Mr Amer b. Said b. Mohamed Al Thaqfan Al Qahtani, a teacher, residing in Riyadh, was aged 29 years at the time of his arrest in March 1998. He was severely tortured at the headquarters of the General Information Directorate where he was held incommunicado for several days.

Transferred to Ryadh’s Al Hayr prison, he continued to suffer abuse and was held incommunicado and in solitary confinement for several months during which he was not able receive visits from his family. He spent his first years of detention in an isolation cell.

According to our information, Mr Al Qahtani has never been the subject of genuine judicial proceedings nor was he formally charged after his arrest. He did not have access to either lawyers nor a judicial process to challenge the legality of his detention.

According to the Saudi government, Mr Al Qahtani was judged the very day of his arrest while he was being detained at the intelligence services’ premises, and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, notably for "spreading fundamentalist ideology in society."

In their response to the Working Group, the authorities did not specify the nature of the crime attributed to Mr Al Qahtani nor the legal classification of the facts, saying however that "having not denied his convictions, he will have to serve his full sentence."

In fact, Mr Al Qahatani was not released at the end of his sentence in March 2008 and has continued to be detained arbitrarily, after having been sentenced, following a speedy and particularly unfair trial, because of his religious beliefs.

Such sentences are common in Saudi Arabia where thousands of people are prosecuted and tried for their political views or their religious beliefs, without being accused of any specific material facts.

The authorities often invoke the pretext of combating terrorism, religious fundamentalism, the Takfiri ideology or the mere fact of having "non-conforming ideas" to justify such arbitrary detentions. In many cases, those detained, sometimes for several years, are not even brought before a judge and are then released without being tried.

The UN Working Group found Mr Al Qahtani’s detention to be arbitrary, considering that it constituted a violation of articles 9 (no one shall be arbitrarily arrested, detained), 10 (right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal) and 11 (presumption of innocence) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It recommends that the Saudi government remedy this situation and ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We recall that Saudi Arabia is a member of the Human Rights Council, and in this respect, is obliged to respect the fundamental rights of its citizens and collaborate effectively with the United Nations special procedures.