The family of the Yemeni detainee in Saudi Arabia, Bassam Shukri Al Jalladi, has finally been able to receive a phone call from him after an interruption lasting nearly a year and a half, thanks to the efforts made by his relatives with the administration of Qassim prison, where he is incarcerated. Meanwhile, the Saudi government continues to ignore the decision of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), which calls for his release.
On May 30, 2025, the UN group issued Opinion No. 37/2025, concluding that the detention of Bassam Shukri Al Jalladi, a Yemeni citizen arbitrarily detained in Saudi Arabia since 2019, was unjustified.
This Opinion follows the steps initiated by Alkarama in May 2024, at the request of the victim’s family, who had faced the absence of any effective legal recourse for several years.
Background of the case
On May 27, 2019, the armed forces arrested Bassam Al Jalladi in the Al-Mahrah province of Yemen, without informing him of the reasons for his arrest or the existence of an arrest warrant. After being held in a local military prison, he was transferred to Saudi Arabia in early June, without any judicial procedure or court decision, and without his family being informed.
He was then incarcerated in Abha prison, in the south of the Kingdom, before being transferred in 2022 to the central prison of Dhahban in Jeddah. During the first months of his detention, he was completely isolated from the outside world and was only able to make his first phone call in September 2019. Thereafter, his contacts with his family remained limited, until a complete interruption in October 2022. Since then, his family had received no news from him.
In June 2022, after three years of detention, Mr. Al Jalladi appeared for the first time before the Specialized Criminal Court, an exceptional jurisdiction created and supervised by the Ministry of Interior. It was on this occasion that he discovered he was being tried for membership in a terrorist organization, the same accusation that had led to his arrest in Yemen in 2016, before he was acquitted by the Yemeni judicial authority and the case was closed in 2019. The Saudi court sentenced him to 36 years in prison.
Alkarama brought the case before the United Nations Working Group under the special procedures, requesting an opinion on the multiple violations suffered by Bassam Al Jalladi during his detention. Alkarama particularly highlighted the lack of legal procedures surrounding his transfer to Saudi Arabia, his detention in isolation, the denial of access to legal assistance, and the unfair nature of his trial.
In response to Alkarama’s complaint, the Saudi government denied any violation, stating that Mr. Al Jalladi’s arrest in Yemen and his subsequent transfer to Saudi Arabia had been in accordance with the law, that his rights had been communicated to him, and that he had received a fair trial.
However, the United Nations Working Group sided with Alkarama, noting that Mr. Al Jalladi had had no access to a lawyer for three years, that his trial had been held before a jurisdiction whose independence was doubtful and that the charges against him were based on vague and unestablished legal grounds.
Recognition of the arbitrary nature of the detention
In Opinion No. 37/2025, the Working Group concluded that Mr. Al Jalladi’s detention was arbitrary, devoid of any legal basis, and violated fundamental principles of international law, including the right to a fair trial. This situation engages the responsibility of both Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
In response to Alkarama’s requests, the UN experts called for the immediate release of Bassam Al Jalladi, the granting of appropriate compensation, and the opening of an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding his arrest and detention. The Working Group also recalled the absolute prohibition of extrajudicial transfers between states without judicial guarantees, even when carried out within the framework of security cooperation.
Broader context and call for cooperation
In its Opinion, the Working Group emphasized that during its 34 years of activity, it had observed that Saudi Arabia systematically violated its international human rights obligations, with more than 75 cases documented.
The experts expressed deep concern over a situation they consider indicative of a structural and widespread problem of arbitrary detentions in the country, constituting a serious and ongoing violation of international law.