Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on the release of three Saudi activists who face long-term prison on vague charges — convictions of “breaking allegiance with the ruler” and “setting up an unlicensed organization,” to name a few.
Two of those prisoners were co-founders of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), a human rights NGO that called for political reform. The third prisoner was convicted for signing his support for the banned association.
Of course, Saudi Arabia is not the only country in the Middle East that has imprisoned citizens without a fair trial; Egyptians on Tuesday launched a major social media campaign to release prisoners in the country.
“These outlandish sentences demonstrate Saudi Arabia’s complete intolerance toward citizens who speak out for human rights and reform,” HRW Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement.
The co-founders, Abd al-Rahman al-Hamid and Abd al-Kareem al-Khodr, were both sentenced in 2013 to eight years in prison — five of which were suspended — but faced a retrial earlier this month. The Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh handed down nine- and ten-year sentences again, respectively, essentially extending their prison term.
Some thought the retrial, after the activists already served two years, was a deliberate move to keep them in prison for longer. The third, Abd al-Aziz al-Snaidi, got eight years.
The ACPRA last posted on its website in September 2013, shortly after its co-founders were convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison. Here's its statement:
Resisting authority’s excessive intervention and protesting human rights violations under tyranny are the highest ranks of patriotism. The Saudi authorities must not be deluded that by using the judiciary to repress and suppress opinions and peaceful political dissidents they are making it any more legitimate. Instead, by doing so, the public trust in the judiciary will fall.
Read the HRW's full report here.
By Hayat Norimine
