Lakhdar Mesbahi, a 24 year-old Algerian national from El-Oued in Algeria, was arrested on 20 July 2009 at a police station in Medina, Saudi Arabia while trying to get authorization to leave the country. He was detained incommunicado for four months and later transferred to Dammam prison, where he remains unto to this day. Lakhdar Mesbahi came to Saudi Arabia in October 2008 on a pilgrammage to Mecca.

Alkarama for Human Rights submitted the cases of Dr. Al-Hashimi and eight other persons known to the Saudi civil society to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism today.

Alkarama for Human Rights has asked the Special Representative of the Secretary General on the situation of human rights defenders to intervene in the case of Walid Ali Ahmed Lamri, a Saudi human rights defender and a member of Alkarama.

Alkarama for Human Rights has just submitted the case of Sulaiman Ibrahim Saleh Al Rashoudi to the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and Special Representative of the Secretary General on the situation of human rights defenders. Mr Al Rashoud, born in 1935 and living in Riyadh, is a lawyer, activist and human rights defender working on civil liberties in Saudi Arabia. He worked mainly on the defence of prisoners of conscience. He was arrested by the Saudi intelligence services (Mabahith) in Jeddah on 2 February 2007 with 8 other people at one of their homes (see press release of 14 February 2007).