Press release of 27 February 2012

Alkarama welcomes the release of Alkarama Award 2011 laureate, Dr Said bin Zair, along with other long standing human rights defenders and political activists in Saudi Arabia. Among the released are Mr Mikhlif Al Shammari, who had been held in incommunicado detention since July 2011, and Mr Thamer Al Khodr, whose detention was recently found to be arbitrary by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention's Opinion No. 42/2011. Alkarama has been closely following their situation over the past years and hopes these releases are the beginning of a real reform process.

Dr Said bin Zair usually worked as a professor at the University of Riyadh and is well-known for calling for reform of the Saudi judicial and political system. The 60-year-old repeatedly denounced human rights abuses in the Kingdom in public and as a consequence, he spent 13 out of the last 16 years in arbitrary detention and suffered from severe ill-treatment and torture. Dr bin Zair was most recently arrested on 6 June 2007 and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued Opinion No. 36/2008 on 21 November 2008 in which this detention was found to be arbitrary. Despite this, Dr bin Zair remained in detention and was held incommunicado for the last years. On 1 November 2011, after an excessive pre-trial detention period of over 4 years, he had a first hearing before the Special Criminal Tribunal in Riyadh without legal assistance or time to prepare his defense. After several hearings, the special court supposedly mandated to examine terrorist-related cases decided to acquit him on 19 February 2012. Dr bin Zair was indeed released last Friday, 24 February 2012. While welcoming his release, Alkarama regrets that his son, Dr Mubarak bin Zair, who was arrested in March 2011, remains in prison despite a decision by the same court, issued on 14 February 2012, stating that Dr Mubarak bin Zair should be released.

Mr Mikhlif Al Shammari, a former businessman, has in recent years become a prominent human rights defender and writer. He has been working on improving relations between the Sunni and Shia communities in Saudi Arabia. Most recently, Mr Al Shammari was arrested on 15 June 2010 and accused of "disturbing the peace". While detained at Dammam Prison, he suffered most inhumane treatments and torture, especially in July 2011. He was never heard by a court since his arrest, although his file had apparently been transferred to the Special Criminal Tribunal in late 2011. Now, he was released without any legal procedures last Wednesday, 22 February 2012.

We further welcome the recent release of Mr Thamer Al Khodr who is a well-known human rights defender in Saudi Arabia like his father, Dr Abdelkarim Al Khodr. They too called for the promulgation of a constitution and political reforms in Saudi Arabia on several occasions. As a result of this activities, Mr Thamer Al-Khodr was arrested on 3 March 2010 and taken to Al Hair Prison, where he was held in incommunicado detention and subjected to severe torture. On 2 September 2011, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued Opinion No. 42/2011, confirming the arbitrary nature of his detention.

Acknowledging the positive nature of these developments, Alkarama encourages the Saudi authorities to take this as an occasion to launch a process of judicial reform so as to guarantee that all Saudi citizens no longer need to fear arbitrary detention and other breaches of their fundamental rights.