Khalid al-Zahrani was stopped by the intelligence services on 20/07/2004, and since then his family has known nothing of his fate, until they were told of his whereabouts by someone released from al-Ha’ir prison.  Since that time, they have not been allowed to visit him nor to hire a lawyer, although he suffers from chronic respiratory illnesses, in particular a lung disease that he came down with under torture during his previous incarceration without trial for six years, from 11/03/1998 to 26/10/2003.

His family was also told that he had been moved to King Faisal Hospital in the first days of his detention, and was able to get access to a medical report dated 28/07/2004 by the Internal Medicine Department signed by Dr Abdallah Al Mubeirik.  This report made it clear that Khaled Zahrani’s health condition required regular medical attention and special treatment.

It appears from such detainees’ testimonies as have emerged that our client is still detained in extremely harsh conditions on the ground levels of al-Ha’ir Prison in Riyadh, and has often had to be given first aid when his medical crises hit him, as he suffocated and had trouble breathing. For this reason his family is very worried and concerned for his life and has no option but to call out for help.

On 22/06/2007 the family had a telephone conversation with Khalid Zahrani himself, in which he told them that he had been moved to al-Ta’if prison and that his detention conditions were less bad than in al-Ha’ir prison.  This was the first time since his arrest on 20/07/2004 that he had had the chance to get in touch with his family and speak to them from prison.

Our client has remained in detention without any trial since his arrest for about three years, an outrageous violation of his human rights; this imprisonment of him counts as arbitrary detention.

In light of the aforementioned occurrences, Alkarama calls upon the Saudi authorities to investigate the procedural violations of its client’s right to a fair trial, and calls upon United Nations bodies to intervene immediately to have him released or tried.

Alkarama for Human Rights                        

27/06/2007