Abdelrhman Al-Dawish – An Example of Collective Punishment in Saudi Arabia
“Together for Justice” organization said that the continuous international cooperation with the Saudi regime has mainly contributed to the regime’s violations which reached unprecedented levels against opponents and activists.
One of the most horrific repressive practices in Saudi Arabia is the policy of “collective punishment” used against critics, opinion holders, and activists.
They are not only pursued by the security forces, which imprisons them and deprive them of their basic rights, but it also attacks their families to pressure them.
Abdelrhman Al-Dawish, a young Saudi man still in his twenties, is a new example of this inhumane policy, as local sources confirmed that he was arbitrarily arrested by the Saudi security services after trying to search for his forcibly disappeared father for more than five years. The son and father have been arbitrarily detained and held under enforced disappearances in Saudi prisons.
Abdelrhman Al-Dawish is the son of the preacher Sheikh Suleiman Al-Dawish, who was arrested in April 2016 and taken to an unknown destination until this moment. He has not been seen or heard from him until today.
Al-Dawish was arrested after he published a series of tweets criticizing the current policies of the ruling regime, and for rejecting to place all powers of the kingdom with one person, especially if he did not have sufficient experience, which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman considered a personal insult. Since then Al-Dawish has been paying the price of daring to express his opinion.
According to sources, Sheikh Suleiman Al-Dawish was subjected to various types of brutal torture under the direct supervision and orders of the Crown Prince himself. The sources also indicated that Al-Dawish is currently held in an unofficial detention facility with fears for his life.
Several weeks ago, the family tried to search for their relatives again, which prompted Abdelrahman to take the appropriate legal paths, and he contacted the Public Prosecution – last month – to inquire about his father’s fate and condition.
A few days later, the son got arrested and shared his father’s fate of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and not being brought before any judicial body.
We call on governments and the international community to take more serious positions towards the violations of the Saudi regime, which was encouraged by their continued cooperation with it.
We demand urgent international intervention, the opening of investigations into the abuses suffered by political detainees in the Kingdom, the formation of an international committee to examine the conditions of their detention, and pressuring for revealing the fate of all forcibly disappeared persons and ensuring a fair trial for all detainees.
