Seven Years of Injustice — The Al-Hawali Family Faces Collective Punishment and Medical Neglect
As we mark seven years since the arrest of Saudi scholar Sheikh Dr. Safar Al-Hawali and his sons, Together for Justice renews its strong condemnation of their continued arbitrary detention. This case stands as a blatant example of the collective punishment imposed by Saudi authorities on dissenting voices and their families.
Sheikh Al-Hawali, who was arrested in July 2018 following the publication of a book titled “Muslims and Western Civilization,” peacefully criticized the Saudi regime’s economic choices and foreign alliances, particularly its alignment with Israel and repressive regimes in the region. Although this was not his first arrest—having been detained twice in the 1990s—what set the 2018 arrest apart was the targeting of his entire family. His sons and brother were detained alongside him, subjected to enforced disappearance, ill-treatment, and complete deprivation of their basic legal rights.
From the moment of his arrest, Sheikh Al-Hawali was denied essential medical care, despite suffering from a pelvic fracture, kidney failure, and complications from a previous stroke. His health had already necessitated a kidney donation from his son Abdullah, yet he has been left without proper treatment in prison. In May 2024, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities condemned Saudi Arabia for its mistreatment of Dr. Al-Hawali, labelling the ongoing neglect and solitary confinement as torture and arbitrary detention, and calling for his immediate release or a fair trial.
Instead of addressing this humanitarian crisis, the authorities escalated their repression by harshly increasing the prison sentences against his family members. Abdulrahman Al-Hawali’s sentence was raised from 7 to 17 years, Abdullah’s from 6 to 16 years, and Abdulrahim’s to 15 years. Their uncle Saadallah Al-Hawali also saw his sentence increased from 4 to 14 years—all without transparent legal proceedings or access to fair defense.
Abdulrahman, in particular, suffers from critical medical needs, having only one kidney and requiring a strict medical regimen. Yet he, too, has been subjected to deliberate medical neglect and barred from seeing his children, in what appears to be a cruel strategy to pressure his father into silence.
The Al-Hawali family’s ordeal reflects a broader authoritarian policy that uses collective punishment to suppress dissent. Their case exposes the human cost of a regime that targets not only peaceful thinkers, but their loved ones, using the judiciary as a tool of vengeance rather than justice.
Together for Justice therefore issues the following urgent demands:
- Immediate and unconditional release of Sheikh Dr. Safar Al-Hawali and all detained members of his family.
- Urgent transfer of Sheikh Al-Hawali to a specialized medical facility to receive proper care.
- Revocation of all politically motivated sentences against his sons and brother, and the guarantee of fair trials if any legitimate charges exist.
- An independent international investigation into the violations against the Al-Hawali family, including torture, medical neglect, and due process abuses.
- A call on UN bodies and international human rights organisations to intervene and hold Saudi authorities accountable for these ongoing crimes.
Seven years on, the Al-Hawali case has become a symbol of the systemic repression inside Saudi Arabia—a regime that treats peaceful opinion as a threat, and punishes families for the convictions of their loved ones. This is not justice—it is cruelty enshrined in policy.
