Home
Reform activists in Saudi Arabia must receive fair appeal hearings AMNESTY January 25, 2012 Sixteen men who were given lengthy prison sentences after they tried to set up a human rights organization in Saudi Arabia should all receive fair appeal hearings, Amnesty International said today as they wait for their cases to be heard. The group including several prominent reform activists, who were sentenced from five to 30 years in November 2011, submitted their appeals to the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh on Monday. All were convicted of breaking allegiance with the King. Most were also convicted of money laundering among other charges.
Launch of Amnesty Report January 9, 2012 Amnesty has issued its 80-page Year of Rebellion: State of Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa report, the organization describes how governments across the region were willing in 2011 to deploy extreme violence in an attempt to resist unprecedented calls for fundamental reform. “The Saudi Arabian government announced major spending packages in 2011, in what seemed to be an attempt to prevent protests spreading to the Kingdom. Despite that – and the drafting of a repressive anti-terror law – protests continued at the end of the year, in particular in the country’s eastern region.” Read entire report … in Arabic …in English.
Saudi Men Sentenced to Amputation AMNESTY Six men have been sentenced by the General Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to amputation of their right hands and left feet for “highway robbery”. Their sentence was reportedly upheld by a court of appeal in October and is due to be approved at any moment by the Supreme Court, placing them at risk of amputation. CALL FOR APPEALS BEFORE 26 JANUARY 2012 More...
Human Rights Watch urges Dr. Bandar al-‘Iban, Chairman of the Human Right’s Commission to intervene in the case of ‘Amir ‘Iyada. HRW December 16, 2011 On March 29, 2011, Riyadh’s General Court sentenced ‘Iyada and five other defendants to have their right hand and left leg amputated for participating in the crime that Sharia legal scholars call hiraba, or armed (highway) robbery. The court found that on the morning of October 9, 2010, the defendants cornered three employees of the Tamimi supermarket on Riyadh’s King Fahd Road as they were transporting the week’s proceeds of SAR4 million (about US$1.07 million) in the boot of their car, that they threatened the employees with a gun, and that they took the money from them. No one was physically harmed.
Human Rights Watch urges Dr. Bandar al-‘Iban, Chairman of the Human Right’s Commission to intervene in the case of ‘Amir ‘Iyada, and five other co-defendants, sentenced to have their right hands and left feet cut off. Such a sentence should not be carried out in any circumstances, since it constitutes torture, in violation of the kingdom’s international human rights obligations. Moreover, in this case, allegedly grave violations of the defendant’s right to a fair trial cast serious doubt on whether the man sentenced to undergo this punishment is guilty as charged. More…
URGENT ACTION: SAUDI MEN SENTENCED TO AMPUTATION Amnesty 15 December 2011 Six men have been sentenced by the General Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to amputation of their right hands and left feet for “highway robbery”. Their sentence was reportedly upheld by a court of appeal in October and is due to be approved at any moment by the Supreme Court, placing them at risk of amputation. More…
Amnesty reports: Saudi Arabia: Beheading for ‘sorcery’ shocking 12 December 2011 The beheading of a woman convicted of “witchcraft and sorcery” is deeply shocking and highlights the urgent need for a halt in executions in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International said today. The number of executions in Saudi Arabia has almost tripled this year. So far at least 79 people – including five women – have been executed there, compared to at least 27 in 2010. More… in Arabic in English
Amnesty International has released a new report Saudi Arabia: Repression in the name of Security. The report covers the crackdown on protests since early 2011, including those demanding political reforms and those calling for the release of their relatives detained without charge or trial for years in the context of the “war on terror.” It also includes detailed analysis of its concerns about the leaked secret draft anti-terror law that Amnesty International published in July 2011. This report also follows up on the issues covered in Amnesty International’s 2009 publication,Saudi Arabia: Assaulting human rights in the name of counter-terrorism, updating cases and trials covered in that report, and including information on new cases that have emerged since2009. Report … in Arabic … in English
SAUDI ARABIA – From the 2011 Report
In 2010-2011, no human rights NGO managed to obtain legal status. Furthermore,human rights activities continued to be controlled by a vague and draconian legal framework, making human rights defenders vulnerable to arbitrary detention and unfair trials. In addition, peaceful assemblies were banned de facto by the authorities and repressed by the security forces. Finally, the Interior Ministry banned several human rights defenders from leaving the country.
