Saudi Arabia: Release of Dr Said bin Zair

The specialised criminal court in Riyadh issued a verdict on Sunday 19 February 2012 to release the reformer and political opponent Dr Said bin Zair after a detention that lasted more than four years.

Dr Bin Zair, Laureate of the 2011 Alkarama Award and a well known personality in Saudi Arabia for his independent thinking and his public stances calling for reform, has faced arrest and long detention on numerous occasions in the past. Indeed, he has only enjoyed 39 months of freedom in the last 15 years. He stayed in prison more than 8 years between 1995 and 2003, and more than a year between 2004 and 2005, as a result of having exercised his right of free speech, particularly after he granted an interview to Aljazeera in 2004 in which he expressed his opinion about the political situation in the country. He was last arrested on 6 June 2007 on charges of committing unspecified terrorist acts. This is the standard accusation of the Saudi authorities against all political opponents.

Alkarama submitted to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) the case of Dr Bin Zair as of his latest arrest. The WGAD issued decision 36/2008 on 21 November 2008 in which they classify his detention as arbitrary. Alkarama also followed the cases of two of his sons, Saad and Mubarak, who are detained for their activism, calling for the release of their father and of other cases of individuals arbitrarily detained in Saudi prisons. A decision to release Mubarak was issued on 14 February 2012, but none of these decisions has been carried out to date.