Alkarama had also sent a communication to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on 28 August, 2007 asking it to intervene with the Saudi authorities.

Mr Saad B. Zair, aged 30, is a lawyer hired to defend prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia, and he has consistently campaigned for human rights and civil liberties and political rights.

In particular, he has defended members of the current reformist, pacifist political trend  demanding constitutional reforms. As well as this, he has, in a particularly difficult context, defended numerous prisoners of conscience contributing to the promotion of justice and respect for human rights and for fundamental freedom in his  country.

He was previously arrested on 17 July  2002 for having denounced to the international press the arbitrary detention of his father, Dr. Said bin Zair, who was imprisoned for more than 8 years without trial, and had been arrested and detained without trial or legal procedure for three years for this reason alone.

Arrested a second time on 19 June 2006 for criticising the arbitrary arrests in his country, he was detained incommunicado for several months before being released without trial.

There is therefore no doubt that the persecution suffered for several years by Saad B. Zair are linked to his commitment as a defender of human rights.

Since his last arrest in Riyadh on April 10, 2007, his family has had no news of him. It is not known if he is alive or dead, whether he is subject to prosecution nor the place where he is being held. His family and especially his wife live in a state of permanent anxiety because of the uncertainty which is maintained by the authorities who refuse to provide information on his fate or to allow them to visit him in his place of detention.