Alkarama for Human Rights, 17 August 2007
On 16 August 2007, Alkarama for Human Rights formally informed the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers of the secret detention and risk of torture faced by Mr. Saad Ben Zair, lawyer, human rights activist and defender of public freedoms in Saudi Arabia.
He had already been arrested on 27 July 2002, for denouncing in the international press the arbitrary detention of his father, Dr. Said Ben Zair, detained for more than 8 years so far without trial.
Mr. Saad Ben Zair had already been detained without trial nor sentence for three years.
Arrested for a second time on 19 June 2006 for having criticised arbitrary arrests in his country, he was detained in secret for many months before being freed, still without sentence.
He was rearrested by the intelligence services on 10 April 2007, probably again for publicly criticising human rights violations in his country.
Mr. was in his car on King Abdullah Street in central Riyadh with his wife and his one-year-old daughter, when he found himself being chased by civilian vehicles.
All three were sent to intelligence services headquarters and detained separately. Mr. Ben Zair’s wife and daughter were finally freed after a few days of detention, but he himself remains in secret detention to this day.
Having been unable to get any information about him, his father, Dr. Said Ben Zair, vigorously protested the arrest of his son before being arrested himself on 6 June 2007 and likewise secretly detained to this day.
Mr. Saad Ben Zair has defended members of the reformist trend – a political current demanding constitutional reforms – and many prisoners of opinion, thus promoting justice and respect for human rights and basic freedoms in his country, in an exceptionally difficult context.
In defending his clients, he has regularly called for the application of royal decree no. M.39 regarding the organisation of penal trials, which guarantees citizens a minimum of legal protection, notably banning torture and requiring that the length of detention be fixed by a competent authority.
Alkarama considers his arrest and secret detention for more than four months, as well as the persecutions to which he has been subjected for many years, to constitute a serious affront to the independence of lawyers in Saudi Arabia with the sole goal of eliminating from the public scene one of the country’s few active human rights activists and a lawyer engaged in the defence of people detained for their opinions.
Alkarama for Human Rights calls for urgent intervention with the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to request the immediate freeing of Mr. Saad Ben Zair.