Mr. Abdul Hakim Gellani, a British citizen, was arrested 19 November 2005 during a business trip in Saudi Arabia. Detained from December 2005, he was finally released in July 2006 after seven months of secret detention. After obtaining a visa to return to the United Kingdom where his family lives and giving an interview to Al Jazeera, he was again arrested on 8 August 2007 and detained in secret for two months.
Mr. Khaled Al-Twijri, a Saudi Arabian national, was travelling to Jordan in July 2008 when he was arrested and extradited to Saudi Arabia on 25 January 2009. His family was informed neither of his arrest nor of his extradition.
Mr. Khaled Abdulrahman Al-Twijri normally lives in the province of Quassim in Saudi Arabia. Following a trip to Jordan in July 2008, the family of Mr. Al-Twijri had not received news of him for some months. Despite multiple attempts to get the Jordanian government to recognize the arrest or detention, they have never done so.
The lawyer Mr. Sulaiman Al-Rashoudi that had been detained arbitrarily for more than four years has been released on bail 23 June 2011. He was arrested in Jeddah 2 February 2007 by intelligence services (Mabahith). His trial is ongoing and the next hearing will take place 26 June 2011.
Mr. Al-Rashoudi was born in 1935 and lived in Riyadh. He is known as a human rights lawyer and activist who is engaged in the defense of prisoners of opinion in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Ramizi Siraj (رمزي سراج), aged 30 years, usually lives with his family a Al Khodr Department, Saudi Arabia and works as an employee at Al Harass Al Wateni Hospital in Al Dammam.
Dr. Said bin Zair, well-known in Saudi Arabia for his independence of mind and his public advocacy of institutional reforms, has been arbitrarily detained since 6 June 2007, when he was arrested in Riyadh on his way back from Mecca.
The Saudi authorities have finally buried the body of the Yemeni citizen Muhammad Abduh Al-Duaysi, four months after his death under severe torture in Qasim prison in southern Saudi Arabia at the start of December 2010.
Alkarama is concerned at the worsening situation of Dr Saud Al Hashimi, a long-standing human rights defender who has been detained incommunicado for the last four years in the al Ruweis detention center in Jeddah. He was subjected to a closed trial on 7 May 2011 despite being deprived of his right to legal representation.
Fadhel Makki Al-Manasif, a 25-year-old human rights defender from the Qatif region in eastern Saudi Arabia, was detained on 1 May 2011 at Al-Awamieh police station after answering a summons issued by Saudi Criminal Investigation Services (CIS).
On 30 April 2011, several CIS agents came to Fadhel Al-Manasif's home, who was absent at the time, and told his father that Fadhel should present himself to the CIS at Al-Awamief police station.
Mubarak Bin Said Ben Zaïr and Jihad Abdulkarim Al-Khodr, both sons of prominent Saudi human rights activists, were amongst those arrested during peaceful protests outside the Interior Ministry in Riyadh on 20 March 2011. Demonstrators were calling for the release of thousands of longstanding prisons held in Saudi prisons without charge or trial. The two men remain in custody despite not having been charged.
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.
