On 8 September, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) regarding the case of Waleed Al Dod Al Mekki Al Hussain, a Sudanese national who has been deprived of his fundamental rights since his arrest by the Saudi General Intelligence forces on 23 July 2015.
On 27 July 2015, Alkarama provided the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) – a body of 10 independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) by its State parties – with a
On 12 June 2015, Raif Badawi's 1,000 lashes corporal punishment was not carried out, officially for medical reasons, but it could resume at any moment every Friday. The blogger and human rights defender is still arbitrarily detained, a situation that could last for up to 10 years, since his prison sentence was also confirmed by the Supreme Court of Riyadh on 7 June 2015.
Alkarama sent a second urgent appeal to the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) concerning the upcoming hearing of Mr Abdulaziz Al Shabili, a Saudi Human Rights Defender (HRD) awaiting prosecution by the Specialised Court on Terrorism and facing over 10 years in arbitrary detention for "incitement to demonstrate" and "insulting Saudi authorities by describing them as a police State which violates human rights." This case undersc
Today marks a year of arbitrary detention of the Saudi lawyer and human rights defender, Waleed Abu Al Khair. His family launches a Twitter campaign at 6pm advocating for his release.
Awad Al Hayki, a 33 year-old Yemeni national has been detained in Al Qasim Prison since 18 October 2010, the day he was extradited by Qatar to the Saudi authorities. Detained in solitary confinement for almost a year, without being able to communicate with his family, he has been subjected to severe torture. To date, Al Hayiki has never been charged.
The Saudi Supreme Court has just overturned a ruling sentencing a Saudi national to the death penalty. In a tweet sent from his official twitter page this morning, Mabrook Al Sai'ari thanked Alkarama, without which his sentence would have been executed on 8 September 2013.
On 15 April 2014, 34 year-old prominent Saudi human rights defender Waleed Abu Al Khair, went to his 5th hearing session before the Special Criminal Court in Riyadh. At 8 am, he made a last phone call to his wife in Jeddah, informing her he had to turn off his cellular phone as he was entering the court room. She learnt the day after that he had been taken in the middle of his hearing to Al Hayer Prison. This is where he has been unlawfully detained and tortured ever since.
On 9 March 2013, Abdullah Al Hamid and Mohammad Al Qahtani, two prominent Saudi human rights defenders, were sentenced by the Riyadh Criminal Court to heavy prison sentences for inter alia "disobeying the ruler", "inciting disorder", "setting up an unlicensed organization" and having shared "false information presented as facts to official international bodies".
