General update
The record breaking number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year further reflects a deepening human rights crisis. The execution of over 300 people, including more than 100 foreign nationals, underscores the kingdom’s disregard for due process and fundamental freedoms.
On 11th December 2024, a group of human rights organisations once again raised their concerns about human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, this time in response to the confirmation of Saudi Arabia as host of the 2034 FIFA men’s World Cup, despite the well-known and severe risks to residents, migrant workers and visiting fans alike, marks a moment of great danger.
Expression
On 12th December 2024, a group of human rights organisations urged the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to release people imprisoned for their online expression and to foster transparency and accountability, ahead of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2024 hosted in Riyadh between 15th and 19th December 2024. This call came over two months after more than 40 civil society organisations called on Saudi Arabia to immediately release all people arbitrarily imprisoned for their online speech. However, these demands have not yet been met. The appeal highlights six emblematic cases: Salma Al-Shehab, Manahel Al-Otaibi, Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan, Osama Khalid and Ziad Al-Sufyani, and Loujain Al-Hathloul. As the IGF approaches, the systematic digital repression in Saudi Arabia — this year’s host country — stands in stark contradiction to the forum’s principle of fostering inclusive digital spaces and its consistent support for human rights.
Association
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) reported that prominent human rights defender Dr. Mohammed Fahad Al-Qahtani was able to call his family after two years of forced disappearance. However, it expressed alarm at new reports that he is serving an additional 13-year prison sentence handed down in 2024.
His wife and children, who reside in the United States, received his first call on 4th November 2024, but were not informed of any reasons behind his prolonged forced disappearance or the status of his case. His wife Maha Al-Qahtani, was told by the communication prison officer not to discuss Dr. Al-Qahtani’s case in their calls.
Dr. Al-Qahtani is a co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA). On 9th March 2013, the Criminal Court in Riyadh sentenced him to prison on 12 charges including setting up an unlicensed organisation (namely ACPRA), “refusing to submit to the will of the King”, “inciting public disorder” and “communicating with foreign entities.”
He completed his 10-year sentence and was expected to be released on 22nd November 2022. However, in early 2023 he was suddenly retried for terrorism-related charges and blocked, since 24th October of 2022, from contacting his family. The family tried in vain to reach him through the prison authorities or to know his whereabouts for two years with no valid response. The National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) in Saudi Arabia has reported that Dr. Al-Qahtani is not banned from communication with his family. However, the family couldn’t reach the NCHR through any of their online complaints links as they were not accessible from outside the country. The family also sent a letter to the Royal Court to inquire about his whereabouts, with no response.
GCHR has previously reported on the multiple violations of Dr. Al-Qahtani’s rights while imprisoned and the several hunger strikes that he, and other political prisoners, had to endure to protest these violations. Before his two-year disappearance Dr. Al-Qahtani asked his family to file a complaint on his behalf about the constant harassment to which he was subjected by another prisoner, which they did. Afterwards, his calls and communication with the family were stopped. During his enforced disappearance, his family members in Riyadh also tried to visit him in the prison without success, and their request to hire a lawyer was denied by the presiding judge in the new trial, who insisted on having Dr. Al-Qahtani himself appointing a lawyer.
In addition, the prison authorities informed the family that they could not visit Dr. Al-Qahtani without a prior appointment obtained through Absher electronic application. However, the name of Dr. Al-Qahtani was not listed in the system so his family couldn’t make the appointment. These tactics are a clear attempt at obstructing Dr. Al-Qahtani from having legal representation or family visits, in addition to the surveillance of the calls, so that details of his current legal status remain unknown.
Sources on the ground reported unconfirmed news that Dr. Al-Qahtani was asked in his new trial by the presiding judge to sign an approval accepting the fabricated charges of committing acts of terrorism while imprisoned. He refused to do so, even when the judge threatened him with heavier punishments if he did not. GCHR received an alarming report that he has been sentenced in absentia to another 13 years of imprisonment, but has not been able to confirm this with official sources.
In other developments, on 27th November 2024, GCHR urged the Bulgarian authorities to stop the forced deportation of the Saudi activist, Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi to Saudi Arabia. GCHR has been following the case of Al-Khalidi since he requested asylum in Bulgaria in October 2021. He left Saudi Arabia in 2013 for Turkey, to avoid arrests by the Saudi authorities for his support of civil and political rights. Eight years later, he arrived to Bulgaria to seek asylum but was arrested two days later. His asylum request was rejected by the Administrative Court in Sofia on 20th February 2023.
On appeal, his case has been reviewed and the court annulled the earlier rejection of asylum in January 2024 and sent his case to the State Agency for Refugees for consideration. The court has also ordered his immediate release from detention, but the order has never been implemented. In October 2024, a final decision by the Bulgarian Administrative Court imposed his final expulsion and banning his entry and residence in the territory of EU member States on the basis of Article 46 (2) (3) of the Aliens in Bulgaria Act.
GCHR has communicated with Al-Khalidi in his detention centre, and he informed them that he is subject to a forced deportation order, based on a decision by the National Security Agency, despite his asylum case being under review by the Refugees Agency. He also informed GCHR that during his early imprisonment in 2021, he was taken to an interrogation facility, where he spotted a Saudi national with an interpreter, who were probably there to covertly observe his interrogation by the Bulgarian authorities.
It’s of serious concern that Bulgaria is not meeting its human rights obligations as Al-Khalidi told GCHR that the Bulgarian officer at the facility explained to him from the get-go that his case will not be reviewed for asylum and that he will be deported back to Saudi Arabia based on the National Security decision.
In his years of detention at Sophia Busmantsi Detention Centre, he suffered greatly from poor living and hygiene conditions, brutal beatings by officers, and other ill-treatment. His imminent risk of forced deportation to Saudi Arabia by the Bulgarian authorities is dangerous as Saudi Arabia is well-known for serious human rights violations against political activists and human rights defenders.
The case of Al-Khalidi is particularly serious as he was directly involved in activism with the late journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed and dismembered by Saudi operatives close to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. He believes that his connection to political and human rights activists abroad may be the cause of the Saudi involvement in his deportation from Bulgaria.
Several joint actions and protests by civil society organisations and activists have been ongoing to stop his deportation to Saudi Arabia, and he is currently in pursuit of a humanitarian visa from a safe country to leave Bulgaria and to stop his deportation. It’s worth noting that the Bulgarian authorities have a track record of deporting individuals at risk back to their countries, despite having their asylum case still under review.
In more positive developments, on 29th November 2024, several human rights defenders and political prisoners were released in Saudi Arabia. Among those prominent names who have been released are Abdullah Al-Maliki and Jameel Farsi. Al-Maliki, an advocate for democratic reforms, was released in the summer of 2024 after serving seven years in prison on spurious charges. Farsi, a journalist, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2020 for criticising the state’s financial policy regarding Aramco. He was reportedly released in the summer of 2024 as well. His social media account is no longer available.