Articles for Saudi Arabia

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

Several Saudi and foreign activists, NGOs and Alkarama launched a human rights campaign to demand the release of prisoners of conscience in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to denounce the unjust rulings issued by the Saudi authorities recently, which affected a number of prisoners of conscience, including detainees whose sentences have expired or are nearing completion, in flagrant violation of the principles of justice and international laws and covenants.

On 2 August 2022, Alkarama submitted the cases of Mr Abdulkarim Al Khodr and Mr Jaber Suleiman Al Amri to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) regarding their detention in the Munasaha centers despite the expiration of their prison sentences.

Background

On Friday 24 June 2022, Saudi authorities on Friday released Murtaji Qureis, the kingdom’s youngest political detainee, according to reliable Saudi human rights sources.

The UN human rights experts reminded the Saudi authorities of their obligations to “of their obligation to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation wherever there are reasonable grounds to believe that torture has been committed, and to exclude any evidence obtained through torture and coercion from judicial proceedings”.

They underscored that “prolonged incommunicado detention can facilitate the perpetration of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and can in itself constitute a form of such treatment”.

On 31st May 2022, Alkarama submitted request to the UN Working group on arbitrary detention (WGAD) to rule on the arbitrariness of Dr Salman ALODAH’s detention. The complaint requested the UN experts to call on the Saudi authorities to immediately release the scholar as his conditions of detention constitute a real and immediate threat to his life and mental health.

The daughter of a Uighur activist detained in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Waili AIMOUDOULA, has raised her concerns over the deportation of her father and his friend, to urge them not to extradite to China, Mr. Waili AIMOUDOULA and his friend Mr. Ruze NUERMAIMAITI to the Chinese authorities, fearing they will be tortured and could lose their lives.

Saudi authorities have released prominent Saudi blogger Raif Badawi after his ten-year prison sentence ended. He was sentenced following an unfair trial and as punishment for exercising his right to freedom of expression. However, he remains today banned from travelling for another ten years.

Alkarama has learned that Saudi authorities have arbitrarily sentenced reformist preacher Khaled Al-Rashed to an additional eight-year imprisonment.  The heavy additional sentence comes 17 months after he completed his initial 15-year prison sentence

On 13 January 2022, Alkarama addressed the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to ask him to urgently intervene with the Saudi authorities to urge them not to extradite to China, Mr. Waili AIMOUDOULA and Mr.