During its 97th session held from 28 August to 1 September 2023, the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued its Opinion No. 56/2023 concerning Dr. Salman Alodah and his brother Mr.
Following a complaint filed by Alkarama, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued its Opinion No. 26/2023 regarding Dr Safar bin Abdulrahman Al Hawali, concluding that his deprivation of liberty was arbitrary and in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Alkarama has learned that the Yemeni pilgrim, Abdulrab Mansoor Moqbel Ahmed GEHAM, who forcibly disappeared in Saudi Arabia recently reappeared in Abha prison in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is only recently that he was allowed to contact his family for the first time since his arrest by Saudi security forces at the Al-Wadia border crossing last April.
Several United Nations (UN) human rights experts have urged Saudi Arabia to immediately revoke the death penalty handed down to Mohammed Al Ghamdi, a retired teacher, for his tweets and activism on YouTube. This was expressed in a statement issued by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
On 12 September 2023, Alkarama urgently submitted the case of Yemeni citizen Abdulrab Mansoor Moqbel Ahmed GEHAM, who was arrested on 12 April 2023 by Saudi security forces at the Al Wadea border crossing, to the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearance.
At its last session, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) examined the case of Saudi religious figure Safar Al Hawali, who has been arbitrarily detained since his arrest by state security agents in July 2018.
On 23 May 2023, Alkarama referred to the United Nations Special Procedures, including the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), the case of four Yemeni nationals arrested by the police on 23 April 2022 in the Taif region of southern Saudi Arabia under the pretext of being affiliated with the Houthi group in Yemen while on their way to "Umrah", (religious pilgrimage) to Mecca.
