Alkarama and the Arab Commission for Human Rights had addressed a communication to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention as well as the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders on 6 June 2008 to ask them to intervene with the Saudi authorities.

To recall, Dr Matrouk Al-Faleh is a professor of international relations at the King Saoud University in Riyadh (Institute for political science) and one of the figures of the ‘reformers' movement which calls for, via peaceful means, political reforms in the Kingdom. He is the author of numerous publications in the Arab world.

He was arrested for having publically denounced the situation of detainees in the Al Burayda prison, where, notably, Dr Abdallah Al-Hamed, another activist for reforms, as well as his brother Aissa, whom he had visited, were imprisoned.

Dr Matrouk Al-Faleh was released after 235 days of detention without having ever been subjected to a legal procedure and without having been brought before any type of jurisdiction.

His deprivation of freedom during this whole period has had particularly serious consequences on his health because of the conditions of his detention and the numerous hunger strikes he undertook. This deprivation of freedom is obviously arbitrary and contrary to the most elementary principles of justice and those most fundamental to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.