SAUDI ARABIA: UN COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES CALLS FOR THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF SAFAR AL HAWALI PENDING ITS FINAL DECISION

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. This prominent scholar is arbitrarily detained since 12 July 2018 after publishing a book in which he criticised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s international policy choices and issued recommendations to his attention.

His four sons, and his brother, were arrested by State Security forces as a form of reprisal and further intimidation. Since his arrest, he has been denied appropriate care in spite of his speech impairment and extremely fragile health state and denied access to the outside world.

A long and persistent persecution of the religious scholar and his relatives by the Saudi authorities

Mr Al Hawali is a prominent religious scholar and a figure of the Saudi al-Sahwa al-Islamiyya (which can be translated as “Islamic Awakening”), or Sahwa movement. Contemporary thinkers of this movement, which emerged back in the 1950s, have overtly criticised Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman over his policies. The Sahwa movement has been targeted by the crackdown on freedom of expression imposed by the Crown Prince and other scholars from the Sahwa movement have been arrested including reformist Salman Al Awdah.

Safar Al Hawali, his sons Abdullah, Abdulrahman, Ibrahim and Abdulrahim, as well as his brother, Saadallah, were all arrested by the authorities over the course of July 11-13, 2018. Safar Al Hawali, and his son, Ibrahim, were arrested in the morning of July 12 when State Security officers arrived in an ambulance and raided their home in the village of Hawala.

Safar Al Hawali was blindfolded and both he and his son were taken away to an unknown location. On the same day, Safar’s younger brother, Saadallah, was also arrested at his home by State Security Forces.

Since his arrest, Mr Hawali has had very few opportunities to be in contact with his family. Due to his severe speech impairment, he cannot communicate through telephone calls. The authorities have taken no measures whatsoever to facilitate the communication of Mr Al Hawali with his family and a legal counsel. Furthermore, the State security prosecution has allowed family visits on a sporadic and arbitrary basis.

This ill-treatment is particularly cruel given that Mr Al Hawali suffered from repeated brain stroke that resulted in a permanent speech impairment which makes it impossible for him to speak clearly and be understood. He also suffers from a broken pelvis as well as a renal failure that requires constant medical care. Mr Al Hawali’s health conditions have severely deteriorated right after his arrest. Despite his disability, old age and fragile health, he has since been denied medical care and is held incommunicado.

As a form of punishment for his criticism of the Crown Prince, Safar Al Hawali is practically being left to die in detention, cut off from the outside world and his loved ones, and living in fear of harassment and threats to his relatives.

Alkarama’s complaint and urgent actions before the CRPD

In view of these facts and considering that Safar Al Hawali’s state of health constitutes a disability that does not allow him to speak or take care of himself, Alkarama decided to refer the case to the CRPD.

On 12 October 2020, Alkarama submitted a complaint to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) highlighting the Saudi authorities’ persistence in persecuting the religious scholar and his relatives.

The complaint highlighted that Mr Al Hawali’s life is under imminent, serious and irreversible threat as older adults are at a significantly increased risk of developing a severe disease following infection from COVID-19. UN experts have warned that “widespread community transmission of COVID-19 within a correctional institution is likely to result in a disproportionately high COVID-19 mortality rate”. Several UN experts and international institutions have issued guidelines and  called upon states to “[u] ndertake the immediate, unconditional release of all prisoners whose incarceration is illegal or arbitrary under international law, including all children, prisoners of conscience, religious prisoners as well as political prisoners”.

Considering the urgency of Mr Al Hawali’s case in the current pandemic, and the circumstances of his arrest and detention, Alkarama requested the CRPD to demand his immediate release as an emergency measure from Saudi Arabia. Lastly, Alkarama also requested the Committee to address the issue of reprisals against Mr Al Hawali and his family directly with the authorities. Under its conventional obligations, Saudi Arabia must immediately release Safar Al Hawali and his family members and stop all forms of harassment and intimidation against them.

The CRPD’s unanswered repeated requests to immediately release Safar Al Hawali

By submitting a complaint to the CRPD, Alkarama referred the case to the strongest procedure available, as Saudi Arabia accepted the CRPD to hear individual complaints. When particularly vulnerable people are victims of arbitrary detention and mistreatment, representatives of the victim can raise the urgency of his/situation through “emergency measures”.

These measures are requested by the CRPD to the Saudi authorities as a matter of urgency and before even considering the facts of the case. Under article 4 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the CRPD can therefore request the State party to take interim measures in order to avoid any irreparable harm the author might suffer in case of his continued detention, while the case is under consideration by the Committee.

It is on this basis that the CRPD requested the Saudi authorities to, among other things, “to arrange for his immediate release”. Such a release must ensure the safety of Mr Al Hawali and all precautions must be taken to avoid any contamination. Furthermore, the state should ensure that Safar Al Hawali has access to appropriate medical care at home or at any other medical institution he may choose.

As a manifest form of reprisals and punishment against the scholar and his relatives, the Saudi authorities have repeatedly refused to respond to the requests made first in November 2020 and then again in December 2022. Alkarama will continue to exert pressure through international legal mechanisms until Mr Al Hawali and his family members are eventually released and free from persecution.