The news also comes at a time when Alkarama also received reports that a number of detainees at Al-Hair prison (wings 12, 13) in Riyadh had begun an open-ended hunger strike on 1 July 2009. There is on-going suffering inside the detention cells, especially with the rise in temperature during the summer.
The detainees are protesting against the continued forms of torture and ill-treatment in Saudi prisons as well as a water-cut in Al-Hair prison. This is just one of the examples of abuse in Saudi prisons that continue to deny hundreds of detainees without any legal proceedings.
We are reminded that Alkarama has issued various appeals and complaints to UN mechanisms seeking their intervention for the victims of arbitrary detention in Saudi prisons. On 16 January 2009 an urgent appeal was sent to each of: the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, requesting them to intervene in the case of Mr Khalid Suleiman Al-‘Omeir, who was arrested in Riyadh on 1 January 2009 at 12:00 by the of General Investigative Services, for trying to organize a peaceful demonstration in downtown Riyadh. The demonstration was to be attended by activists in the field of human rights in protest of the on-going harassment by the Israeli army of civilian populations in the Gaza Strip.
Mr Al-‘Omeir, a prominent "reformist", and Mr Mohammed Al-Otaibi were organizing a peaceful protest in support of Gaza at a time when many of the world's capitals were witnessing massive protests denouncing the Israeli war crimes that took place in the Gaza Strip.
Political prisoners in Saudi Arabia are protesting the degrading treatment and psychological abuse they have endured during detention. They are prevented from communicating with their families and often spend years in solitary confinement without any charges being brought against them. These procedures and practices are in clear violation of the Articles (2, 35, 101, 116, 119) of the Criminal Procedure Code in Saudi, as well as a breach of all the standards and conventions of the relevant international laws.