A new era entered the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in September 2017 with the launch of a major security campaign targeting hundreds of preachers and scholars in what was known in the media as the “September arrests,” which also included political figures and members of the ruling family, some of whom’s exit represented a dampening of the state of anger raging globally against the Kingdom’s violations. The human rights situation returned to the forefront once again with the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Kingdom’s embassy in Turkey in mid-2018. The Kingdom finally revealed its true face, undaunted by international anger, and re-arrested dozens of preachers in what became known in the media as the “Ramadan 2018 arrests.” In this regard, the Egyptian Institute for Studies issued a human rights report based on documentation from competent international organizations and families of detainees, including lawyers and relatives, to monitor the arbitrary arrests that took place without legal justification in the Kingdom.
Fraudulent charges
The study focused on refuting the Saudi regime’s accusations against the scholars and preachers detained over the past two years, which were focused entirely on supporting terrorism, subordination to external enemies, and working to overthrow the regime, as follows: Collaboration and treason against external parties: such as the accusation of collaborating with the Qatari regime, especially the sheikhs and preachers arrested in the September 2017 campaign, or working for foreign embassies, such as those who were arrested in the current Ramadan campaign of 2018. They include Saudi human rights and women’s rights defenders such as Lujain al-Hathoul and Nouf Abdulaziz, as well as those working with the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA), which was officially dissolved and banned by a Saudi court in March 2013. Members of the association have been facing similar vague charges since that period. Insulting countries friendly to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: especially attacking the United Arab Emirates, as happened with the journalist Muhammad Al-Hudayf, who tweeted critically and attacked the Egyptian leadership and Emirati politics, and he was arrested 9 months ago. Supporting terrorism: As happened with the preacher Ghuram Al-Bishi, who was encouraging charitable work, especially building mosques in remote villages, the Saudi authorities claimed that he was collecting money to support terrorist organizations, and they arbitrarily arrested him in the September 2017 campaign. Opposing some ideas or the new direction of the Kingdom: such as opposing normalization with Israel, which led to the arrest and pressure on the thinker Saad bin Matar Al-Otaibi.
Notable names
The lists of those arbitrarily detained included preachers and sheikhs, including: Salman Al-Awda, Abdul-Aziz Al-Tarifi, Awad Al-Qarni, Muhammad Al-Hudhaif, Saleh Al-Munajjid, Ali Al-Amri, Abdul-Mohsen Al-Ahmad, Youssef Al-Ahmad, Muhammad Musa Al-Sharif, Ibrahim Al-Fares, Ali Badahdah, Abdul-Muhsin Al-Ahmad, Muhammad Al-Habdan and others. Writers, media professionals, thinkers and university professors of economics and science experts and others were also arrested, most notably: Saad bin Matar. Al-Otaibi, Ibrahim Al-Sakran, Abdullah Al-Maliki, Fahd Al-Sunaidi, Ziyad bin Nahit, Musaed bin Hamad Al-Kathiri, Malik Al-Ahmad, Jamil Farsi, Sanhat Al-Otaibi, Yousef Ahmed Al-Qasim, Malik Al-Ahmad, Issam Al-Zamil. Arrests even reached some singers and novelists, such as Rabie Hafez and Fawaz Al-Ghaslan.
Violations Scary
In June 2018, the number of arbitrary detainees exceeded eighty, some of whom do not know their fate and are not allowed to hire a lawyer, as happened with Sheikh Sami Al-Ghaihab, the former director of the Anti-Extortion Department of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue. What was most strange was the arrest of any public solidarity, such as writing or publishing on social media, and this is what happened when the activist “Maya Al-Zahrani” was arrested a night after her solidarity with the detained activist “Nouf Abdel Aziz.” And before that, what happened when Dr. “Khaled Al-Awda” was arrested when he tweeted in solidarity with his brother, Sheikh Salman Al-Awda, and he was arrested one night after his brother’s arrest.
Condemnation Legal
Human Rights Watch, in the words of its Middle East Department Director (Sarah Leah Whitson), stated: “It seems that Saudi Arabia is immersed in its attempts to silence the opposition to the point that it is re-targeting activists who have remained silent for fear of reprisal and the new wave of repression… and that Saudi Arabia is detaining thousands of people for more than six months without trial, and in some cases the detention extends for more than a decade.” The spokesman for the same organization (Hamad Bin Shamsi) said: The Saudi authorities have not yet cooperated with human rights organizations, and have not It responds to demands to reveal the detention conditions of male and female activists who were arrested in the latest arbitrary arrest campaign about two weeks ago. Amnesty International also noted: “Here we are again, calling on the authorities to release all peaceful activists immediately and unconditionally. They should, at a minimum, declare the whereabouts of detainees and provide them with access to their families and lawyers.” In a UN statement entitled “Briefing notes on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan”2: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Saudi authorities to release detainees and human rights activists in the Ramadan 2018 campaign. The statement also included that “the lack of transparency regarding the detention of activists in Saudi Arabia raises concerns that they may be subjected to physical or psychological torture.” The Saudi authorities must immediately reveal the detention conditions of all activists detained since May 15, and secure their rights in terms of knowing the reasons for their arrest and the possibility of hiring a lawyer and communicating with their families.
Reports Detailed
In addition to the statements and statements issued by official and unofficial international human rights organizations, two important reports were issued in this regard, the first in 2017 entitled “Confidential,” prepared by the former British Attorney General and member of the House of Lords, Lord MacDonald, with international human rights lawyer Rodney Dixon. The two lawyers prepared a report at the request of the families of victims of political detention in Saudi Arabia, and submitted it to the United Nations, based on testimonies from the detainees’ families, and with the assistance of the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain. The result of this report is that the arrests that took place in September 2017 were arbitrary arrests, carried out without specific or clear charges, and there was an absence of information about the detainees’ health conditions, their place of detention, or the possibility of some of them communicating with their families. The two lawyers confirm that “in order to prepare this evaluation, they conducted interviews with various witnesses, who requested that their identities not be disclosed for fear of being exposed to security risks. They also conducted interviews with activists in the Al-Qst organization, which deals with human rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which collected testimonies and data from several sources it has inside the Kingdom, including from people who are now in detention as well as from family members of detainees.” Accordingly, they emphasized in their report that the arrests are arbitrary and in clear violation of international human rights law, especially with the frequent accounts of the issue of torture against detainees. As for the second report, which was published by the United Nations in June 2018, entitled “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the context of combating terrorism on his mission to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” 3 by (Ban Emerson), the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the context of combating terrorism in the United Nations (2011/2017). The report came from about 70 points in which the United Nations accuses the Kingdom of using anti-terrorism laws to justify arrests and torture, including those who tried to “change the ruling regime in the Kingdom” or “harm the interests, economy, national and social security in the Kingdom.” Under this broad definition, anyone who challenges the authority or policies of a state can qualify as a terrorist. In this context, many activists, human rights activists, or preachers were arbitrarily arrested.
