Dr. Al-Basher, professor at the University of Riyadh, where he resides, has been detained incommunicado since 15 March 2007. For two years, other than a single visit, his family knows nothing of his future. Al-Karama sent on 14 April 2009 an urgent appeal to the Rapporteur on torture and requested the Working Group on arbitrary detention, asking them to intervene with Saudi authorities.