Coinciding with the third anniversary of the assassination of Jamal Khashgeji, the Washington Post published a report on Saudi detainees and activists in Saudi prisons.
According to the international group of Pak Sahafat News Agency, on the third anniversary of the assassination of critical Saudi journalist Jamal Khashgeji, the Washington Post highlighted part of the Saudi regime’s crackdown on critics and protesters.
The Washington Post wrote: The campaign to suppress Al Saud continues, and no justice has been done to these detainees and victims so far, and in this report we highlight only a few human rights defenders who are unable to continue living in Saudi Arabia.
Abdul Rahman Al-Sadhan
Abdul Rahman al-Sadhan, a Saudi aid worker working inside Saudi Arabia, had an anonymous Twitter account criticizing the policies of the Saudi regime. This activity led to his arrest.
Abdul Rahman al-Sadhan was forcibly disappeared for nearly two years, and all contact with him was cut off. Until one of his relatives in Riyadh called him and announced that he was still alive and was being held in Al-Haier prison. He disappeared again, but this time information was released from other detainees about Abdul Rahman’s torture and ill-treatment.
The Saudi activist was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a 20-year travel ban in a secret trial this year after years of detention and torture. The verdict is still pending in court.
Abdul Rahman’s sister Arij al-Sadhan wrote in an article published in the Washington Post last May: My family is tired. We and many others do not have to worry for days or years about whether our brother is healthy or that he is in a difficult situation.
Samar and Raif Badawi
Raif and Samar Badawi are among the most prominent Saudi activists. Raif al-Badawi, who co-founded liberal websites in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in June 2012 on charges of setting up a website called “Liberalism” and, in the words of the Saudi regime, “insulting Islam.”
In 2014, Badavi was sentenced to 7 years in prison and 600 lashes, to 10 years in prison and a fine of one million rials ($ 267,000) and 1,000 lashes. The public execution of the flogging sentence in 2015 was criticized internationally.
Samar Badawi is a Saudi activist who advocated for women’s empowerment to vote, drive, and abolish the male-dominated system. She was arrested along with other women’s rights activists in July 2018 – more than a month after Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on women driving.
He was released from prison in June after three years, but is still barred from leaving. He did not speak publicly about his plight and what he went through in prison.
Al-Nafjan, a Saudi blogger and author who has written several books against the violation of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, has always faced these obstacles in her writing and work.
The professor of linguistics has helped news agencies such as CNN and Foreign Policy and has spoken regularly about feminism and women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.
She was arrested in May 2018, a month before Saudi women were allowed to drive legally, and was released in March 2019 after nearly a year in detention, but still faces restrictions.
Salman al-Awdah
Sheikh Salman al-Awda is one of the most prominent detainees in Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities arrested Sheikh Salman on September 10, 2017, and have since held him in solitary confinement without charge or trial. Authorities have also imposed travel bans on his family members.
Muhammad Fahd al-Qahtani
Saudi activist Mohammed al-Qahtani is still being held in Saudi prisons. He is a lawyer and the founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association.
Al-Qahtani was arrested in 2012 for his role in documenting human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia as part of the Saudi regime’s crackdown on activists, and was sentenced in 2013 to 10 years in prison and a 10-year travel ban.
Al-Qahtani suffers from harsh detention conditions, which have led him to go on more than one hunger strike in protest of poor prison conditions, especially after contracting the corona virus at Al-Haier prison earlier this year.
Sarah and Omar Al-Jabri
Sarah and Omar al-Jabri are the sons of former Saudi intelligence chief Saad al-Jabri, who left Saudi Arabia in May 2017 and is still in exile.
The two have been targeted by authorities forcing their father, an adviser to former Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, to return to Saudi Arabia.