Pak Sahafat – News sources announced that the Al Saud regime released one of the founders of the old Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, “Hasem”, after serving 10 years of imprisonment. Despite his release, he is prohibited from traveling for 10 years.
According to the International group of Pak Sahafat news agency, the Democracy Organization has now announced to the Arab world (Dawn) that the Saudi authorities arrested Dr. Abdul Karim Al-Khidr, a university professor and one of the founders of the old Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, “Hasm”, who was arrested for defending human rights in Saudi Arabia.
According to Arabi 21, the Saudi authorities released this political activist after 10 years of imprisonment, but he is banned from traveling for 10 years.
Al-Khidr is one of the founders of the Association for Civil and Political Rights in Saudi Arabia, when authorities arrested him in 2013 and after several court hearings, a judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison and a 10-year travel ban.
Before his arrest, this Saudi political activist was teaching comparative jurisprudence at Al-Qassim University. He also headed the defense team of “Abdullah Al-Hamid” and his brother “Isa Al-Hamid”, both of whom were political activists and were arrested in 2008.
Abdulkarim al-Khidr has written many research articles related to peaceful demonstrations and hunger strikes by prisoners and presented political views.
He is one of the 11 founding members of the “Hasm” civil and political rights group, whose members were tried and imprisoned by the Saudi regime for demanding political reforms and freedom of human rights.
Other members of this human rights group are under arrest, including “Abdul Rahman Al-Hamid”, “Isa Al-Hamid”, “Mohammed Fahad Al-Qahtani”, “Abdul-Aziz Al-Shabili”, “Fouzan Al-Harbi”, “Omar Al-Saeed” and “Mohammed Al-Bajadi”.
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Abdullah Al-Hamid was also one of the founding members of this group, who suffered a stroke in prison in 2020 and died two weeks later due to medical negligence.
In 2013, the Saudi authorities dissolved the Hasem Human Rights Association and arrested all its members. They were also accused of belonging to the terrorist system and supporting it.
The Al Saud regime’s criminal court sentenced them to long prison terms from four to 15 years, and the list of accusations of their members include insulting the country’s authorities, requesting to disrupt the legal allegiance, accusing the judiciary of injustice, inciting international organizations against Saudi Arabia, and participating was in the establishment of an association without permission.
The travel ban in Saudi Arabia is not a new issue. But the previous rulers used it relatively less than this repressive tool. Also, the Saudi authorities apply this arbitrary punishment against the families of most prisoners and dissidents abroad. Most of those who have been banned from traveling were not aware of this in advance and were surprised that they were returned from airports or land crossings under the pretext of the order of the country’s security directorate.
The travel ban by the Saudi regime is a violation of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Charter of Civil and Political Rights. According to this article, every person has the right to leave any country, including his own country, and return to his country.
According to the documents of the legal organization, Saudi Arabia systematically denies people the right to travel and traffic in order to retaliate against them for their activities or defense of human rights. The Saudi regime issues heavy sentences and imposes a travel ban on the individual in addition to the prison sentence without any criteria or legal criteria.
Most of the judicial rulings issued against human rights defenders and activists contain a travel ban after the end of the prison term without any legal justification. In addition to these rulings, the Saudi regime punishes the families of activists and human rights defenders illegally and outside of the country by banning travel. It uses the scope of judicial rulings.
Extending the use of the travel ban penalty without a legal basis by Al Saud for retaliatory purposes or pressuring individuals to stop their activities or threatening them.
Recently, Amnesty International called for the lifting of arbitrary travel bans in Saudi Arabia against women activists, human rights defenders and their family members.
This organization emphasized that human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia live in difficult conditions and they are prohibited from traveling abroad even after their release, and they usually do not have the right to leave the country for 5 to 20 years.