Last Friday, 19 March 2010, Alkarama met with Iyas Maleh, son of Haithem Al-Maleh, the 78 year-old Syrian lawyer and human rights defender who was abducted by the Syrian authorities on 14 October 2009 and then brought before a military court. Haithem Al-Maleh faces a possible sentence of up to 15 years, in a court which violates many of the guarantees to a fair trial.

On 5 March 2010, Alkarama had called for the intervention of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), in protest of his continued detention without trial since 19 April 2009, most likely for political reasons.

On 18 March 2010, Alkarama sent the cases of ten such victims to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, requesting its intervention with the Yemeni authorities.

Alkarama received reports that Fawaz Al-Attiyah, a British national and former spokesperson of the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was handed over to the Qataris by Saudi authorities and is currently detained incommunicado in solitary confinement. He has been denied all visitation rights and has not been outside for more than five months.

Qatari Special Security forces arrested Sedki Ibrahim, a Jordanian national, under the pretext of a traffic violation.

Following an altercation between Mr Ibrahim and the Special Security forces officers, he was taken to a nearby police station in Doha where he spent two months in custody without ever being subject to any legal proceedings. When he was finally presented before a judge, he was released on bail. The police officers however felt differently, and decided to send him to the State Security prison where he was held in solitary confinement for over three months.

On 17 March 2010, Qatari authorities have release Abdullah Al-Khowar and Salim Al-Kowari after nearly nine months arbitrary detention. According to initial information Alkarama received while the victims were still in custody: they were hung, beaten and were forced to suffer sleep deprivation for straight three days.

Relatives of the victims recently informed Alkarama's representative in Yemen that some of the detainees have now spent up to three years in prison without trial. The hunger strike, which began on 10 March 2010, is in protest of their continued arbitrary detention under poor conditions.