An extremely restrictive legislative framework that prevents all human rights activities
In Saudi Arabia, human rights activities continued to be subj ected to an extremely restrictive framework. Article 39 of the Saudi 1992 Basic Law of Government stipulates that “all acts that foster sedition or division or harm the state’s security and its public relations, shall be prohibited”. This vague definition permits criminalisation of the most basic rights such as the right to freedoms of expression, association or peaceful assembly. Furthermore, the absence of any written criminal code in Saudi Arabia strengthens the climate of insecurity in which human rights defenders are carrying out their work, insofar as there is no formal definition of what constitutes a crime, and no fixed punishment for a specific crime. In addition, Article 112 of the Code of Criminal Procedure allows the Minister of Interior to decide which offences and crimes are punishable by a prison sentence, without specifying its length. The executive power is therefore unlimited to punish any human rights activity.
In this context, no human rights NGO was registered. For example, the NGO Human Rights First Society, Saudi Arabia (HRFS) could never obtain a licence since its setting up in 2002. Similarly, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), set up in 2009, could neither obtain a licence. More…
*****URGENT ***** NEWS*****
URGENT: Immediate Freedom for the Writer and Intellectual Alsaeed Natheer Almajid On Sunday, April 17, 2011 Saudi security forces arrested Alsaeed Natheer Almajid from his workplace. Human Rights First Society strongly condemns this aggression by the Saudi security apparatus. More…
Saudi Arabia arrests Shi’ite writer after protests DUBAI | Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:41pm (Reuters) – Saudi authorities have arrested a Shi’ite Muslim intellectual in the oil-producing eastern province where minority Shi’ites have staged protests in the strict Sunni kingdom, human rights activists said on Tuesday. Security forces arrested al-Saeed al-Majid, a Shi’ite writer, on Sunday at his workplace in Khobar on the Gulf coast, the independent Human Rights First Society said in a statement. Shi’ite website Rasid.com confirmed the arrest. Saudi authorities were not immediately available for comment. More…
HRFS strongly condemns excluding women from voting and running in the upcoming Municipality Elections HRFS was stunned by the announcement of the Saudi government about the upcoming Municipality Elections on April 23, 2011 where no amendment to the existing laws prohibiting wome n from voting and running in these elections was presented. More…
Saudi Arabia: Let Women Vote, Run for Office No Excuse for Exclusion From Upcoming Municipal Elections (Beirut) – The Saudi government’s refusal to let women vote in municipal elections in September 2011 unlawfully deprives women of their rights to full and equal status under the law, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called on the election committee to allow women to vote and to run for seats on the municipal councils. More…
HRFS STATEMENT HRFS strongly condemns the illegal arrest of Dr. Mubbarak bin Zuair on March 20, 2011 Om Allaith, wife of Dr. Mubbarak bin Zu air, told HRFS that her husband had a good meeting with His Royal Highness and that Dr. Mubbarak was suppose to break the good news, to the demonstrators in front of MOI who were protesting the extended illegal detention of their loved ones, that some of the detainees would be released. At 10:30 AM on March 20,on his way to MOI where the standoff was taking place, Dr. Mubbarak was stopped and arrested by the secret police. More…
Saudi Arabia: Arrests for Peaceful Protest on the Rise More Than 160 Protesters, Critics Held Without Charge March 27, 2011 HRW (New York) – Saudi Arabia should immediately release protesters and critics arrested and detained without charge over the past weeks, Human Rights Watch said today. More than 100 people have been arrested in the Qatif district, and about 45 in the al-Ahsa’ district, both Shia population centers in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. A smaller number of people have been arrested in Riyadh and Qasim governorates. More…
ACPRA demands that the MOI release the relatives of recent detainees, who were, on March 20, 2011, asking for information about a loved one. Statement in Arabic.
