Saudi Arabia launches new crackdown on suspected critics

Prisoners of Conscience, a campaign group that tracks Saudi prisoners, said on Sunday that the kingdom had detained a number of "academics, Twitter activists, and even women" over the past two days.

The detentions were also noted on Monday by ALQST, a UK-based Saudi human rights organisation which confirmed the arrests of at least nine writers and journalists.

Bader Al-Rashed, Suleiman Al-Nasser, Waad Al-Mohaya, Musaab Fouad Abd al-Kareem and Abdul Majid al-Balawi were arrested after their homes in the Saudi capital Riyadh were raided on 16 November, ALQST said in a statement.

The detentions were followed by the arrests of writer Abdul Aziz al-Hais in the northwestern city of Hail, writer Abdul Rahman al-Shahri in the southern city of Abha and activist and blogger Fouad al-Farhan in the coastal city of Jeddah last week, the organisation said.

Prisoners of Conscience also confirmed the arrests of Nasser and Mohaya, as well as the detentions of writer Badr al-Rashid, journalist Maha al-Rafidi and a writer identified with the initials M. F. by the group.

ALQST added that it had received unconfirmed reports of the arrest of journalist Zana al-Shahri.

— Prisoners of Conscience (@m3takl_en) November 24, 2019" style="color:#fff;" class="twitter-post-link" target="_blank">Twitter Post 🔴 BREAKING We confirm that #Saudi authorities launched a new campaign of arbitrary detentions during the past 48 hours that included academics, twitter activists, and even women. We will publish the names as soon as they are confirmed to us.#NovemberDetentions#اعتقالات_نوفمبر pic.twitter.com/662vxpHFg5 — Prisoners of Conscience (@m3takl_en) November 24, 2019

The wave of detentions comes just days ahead of an anticipated verdict in the case of imprisoned Saudi cleric Salman al-Odeh.

Odeh's family and Saudi media have previously reported the prosecution is seeking the death sentence for the Islamic scholar.

According to relatives, the cleric was embroiled in Saudi Arabia's diplomatic row with Qatar. Riyadh reportedly asked religious and other dissidents to publicly express support for the kingdom's blockade on Doha, but Odeh refused.

He was among 20 people, including writers and journalists, arrested in a 2017 crackdown on dissent in the kingdom. 

Those arrests were followed last year by the detention of 11 women right's activists, including long-time campaigner for women's right to drive Loujain al-Hathloul.

Several of the women, including Hathloul, have alleged they have faced torture and sexual harassment while in detention.

Saudi authorities have offered to release Hathloul in exchange for her video testimony denying that she had been tortured in prison, her family claimed earlier this year.

At least nine more dissident writers and academics were jailed by the kingdom earlier this year.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay connected