The plight of Awad Al Hayki started on 18 October 2010, when he received a call from the Qatari police asking him to come to the Doha Central Police station for questioning. Once he arrived, he was informed that he was wanted by the Saudi authorities and that he would be extradited there, without being given any other explanation. The same day, he was flown from Qatar to Saudi Arabia, at Al Qasim Prison. After his arrest, his wife and four children remained without any news from him for 11 months.

During his in detention in Saudi Arabia, Al Hayki was subjected to torture and ill-treatment. Deprived of any contact with his family and the outside world for almost a year, he had to endure humiliation, very cold temperatures, and repeated beatings. He was also deprived of medical care despite suffering from severe health issues. Since the last communication sent by Alkarama to the SRT on 13 March 2013, he has been judged innocent. However, to this day, Al Hayki is still detained by the Saudi authorities. To protest against his arbitrary detention and the torture that he was subjected to, he decided to go on hunger strike several months later, but the guards eventually forced him to eat through feeding tubes placed through his nose.

"The force-feeding of prisoners who go on hunger strike to protest against their arbitrary detention is a form of torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and should be considered as such," said Radidja Nemar, Regional Legal Officer for the Gulf at the Alkarama Foundation, echoing the words of the SRT, who, in October 2013, said that "it is not acceptable to use threats of force-feeding or other types of physical or psychological coercion against individuals who have opted for the extreme recourse of a hunger strike."

Al Hayki's extradition by Qatar to Saudi Arabia is a clear violation of the Convention against Torture to which Qatar is a party since 2000. Indeed, its article 3 states that "No state party shall expel, return or extradite a person to another state where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected torture." Qatar could not have ignored this danger when extraditing Al Hayki, since concerns over the widespread practice of torture in Saudi detention centres have been repeatedly raised by the UN.

In view of the foregoing, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the SRT to solicit his urgent intervention with the Saudi authorities and ask for the immediate end of all forms of torture and mistreatment suffered by Al Hayki since he has been detained in Saudi Arabia. Alkarama also referred the case to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concerning the obvious arbitrary nature of Al Hayki's detention, to call the Saudi authorities to release him immediately and provide appropriate reparation for his suffering.

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