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القحطاني والنخيفي

Saudi authorities have finally released two prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders, namely prominent academic Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani and lawyer Issa Al-Nukhaifi, after years of arbitrary detention under unfair sentences resulting from unjust trials. Alkarama worked on their cases within the framework of the United Nations special procedures. 

Dr. Mohammad Al-Qahtani 

Dr. Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani is a founding member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA). He is a former professor at the Diplomatic Studies Institute under the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, holding a Ph.D. from Indiana University, USA. A thinker, human rights and political activist, and writer, he contributed to various Saudi newspapers but faced repeated bans on his writings before his arrest on March 9, 2013. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and an equal period of travel ban. 

Although he completed his unjust sentence in November 2022, the authorities chose to retry him instead of releasing him, an action Alkarama deemed a blatant violation of the principle of non bis in idem (not being tried twice for the same offense). Alkarama called for his release and an end to his suffering and that of his family after years of detention and mistreatment. 

In November 2022, Al-Qahtani's wife issued an appeal for information about her husband, whose communication with his family was cut off on October 24, 2022. Despite being due for a call, the authorities failed to facilitate this. 

Al-Qahtani was held in a facility for mentally ill and psychologically unstable individuals at Al-Ha'ir Prison in Riyadh, where he was physically assaulted by another detainee in May 2022. He faced harassment and poor treatment repeatedly during his detention. In December 2020, he went on a hunger strike to protest being denied contact with his family and access to books and essential medication. 

Lawyer Issa Al-Nukhaifi 

Lawyer Issa Al-Nukhaifi also suffered a series of violations that led him to declare a hunger strike in August 2021 at Al-Ha'ir Prison. 

Saudi security forces arrested Al-Nukhaifi, a prominent lawyer and human rights defender, on December 18, 2016, after he responded to a summons for questioning. On January 17, 2017, Alkarama issued an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, urging Saudi authorities to release him immediately. 

Al-Nukhaifi was interrogated about his Twitter account after he called for the release of ACPRA members and other prisoners of conscience. 

He had been arrested several times before for his peaceful activism. In 2013, he was tried by the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), responsible for terrorism and state security cases, and sentenced to three years in prison, a four-year travel ban, and a ban on using social media. He was released in April 2016 but was arrested again soon after. 

His trial before the SCC resumed on August 21, 2017, with charges including "destabilizing the social fabric and national unity," "communicating with hostile foreign groups and receiving funds from them," and "using phones and the internet to store and transmit information affecting public order." 

In February 2018, the SCC sentenced Al-Nukhaifi to six years in prison, a six-year travel ban, and a social media ban under the Anti-Cybercrime Law. On April 7, 2018, the Court of Appeal upheld the sentence. 

Alkarama’s Advocacy for Mohammad Al-Qahtani 

In March 2013, Alkarama submitted a memorandum to UN human rights mechanisms, particularly the Special Rapporteurs on the independence of judges and lawyers, the situation of human rights defenders, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The submission called for their intervention with Saudi authorities to release Al-Qahtani and cease harassment of human rights activists. 

In June 2021, Alkarama submitted a follow-up report highlighting Al-Qahtani’s case amid Saudi Arabia's deteriorating human rights situation and non-compliance with the Committee Against Torture's recommendations. 

In November 2015, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued Opinion No. 38/2015 concerning nine Saudi activists, including Al-Qahtani, detained for their human rights and free expression activities. The Working Group deemed their detention arbitrary and recommended their immediate release as the primary means of redress. 

Despite repeated calls from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and mentions of his case in the UN Secretary-General’s annual reports on reprisals, Al-Qahtani remained in detention. 

Issa Al-Nukhaifi 

In late June 2018, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a memorandum addressed by several UN experts to Saudi authorities. The memorandum, dated December 22, 2017, expressed "grave concern over the widespread and systematic arbitrary arrests and detentions of individuals, including human rights defenders, for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, belief, assembly, and association." 

Among the 15 individuals mentioned in the memorandum, Al-Nukhaifi and nine ACPRA members were highlighted. 

The Special Rapporteurs on freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of religion or belief, the situation of human rights defenders, human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called on Saudi Arabia, as a then-member of the UN Human Rights Council, to "ensure the highest standards of promoting and protecting human rights." They reiterated previous recommendations for the immediate release of all named individuals.

Alkarama urges the Saudi government to release all prisoners of conscience and revoke the unjust sentences issued against them, particularly those whose cases were addressed by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Alkarama has also raised these concerns with the Saudi Human Rights Commission and the National Society for Human Rights.