Saudi Arabia: Unlimited hunger strike of Nasser Al-Hajiri, arbitrarily detained for 15 months

On 20 March 2009, Al-Karama sent an urgent appeal to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention asking it to intervene with the Saudi Authorities.

Nasser Naïf Dhib Al-Hajiri, 36 years old at the time of the events mentioned, is a public administration employee in Kuwait where he lives. He was arrested by the Saudi intelligence services (Al Mabahit Al Aama) on 16 December 2007 at the Al-Khafdji border crossing between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Accompanied by his wife, he was returning from Mecca where they had been on pilgrimage, by road. He was arrested without judicial warrant and taken to an unknown destination while his wife was allowed to return to her country.

Since his arrest, his family has undertaken several steps to know his place of detention and the grounds for his arrest. Finally after five months his family was given visitation rights at Dammam's Intelligence Services' detention center.

It was at this moment that his family learned that he has not yet been told the reasons for his arrest. And so far, he has not been charged or brought before a magistrate. During his first questioning, the agent who was in charge even asked him about the reasons for which he had been taken to the detention centre.

His brother visited him at the prison on 15 March 2009, the date which Al-Hajiri began his interminable hunger strike to protest against the fact that he does not know the grounds for his arrest, has never appeared before a judicial authority and is still not allowed to contest the legality of his detention, nor permitted legal assistance. His health is very fragile since he suffers from diabetes and hypertension.

Al-Hajir is obviously arbitrarily deprived of his liberty and his current detention is contrary both to domestic legal standards and to the international norms set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.