On 13/06/2007 Alkarama for Human Rights appealed to Ms. Louise Arbour, High Commissioner for Human Rights, regarding the arrest and maltreatment of Mr. Khalid Gharamallah Awdah al-Zahrani, a Saudi national born on 11 April 1972 living in King Fahd Neighbourhood in Riyadh.
Dr. Said ben Zair, aged 57, professor of sciences and information at Riyadh University, was arrested in Riyadh on 6 June 2007. He is well-known in the country for his spirit of independence and the public positions he holds on the need for institutional reforms in the country as well as for his support for the reformists’ movement.
Alkarama for Human Rights has asked the Special Representative of the Secretary General on the situation of human rights defenders to intervene in the case of Walid Ali Ahmed Lamri, a Saudi human rights defender and a member of Alkarama.
On 27 April 2007 Walid Lamri, 24, a student residing in Jeddah, was arrested at his family home at 9pm by the Saudi intelligence services. His family was able to learn, however uncertain, that he is currently being and detained at the intelligence services headquarters in Taif.
Alkarama for Human Rights has just submitted the case of Sulaiman Ibrahim Saleh Al Rashoudi to the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and Special Representative of the Secretary General on the situation of human rights defenders. Mr Al Rashoud, born in 1935 and living in Riyadh, is a lawyer, activist and human rights defender working on civil liberties in Saudi Arabia. He worked mainly on the defence of prisoners of conscience.
Alkarama for Human Rights submitted the cases of Dr. Al-Hashimi and eight other persons known to the Saudi civil society to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on Torture, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism today.
Dr. Saud Mukhtar Al-Hashimi, a medical doctor aged 45, is a public figure in the movement for constitutional reform in Saudi Arabia.
