Mr Ali Abdulrahmane Al-Faqasi, a Saudi university student, has been detained without any trial or charge for over 7 and a half years. He gave himself up to the Saudi authorities on 26 June 2003, hoping to secure the release of 9 members of his family, including his wife, who had been arrested by the Saudi authorities to put pressure on Mr Al-Faqasi. He has been held since, in very difficult conditions in Al-Hayr prison, in Riyadh and with limited access to the outside world.

Three and a half years ago, on 8 August 2007, Abdul Hakim Gellani, a British citizen and businessman of Yemeni heritage, was abducted by Saudi intelligence services from Al-Mordjane hotel in Mecca. He disappeared. On 25 September 2007, the Saudi authorities acknowledged his arrest but not his location. In February 2008, the government released a statement accusing him of money laundering. In August 2008, the Saudi authorities claimed that he "will be referred to the judiciary". He remains imprisoned without charge or trial in Abha prison.

An outspoken professor of Religious Science at a University in Riyadh, 50 year old Dr Bachr bin Fahd Al-Bachr, remains detained in Al-Hayr prison suffering from a precarious health situation. Dr Al-Bachr had long since been targeted by the Saudi authorities over his criticism of the Saudi government's policies, only to be arrested by the Saudi Investigative Police on 15 March 2007 in Riyadh. To date, he has spent 3 years and 9 months detained in Saudi Arabia without charge or trial.

Families of prisoners held in Saudi Arabian prisons without charge or trial gathered outside Saudi embassies across Europe and the Middle East today, protesting long-standing and continuing abuses of human rights.

Families of people being held arbitrarily in Saudi prisons assembled at central locations in Amman, Beirut, Dublin, Manama, London and Paris today, in an effort to raise awareness and bolster public support against Saudi Arabia's continued violation of international human rights law. In each city, families sent a respectful letter to King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, asking for their loved ones either to receive fair trials - or be granted immediate and safe release.