Saudi Arabia: The release of Mr Saed Saad Mohammed al-Hazimi

20 Feb 2012

Alkarama learned that the Saudi Authorities released last week Mr Saed Saad Mohammed al-Hazimi who was arrested nine years ago without any legal proceedings.

Mr Hazimi was initially arrested in 2001 and remained in jail for 3 months. He was later arrested in 2002 where he was moved between many Saudi prisons before he ended up in the Zahban prison in Jeddah where he stayed, until he was released nine years later, without being charged and without any legal proceedings against him.

Not only was Mr Hazimi arrested, but also members of his family, starting with his son in law Mr Yasser Hamid Saidi who was arrested since 2004, and then his wife Haifa Ahmadi, and the sister of his son in law, Mrs Najwa Hamid Saidi who were arrested since June 2011. As is usually the case, they were the guests of the Saudi authorities without any legal proceedings. According to Alkarama sources, the Saudi authorities were planning to try Haifa and Najwa on Monday, but the court sitting was indefinitely postponed.

Alkarama has lodged an appeal on 7 October 2011 with many UN bodies, particularly the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding all these detentions.

Alkarama would like to congratulate the family of Mr Hazimi for his release, and demands that the Saudi authorities release the rest of the detained members of this family, and all of those that are arbitrarily detained in Saudi prisons, and to compensate them for the damages that were incurred due to their detention.

Saudi Arabia