14 NGOs call for immediate release of Saudi activist Mohammed al-Qahtani, who completed full sentence

14 NGOs have called for the 'immediate' and 'unconditional' release of Saudi activist Mohammed al-Qahtani, who has completed his full sentence but remains imprisoned.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab Staff

24 November, 2022

Saudi Arabia detained Mohammed al-Qahtani for his human rights work [source: Getty]

Over a dozen NGOs have called for the immediate release of Saudi human rights defender Mohammed al-Qahtani, who has been detained for nearly a decade and continues to be held in an unknown location behind bars.

Al-Qahtani, a co-founder of the now-disbanded Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) and a professor at the Institute of Diplomatic Studies, has been detained in Saudi Arabia since 2013 on charges including "breaking allegiance to the ruler" and "questioning the integrity of officials".

He completed his sentence on November 22 2022. However, since October 24, Saudi authorities have refused to share information about his whereabouts, according to MENA Rights Group.

A letter signed by 14 NGOs demanding accountability over Al-Qahtani’s mistreatment has been handed to the Saudi consulate in Geneva and the Saudi Embassy in London.

#Saudi #HRD Mohammed al-Qahtani has now completed his 10-year sentence, but remains forcibly disappeared.

Outside @KSAconsulateCH and @SaudiEmbassyUK, we delivered a letter on behalf of 14 NGOs calling on the #SaudiArabia authorities to disclose his whereabouts and release him. pic.twitter.com/olJaAinWIN
— ALQST for Human Rights (@ALQST_En) November 22, 2022

"We urge you to call on the Saudi Arabian authorities to promptly disclose the whereabouts of Dr Mohammed al-Qahtani and to release him immediately and unconditionally," the letter said.

"In a worrying new trend, authorities have continued to detain some prisoners of conscience beyond the expiration of their sentences," it read.

The letter was signed by ALQST for Human Rights, Amnesty International and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), among many other NGOs.

Al-Qahtani’s family suspect the reason authorities shut down communication is to punish the activist for complaints filed about repeated assaults in Al-Ha’ir prison.

In May 2022, Al-Qahtani was beaten by another inmate in his wing, according to the letter. There are other incidents recorded of inmates killing each other and deliberately starting fires.

In September 2015, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found the Saudi was being jailed "arbitrarily" - and called for his release.

In recent years, Al-Qahtani has carried out numerous hunger strikes to protest against his detention while his case has been raised repeatedly by different UN councils.