According to human rights sources, Saudi authorities are reportedly planning to retry lawyer Mohammed Saleh Al-Bajadi, even though he completed his sentence in 2023.
Alkarama had already referred the case of lawyer and human rights defender Mohammed Al-Bajadi to the United Nations Special Procedures on human rights. According to the account Prisoners of Conscience, the court now plans to retry him.
Mohammed Al-Bajadi was first arrested in March 2011 for supporting other prisoners of conscience and was released five years later. He was arrested again on May 24, 2018, and remains in detention to this day. The organization ALQST, which focuses on prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia, reports that the first hearing of the new trial is scheduled for October 27, without specifying the nature of the charges.
In April 2025, Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, expressed concern over Al-Bajadi’s prolonged detention despite the completion of his sentence in 2023. On her X page, directly mentioning the account of the Permanent Mission of Saudi Arabia in Geneva, she wrote: “Disturbing news of detained Saudi human rights defender Mohammed al-Bajadi, arrested in 2018 in relation to his peaceful work, ended his prison sentence in 2023 but like many other Saudi human rights defenders, remains held.” calling for the immediate release of all affected detainees.
Aged 46, Mohammed Al-Bajadi is one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent prisoners of conscience and is among the founders of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA).
Alkarama had requested urgent intervention from the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) following his forced disappearance after his arrest on May 24, 2018.
Al-Bajadi was arrested around 11:00 PM during a raid by State Security officers in civilian and military attire at his home, without being presented with a judicial warrant or informed of the reason for his arrest and was then taken to an unknown location.
He had helped establish ACPRA, now banned, which documented human rights violations, filed legal actions against the Ministry of Interior, and informed the Human Rights Council as well as the UN Special Procedures of serious human rights violations in Saudi Arabia. Since 2011, authorities have conducted a campaign targeting all ACPRA members, arresting and prosecuting them for their peaceful human rights activities.
His first arrest took place in March 2011, after participating in a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Interior in Riyadh. More than a year later, he was brought before a court and, in April 2012, sentenced to four years in prison and a five-year travel ban for “publicly undermining the reputation of the country,” “challenging the independence of the judiciary” and “participating in the creation of a human rights organization” in violation of his freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
He appealed the judgment and in March 2015, the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, which handles terrorism-related cases, sentenced him to ten years in prison, five of which were suspended.
Since his release on April 21, 2016, Al-Bajadi had refrained from any human rights activity. His disappearance is part of an unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia, launched in September 2017, targeting dozens of public figures, activists and religious leaders arrested either for opposing government policy or for not publicly supporting the Saudi blockade of Qatar.
Alkarama has once again requested urgent intervention from the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to ensure the immediate release of Mohammed Al-Bajadi, to place him under legal protection and to inform his family of his situation and place of detention.