Abdullah Al-Yahya Spends Two Years in Arbitrary Detention for Rejecting Normalisation
The seventy-year-old Saudi academic Abdullah Al-Yahya has been held in Saudi jails for nearly two years after he criticised the 2021 normalisation path with the Israeli occupation, led by the UAE and Bahrain.
Al-Yahya’s plight began in December 2021, when he stopped posting on his social media account amid suspicious circumstances. Later reports claimed that Saudi authorities connected to the State Security Investigations had kidnapped him.
For several months, Saudi officials would not reveal his detention location or charges. He was denied access to his family and a lawyer while in custody. Later, it was claimed that his arrest was motivated by his social media activism and criticism of the normalization of Israeli occupation.
Just a few days before his arrest, on December 19, Al-Yahya tweeted: “To the advocates of normalization and peace: The last thing the Zionist entity is thinking about — on their way to the Republic of the Rabbis — is your drumming for peace.”
The Saudi government’s media and religious campaign to open the door for normalization with the Israeli occupation coincided with Al-Yahya’s arrest.
Saudi academic Dr. Abdullah Al-Yahya is a prolific author. He received his doctorate in Islamic studies from the University of the Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan’s College of Oriental Studies, Department of Islamic Studies.
Together for Justice demands Dr. Abdullah Al-Yahya’s release and an investigation into every violation to which he was subjected.
Together for Justice emphasizes that Dr. Abdullah’s continued detention, despite his advanced age, represents a grave violation. Additionally, it urges the international community to act quickly to put pressure on the Saudi government to release all political prisoners and launch thorough, open investigations into all the abuses they have endured.
