Today, Alkarama submitted its report in view of the Universal Periodic Review of Saudi Arabia, which will take place in October 2013, alongside that of Jordan.
Saudi authorities should release Amer Al-Anzi immediately and provide him with appropriate compensation for his arbitrary detention.
Amer Al-Anzi, 34 year-old Qatari national, currently detained at Dammam Prison, the capital of the Province of Eastern Saudi Arabia, has spent more than 7 years in prison without charge or trial.
The Alkarama Foundation has been informed of the Saudi authorities' decision to release the Yemeni detainee Naser Abdullah Al-Hudaiqi later this January, after 8 years of detention.
On 12 December, senior Saudi human rights lawyer and recently elected President of the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA), Suleiman Al Rashoudi, was arrested by Saudi intelligence services for having publicly stated that the right to assembly was protected by international law.
On 11 December 2012, former Saudi judge Suleiman Al Rashoudi held a public meeting in Riyadh during which he asserted that the rights of assembly, association and peaceful protest are legitimate as recognized by international law.
Suleiman Al Ayed, 29 year-old Saudi national, has been imprisoned in Al-Hayer prison, in Riyadh, for eight years. For five years, he was detained without any legal proceedings, held in solitary confinement in the dark and severely tortured. Today, Mr Al Ayed's psychological and physical condition is seriously alarming, yet the Saudi authorities have continuously refused to give him access to medical care.
On 14 October 2003, Suleiman Al Ayed was arrested in Yemen before being deported to Saudi Arabia seven months later on 19 May 2004.
Mr Ali bin Abdullah bin Ali al-Zamel, a brother of a prisoner in al-Hayer, sent an appeal letter to King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and members of the Saudi ruling class, to the High Commissioner for Human Rights and to local human rights organisations, asking them all to intervene in order to protect the prisoners of al-Hayer who have been in a sit-in for many weeks, and to respond to their legitimate demands which Alkarama had espoused, particularly releasing prisoners of arbitrary detentions which fill the Kingdom's prisons.
A group of Saudi human rights activists wrote a letter on 5 August 2012 to King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, and Interior Minister Prince Ahmad Bin Abdulaziz, asking them to release Khaled bin Suleiman Al Omeir and Mohamed bin Salih Al Bjady, two prisoners of conscience, and all other individuals arbitrarily detained in the Kingdom.
Khaled Al-Omeir is one of the most prominent figures in the movement calling for peaceful political reform in Saudi Arabia.
Alkarama has appealed to the United Nations to intervene immediately with the Saudi authorities to interrupt the flogging punishment which to which Ms Najla Yahya Wafa, an Egyptian citizen held in al-Malaz prison in the capital Riyadh, has been subjected. Ms Wafa has already been subjected to a total of 300 lashes, starting on 1 May, and the remaining 200 are to be administered at regular intervals.
Alkarama has received a petition that was sent by more than 500 Saudi women to all Islamic scholars appealing for their support in demanding the release their relatives: "We, women of Saudi Arabia, wives, daughters, sisters and mothers of detainees in the Saudi political prisons, appeal to you since most of the scholars and preachers of Saudi Arabia would not support us either because they obey or because they fear the Saudi ministry of the interior.
