Articles for Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Court of Appeals has, in retaliation, doubled the prison sentences of several relatives of the prominent preacher Safar bin Abdulrahman AL HAWALI for refuting the charges and refusing the injustice suffered.

According to Saudi human rights sources, the Court of Appeal issued a ruling to increase the sentence issued against Saadallah Al Hawali, brother of Dr. Safar Al Hawali, from 4 to 14 years.

Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression and a number of other United Nations (UN) actions regarding the concerns of the death sentence sought by the Saudi Public Prosecution against academic Awad bin

Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Hamid, a human rights activist and member of the Association for Civil and Political Rights "ACPRA", was released by the Saudi authorities after serving nine years in prison following an unfair trial for his peaceful activism. However, he remains under a travel ban for another nine years.

In December 2022, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) called again the Saudi authorities to release immediately 70-year-old religious scholar Safar bin Abdulrahman Al Hawali.

On 30 November 2022, Alkarama alerted the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the situation of Mr Khaled bin Mohamed AL RASHED, detained since 2006 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for having publicly criticized the policies of the country's leaders.

Human rights sources reported that the Saudi Criminal Court of Appeal decided to toughen the sentence issued against the Saudi preacher, Khaled Al-Rashed, condemning him a second time, and adding another 17 years to his sentence, to become 40 years, in another flagrant violation of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s Opinion calling for his release.

The wife of prominent Saudi Arabian prisoner of conscience Dr Muhammad Al-Qahtani has called for the disclosure of her husband’s fate who has been cut off from all telephone contact. The authorities cut off his usual telephone contact with his family, which was scheduled for October 24.

Alkarama learned from Saudi human rights sources that the Criminal Court of Appeal, which specializes in state security cases, had issued a five-year prison sentence against the detained Yemeni journalist, Marwan Al-Muraisy.

On 14 September 2022, Alkarama submitted the situation of Aida AL GHAMDI and her son, Adel AL GHAMDI, to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Both were arrested, without a judicial warrant, on 26 March 2018 by agents of the General Directorate of Investigations of the Ministry of Interior (the "Mabahiths") in plain clothes while driving in a neighborhood of Jeddah.

The facts