Today marks a year of arbitrary detention of the Saudi lawyer and human rights defender, Waleed Abu Al Khair. His family launches a Twitter campaign at 6pm advocating for his release.
On 6 July 2014 the Specialised Criminal Court sentenced Waleed Abu Al-Khair to 15 years of imprisonment and to a 200,000-riyal fine in accordance with Article 21 of the law on crimes of terrorism. Amongst others, he was accused of: "hurting the state legitimacy," "disturbing public order and diminishing the judiciary," "publicly defaming in the judiciary and discrediting Saudi Arabia by alienating international organisations against the Kingdom," making statements and releasing documents "to harm the reputation of the Kingdom," and of being part of an unauthorised association, being its chairman and speaking on its behalf.
Awad Al Hayki, a 33 year-old Yemeni national has been detained in Al Qasim Prison since 18 October 2010, the day he was extradited by Qatar to the Saudi authorities. Detained in solitary confinement for almost a year, without being able to communicate with his family, he has been subjected to severe torture. To date, Al Hayiki has never been charged. Alkarama sent an urgent appeal on 16 December 2014 to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT) arguing that his rendition by Qatar and torture at the hands of Saudi Arabia are serious breaches of the UN Convention against Torture, to which the two states are parties.
On 24 November 2014, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Mr David Kaye, and to Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mr Michel Forst, on the case of Mr Mikhlif Al Shammari, a prominent Saudi human rights defender who has been sentenced to two years in prison and 200 lashes by a Saudi court for a tweet calling for peace between Shia and Sunni communities.
The Saudi Supreme Court has just overturned a ruling sentencing a Saudi national to the death penalty. In a tweet sent from his official twitter page this morning, Mabrook Al Sai'ari thanked Alkarama, without which his sentence would have been executed on 8 September 2013.
On 15 April 2014, 34 year-old prominent Saudi human rights defender Waleed Abu Al Khair, went to his 5th hearing session before the Special Criminal Court in Riyadh. At 8 am, he made a last phone call to his wife in Jeddah, informing her he had to turn off his cellular phone as he was entering the court room. She learnt the day after that he had been taken in the middle of his hearing to Al Hayer Prison. This is where he has been unlawfully detained and tortured ever since. After the ACPRA co-founders Qahtani, Al Hamid and another dozen human rights activists, Waleed is another example of the ongoing crackdown conducted by the Saudi authorities against human rights defenders in the kingdom who are being targeted for having only peacefully expressed their opinion and defended the most basic rights of their fellow citizens. Today, Alkarama solicited the urgent intervention of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders to ensure that Waleed is released immediately and put an end to any act of reprisal against him.