Saudi Arabia: Saudi rights group co-founder arrested following protests

25 Mar 2011
On 21 March 2011, Saudi General Investigation forces in Buraydah arrested Mohammed Salih Al-Bjady, a co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), an NGO which has worked closely with Alkarama over the years. Though the exact reasons for Mr Al-Bjady's arrest are unknown, his family and colleagues believe that the main reason is his recent participation in a protest organised by the families of political detainees calling for the release of their relatives. These families held a widely publicised protest outside the Ministry of Interior in Riyadh on 20 March 2011, which led to numerous arrests of participants.

Alkarama sent an urgent appeal regarding his arrest to the UN special procedures, invoking Human Rights Council resolution 12/2 of October 2009 which states:

"[The Human Rights Council] requests all representatives and mechanisms of the United Nations in the field of human rights to continue to take urgent steps, in conformity with their mandates, to help prevent the occurrence of such intimidation and reprisals and the hampering of access to the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in any way."

Alkarama believes that the arbitrary arrest of human rights defenders who cooperate with the UN human rights mechanisms should be seen as highly significant and worrying steps in the repression of calls for greater respect of human rights in these countries, and that protection of these activists and defenders, who are the primary sources of information for international media and the UN mechanisms, is crucial to ensure that the violations in these countries do not go unreported.

Alkarama therefore called on the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights defenders to urgently intervene with the Saudi authorities for the release of Mr Mohammed Al-Bjady and to ensure that other human rights defenders and activists are not targeted or attacked for their human rights work.

Further information

Mr Mohamed bin Salih Al Bjady (محمد بن صالح البجادي), 30, is a co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), an NGO calling for the establishment of a constitution and for political and civil reforms in Saudi Arabia. He lives with his wife and young daughter in Buraydah, Qassim Province (300Km north of Riyadh).

On the evening of 21 March 2011, Special Forces agents from Saudi Arabia's Directorate of the General Investigation (DGI) in Buraydah surrounded Mr Al Bjady's home. After closing all the roads around the house, they entered his home and arrested him without showing him any arrest warrant or telling him the reasons for his arrest. Mr Al Bjady was handcuffed and shackled before being taken to his office where the agents forced him to accompany them in shackles as they searched the entire offices.

Mr Al-Bjady's had previously been arrested twice for having supported groups of women calling for the release of their husbands during protests in the Qassim Province.
Saudi Arabia