A 43-year-old family father of three, Al Hussain has been living for the past 15 years in the Eastern Saudi province of Al Khobar, where he works as an electronics salesman. Since 2005, when he founded the online newspaper Al Rakoba – a news site well known for being critical of the Sudanese government, covering issues from government corruption to human rights abuses – Al Hussain has received numerous threats from the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).

Al Hussain is currently being held at Dammam Central Prison without any legal procedure. In fact, Al Hussain has not yet been charged or brought before a judge, in total violation of the Saudi Criminal Procedure Code, nor has he been authorised to see the lawyer that was hired by his wife immediately after his arrest. As it is denying Al Hussain his fundamental rights under both Saudi and international law, his detention should be considered arbitrary. Moreover, Al Hussain faces deportation to Sudan, as he was told by the prison authorities. Al Hussain's brother, who had himself been arrested several times by the NISS and questioned about his brother's activities, is particularly concerned that the NISS "will kill him whenever they get the chance." This claim has been corroborated by Al Hussain's wife in a video in which she pleads the Saudi King to release her husband and to not extradite him to Sudan, saying that it would amount to a sentencing the father of her three young children to death.

Since Saudi Arabia has resumed friendlier relations with Sudan since the Sudanese Government supported their military coalition in Yemen, Alkarama shares Al Hussain's fears that the Saudi authorities might extradite him to Sudan as a sign of cooperation. Therefore, Alkarama requested the WGAD to urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release Al Hussain and to refrain from deporting him to Sudan, where he would be at high risk of arbitrary detention and torture, and could even face execution following an unfair trial, all practices that are systematically used by the Sudanese authorities order to repress dissent.

"As a party to the UN Convention against Torture (UNCAT), Saudi Arabia should respect its obligation under Article 3 that forbids expelling or extraditing a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture," said Radidja Nemar, Regional Legal Officer for the Gulf at Alkarama. The Committee against torture (CAT) which is currently reviewing Saudi Arabia's law and policy has already expressed concern over deportation of individuals to countries in which they have been subjected to torture. The Saudi Authorities have answered these concerns in their report by asserting that the Saudi Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution "is competent to consider extradition requests and examine all their legal aspects, which includes ascertaining that the rights of person whose extradition is requested will not be violated, that he will not be subjected to torture and that he will be guaranteed a fair trial." But "given the situation in Sudan and the real risks that Al Hussain will be subjected to torture and denied fair trials guarantees, the Department of Public Prosecutions should refrain from expelling Al Hussain in accordance with Saudi law and Saudi conventional obligations," concluded Nemar.

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