URGENT HRFS STATEMENT: HRFS calls for the immediate release of Mr. Mohammad Albjadi
On Monday, March 21, 2011 Saudi security arrested Mr. Mohammad Salih Albjadi, a 30 year old business man who lives in Buraidah, Qassim. Mr. Albjadi is married with one young daughter. His arrest took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
HRFS was informed of the arrest by Dr. Abdullah Alhamid who said that Mr. Albjadi was arrested as a result of his participation in the protest with the families who were calling for the release of their illegally detained relatives on March 20.
Human Rights First Society condemns this action taken against Mr. Albjadi by the secret police (Almabahith Alamah) in Saudi Arabia. We call on the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz to intervene for the immediate, unconditional release of Mr. Albjadi and also to protect peaceful activists of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA.) Read More Details…
Human Rights Activist Detained After Protest Amnesty International March 25, 3022 Mohammad Salih al-Bajadi, a 30-year-old businessman who co-founded a human rights organization in Saudi Arabia, was arrested on 21 March after attending a protest the day before. He has been held incommunicado since, placing him at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. More…
ACPRA Condemns The Arbitrary Detention of Its Co-Founder: Mohammed Salih Al-Bjady, and Demands His Immediate Unconditional
Release Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Thursday, March 24, 2011 A large group of armed special forces surrounded Mr. Al-Bjady’s home, blockaded all roads that lead to Al-Bjady’s house, he was then taken by the authority in handcuffs and manacles. Mr. Al-Bjady then was taken to his office in downtown Buraydah where agents searched his business office thoroughly for several hours while he was accompanying them in shackles, this is clearly an attempt to humiliate him and tarnish his reputations. This arbitrary detention of a well-known human rights activist flagrantly violates the Saudi Basic Law of Governance and the Law of the Criminal Procedures. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and DGI’s agents have become outlaw by arresting individuals without legal due process of the law. It is ironic that ordinary Saudis demand rule of law, while MOI and DGI violate the law. More… in Arabic …in English
URGENT HRFS STATEMENT: Immediate Freedom for the Syrian publisher Dr. Alaaeddin Alrashi
Dr. Alaaeddin Alrashi, a book publisher from Syria, who was invited by the Saudi Ministry of Information to participate in the Riyadh International Book Fair, was kidnapped at 8:00 pm, March 21, 2011, in front of his residence where he was trying to stop a taxi to go with his wife to do some errands. When his wife came down from their flat she did not find her husband; she felt abandoned, afraid and did not know what to do. Dr. Alaaeddin is 31 with 4 children.
Human Rights First Society deplores and condemns the illegal kidnapping of Dr. Alaaeddin Alrashi, without notifying his wife, a guest from Syria who feels like a stranger in Saudi Arabia. Read More Details…
URGENT HRFS STATEMENT: Saudi Government should release 100 Shea protesters in the Eastern Province
During the peaceful protests last week in the Eastern Province, in the Shea populated areas of Safwa, Qatif and its villages and Alhassa 100 protesters were arrested. The peaceful demonstrators were calling for the release of the Nine Forgotten Shea prisoners from the mid 1990s and were protesting the Gulf forces intervention in Bahrain as well as the crackdown on the demonstrators in Manama and other Bahrain villages.
Human Rights First Society is appalled by the reports that some of these 100 detainees were subjected to physical and psychological torture particularly in Alhassa. Read More Details…
HRFS STATEMENT: Full Condemnation for the Outrageous Suppression of the Demonstration in Qatif – March 10
HRFS followed closely what happened last night in King Abdulaziz Street in Qatif where police forces used deplorable force to suppress the peaceful demonstration and where several demonstrators were injured.
HRFS condemns, with the loudest and clearest words, the use of all kinds of force to disperse demonstrators particularly when live ammunition was used last night against the demonstrators in Qatif. More… Statement in English
