Articles for Saudi Arabia

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Mr Ramizi Siraj (رمزي سراج), aged 30 years, usually lives with his family a Al Khodr Department, Saudi Arabia and works as an employee at Al Harass Al Wateni Hospital in Al Dammam.

Dr. Said bin Zair, well-known in Saudi Arabia for his independence of mind and his public advocacy of institutional reforms, has been arbitrarily detained since 6 June 2007, when he was arrested in Riyadh on his way back from Mecca.

The Saudi authorities have finally buried the body of the Yemeni citizen Muhammad Abduh Al-Duaysi, four months after his death under severe torture in Qasim prison in southern Saudi Arabia at the start of December 2010.

Alkarama is concerned at the worsening situation of Dr Saud Al Hashimi, a long-standing human rights defender who has been detained incommunicado for the last four years in the al Ruweis detention center in Jeddah. He was subjected to a closed trial on 7 May 2011 despite being deprived of his right to legal representation.

Fadhel Makki Al-Manasif, a 25-year-old human rights defender from the Qatif region in eastern Saudi Arabia, was detained on 1 May 2011 at Al-Awamieh police station after answering a summons issued by Saudi Criminal Investigation Services (CIS).

On 30 April 2011, several CIS agents came to Fadhel Al-Manasif's home, who was absent at the time, and told his father that Fadhel should present himself to the CIS at Al-Awamief police station.

Mubarak Bin Said Ben Zaïr and Jihad Abdulkarim Al-Khodr, both sons of prominent Saudi human rights activists, were amongst those arrested during peaceful protests outside the Interior Ministry in Riyadh on 20 March 2011. Demonstrators were calling for the release of thousands of longstanding prisons held in Saudi prisons without charge or trial. The two men remain in custody despite not having been charged.

On 21 March 2011, Saudi General Investigation forces in Buraydah arrested Mohammed Salih Al-Bjady, a co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), an NGO which has worked closely with Alkarama over the years. Though the exact reasons for Mr Al-Bjady's arrest are unknown, his family and colleagues believe that the main reason is his recent participation in a protest organised by the families of political detainees calling for the release of their relatives.
Dozens were arrested outside Saudi Interior Ministry in Riyadh, yesterday 20 March 2011, during protests by family members of arbitrary detainees in Saudi Arabian prisons. Mubarak Bin Zair, son of Said Bin Zair, is amongst those arrested.

Alkarama denounces the arrests and continues to bolster its condemnation of arbitrary detention in Saudi Arabia.

The families of abitrary detainees should be allowed to freely expresses their grievances against the Saudi regime's continued refusal to address the phenomenon of illegal detention without trial or charge.

Alkarama welcomes the incorporation of a number of cases submitted to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in the List of Issues prepared by the Committee against Torture in view of Saudi Arabia's periodic review.
Yesterday, 16 February 2010, Muhammad Al-Qahtani and six other Saudi human rights activists were arrested, without being shown a warrant, by plainclothes Saudi security personnel at their homes. This arrest follows their attempts to start a reformist political party, which was presented to the Royal Diwan for authorisation and approval.