It's an anti-free speech, pro-tyranny document.)

Another lèse-majesté arrest in Thailand. Surapak Phuchaisaeng was arrested for posting pictures that were allegedly insulting to the monarchy. In reality, they were probably insulting to the ruling party.

South Korea censors Internet secretly. In Korea, even the censors are being censored.

Google re-licenses in China. So much for Google's brave stand against Chinese interference.

China fights cyberwar against exiled Tibetans. China's cyberwarfare soldiers are directing a constant stream of attacks against exiled Tibetans to keep them from speaking to each others, the public and coreligionists in Tibet.

Facebook to work with German government on code of conduct. Facebook has agreed to work with Germany on a "voluntary code of conduct" to protect the privacy of social network users.

Hourglass photo by William Andrus, Malaysia photo by Eric Teoh,

After receiving death threats, Figueira was shot six times on June 15 by gunmen on motorcycles outside his workplace. In addition to being a blogger, he was a newspaper editor and an official in a trade union. This is the second time a blogger has been murdered by his government or, in Figueira's case most likely organized crime figures attached to the government.

Chinese artist and digital native released but muzzled. China's best known artist, Ai Weiwei, has been stuck away in a Chinese jail since his arrest in early April. He was released last Friday but has remained completely silent regarding his detention, no doubt a result of the terms of his release.

But why arrest Ai in the first place? He is an artist, free speech advocate and architect of global standing. Although he had never had a solo show in China, he designed the celebrated "Birds Nest" stadium that was the center of the Beijing Olympics. He allegedly had plans to relocate to Germany, where he had set up a studio. So, he is high-profile and has a big mouth, which he knows how to use. But his arrest was hardly the exception to the rule. At least 129 more people remain locked up in the latest spate of government detentions.

Chinese blogger harassed in advance of her husband's release. Zeng Jinyang has been bothered by Chinese security, and possibly placed under house arrest, in advance of her husband's release after a three-and-a-half year prison term. Her husband, Hu Jia, is also a well-known blogger and environmental and AIDS activist.

Zeng tweeted about being harassed by eight men when she disembarked in Beijing, where her husband will be released. "As I was getting off the plane, eight people came and took me away, they even took my luggage." and "I think this is how life is going to be after [Hu Jia is released]."A third tweet, hours later, was so different in tone it made some suspicious. "I have just got home. I am going to cook tofu and tomatoes. I don't know if it will be good. I saw Hu Jia today. I asked him if he was taking care of himself. There is still time for that. Media friends, my apologies and thank you for your concern."

Chile monitoring social networks. It's not unusual to use "open source" methods for intelligence gathering. But doing so against the Chilean people itself has proven wildly unpopular for the users of social networks. Brand Metrics, a social media measuring company, "will be responsible for alerting authorities when there are 'significant changes' in people's views on a topic, according to the government bid."

Apple removes ThirdIntifada app from store. Apple doesn't exactly have a high bar to removal of apps from its store, as their (temporary) ban of Ulysses proves tidily. Whether this was warranted or not I'll leave to you. It breached their TOS, according to Apple, by allegedly promoting violence.

LulzSec disbands, rebands. LulzSec, the attention-grabbing hacking collective announced its end, or perhaps a transmogrification. AntiSec, which seems to be the successor group, in conjunction with Anonymous, is already hacking away.

WordPress Blocked in Central Asia. WordPress' Matt Mullenweg said on his blog, "As far as I know we've had no contact with KazakhTelecom. Typically this happens when they don't like something a blog is saying, so they block or degrade service for everybody." This is a common reaction to "offensive material" by many countries, who will wind up blocking the whole of, say, Facebook out of fear of one account, as happened last year in Saudi Arabia and as Pakistan is currently in the process of doing.

China's cloud districts censorship-free, for foreigners.The city of Chongqing will be the first in China to see the debut of a "cloud district." Users within the district can access the Internet outside of the traditional Chinese censorship regime. This has upset many Chinese.

Malaysia trying blogger for defamation. According to Article 19's Dr Agnes Callamard, "Charles Hector is being sued for defamation at the High Court of Malaya in Shah Alam by the Malaysian subsidiary of Asahi Kosei Japan Co. Ltd, a Japanese electronics company. The defamation case centres around articles Hector posted on his blog in which he raises his concerns about the companies' treatment of 31 Myanmar migrant workers. His findings were based on research he carried out." How the laws in questions are interpreted by the court could deal a serious blow to bloggers' free speech.

Pakistan increases filtering. According to OpenNet Initiative, "Mobilink, one of the leading telecommunications companies in Pakistan, is now requiring that all users add proxy 10.215.2.32 port 3128 in order to browse the Internet. As a result of this development, Mobilink users are unable to search for several politically sensitive keywords, including the name of the country's president, Asif Ali Zardari."

Zeng photo via Wikipedia