Dr. Al-Abdulkareem, a member of the "Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association" (ACPRA), was arrested by intelligence agents on 5 December 2010. On the day of his arrest, he was able to make a phone call to a close friend informing him that he was being held in Al-Hayr prison near Riyadh.
On 10 December 2010, Alkarama sent his case to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders requesting his intervention with the Saudi authorities to ensure that Dr.
Families of prisoners held in Saudi Arabian prisons without charge or trial gathered outside Saudi embassies across Europe and the Middle East today, protesting long-standing and continuing abuses of human rights.
On 18 July 2009, Bilal Abu Haikal, a Lebanese citizen, was en route from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia to begin work in a Saudi Arabian engineering company. When he arrived at Riyadh airport - he was immediately arrested. He has since been detained without charge or trial and held in two different Saudi prisons.
Cherif Al Karoui and Hichem Matri, two French nationals who travelled to Saudi Arabia and were arrested on 27 May 2010, are currently being held in Al-Hayr prison in total isolation from the outside world. They have learned that they are suspected of terrorist activity without any charges officially being brought against them and without being brought before a judge.
Alkarama submitted their cases to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, asking them to intervene with the Saudi authorities so that the two men are freed or given legal protection.
Alkarama has just received news that Nasser Al-Hajiri, a Kuwaiti citizen, has been released. He was arrested by Saudi Intelligence services on 16 December 2007 at a border crossing en route from Saudi Arabia to Kuwait.
During his imprisonment, Nasser Al-Hajiri was never charged nor put on trial. Throughout his imprisonment he was denied the necessary medication to treat his cancer. To make matters worse, he was also tortured while in custody at the Intelligence Service's center in Al-Dammam, Saudi Arabia, where he was being held with 11 other Kuwaiti citizens.
Abdullah Hassan, a member of the living in Ireland, was arrested in Saudi Arabia for the first time in 19 November 2005 and detained incommunicado for more than nine months before being released. Following his release, his passport was confiscated and he was unable to leave the country. He was arrested again on 17 May 2007, and is now held incommunicado and threatened with extradition to Libya.
On 11 June 2010 Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur against Torture requesting his intervention with the Saudi authorities for Abdullah Hassan's release.
Nasser Al-Hajiri, arrested on16 December 2007 during his pilgrimage to Mecca, has been detained for more than two and a half years without charge or trial despite being afflicted by a worsening cancer in the form of a brain tumour.
Lakhdar Mesbahi, a 24 year-old Algerian national from El-Oued in Algeria, was arrested on 20 July 2009 at a police station in Medina, Saudi Arabia while trying to get authorization to leave the country. He was detained incommunicado for four months and later transferred to Dammam prison, where he remains unto to this day.
