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Mr Khaled Al Khedairy was arrested on 4 July 2005 and remains in detention without legal procedures until this day, six and a half years after his arrest. The Saudi citizen and father of five children was arrested in Al Salihiya District, Riyadh, by agents of the Mabahith, the Saudi investigative police. He did not get a chance to inform his family of his arrest and they looked for him in local hospitals and police stations for three days, before they finally heard that Mr Al Khedairy had been brought to Alisha Prison.

Even though Mr Al Khedairy's family called the Alisha Prison authorities numerous times, he was only given the possibility to talk to them for the first time in March 2006, eight months after his arrest. Until then, he had been detained without contact to the outside world and continued to be held in solitary confinement, a treatment which amounts to torture, until he was sent to Al Malz Prison in August 2006. Since 7 September 2006, Mr Al Khedairy is now held in Al Hair Prison, South-East of Riyadh, where he continues to suffer from torture and ill-treatment like repeated beatings or being forced to stand upright in the sun for several hours around noon.

Since the day of his arrest, Mr Al Khedairy was not informed of the reason for his arrest and detention. The only indication as to what is held against him is that during the first months of his detention, he was interrogated about alleged contacts with terrorist suspects. However, he was never formally charged by the Saudi authorities or brought before a court to examine the facts held against him until this day, six and a half years after his arrest. He has not even been given the possibility to consult a lawyer, either. Mr Al Khedairy's detention is therefore clearly in breach of Saudi and international law and must be considered to be arbitrary.

In view of the arbitrary nature of Mr Al Khedairy's detention, Alkarama submitted his case to the Working Group of Arbitrary Detention and further relevant Special Procedures of the United Nations on 1 February 2012 to ask for an intervention with the Saudi authorities on behalf of Mr Al Khedairy. We call on the Saudi authorities to immediately free him or to place him under the protection of the law without undue delay.