Aisha Al-Marzouk: Nearly Nine Years of Enforced Disappearance After Being Taken from King Khalid Airport Upon Her Return from Sweden

Together for Justice renews its call for the immediate disclosure of the fate of Saudi citizen Aisha Al-Marzouk, who has been forcibly disappeared since her arrest on 6 October 2017 at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, upon her return from Sweden. According to SANAD, she was arrested in Riyadh on that date, and her case was linked to her speaking about the injustice she said she had faced in the Saudi judiciary and her decision to migrate to Sweden.

Nearly nine years later, Saudi authorities still have not disclosed her place of detention, health condition, legal status, the reasons for taking her from the airport, or whether she has ever been brought before an independent court. This total lack of information cannot be treated as a mere administrative blackout. It amounts to ongoing enforced disappearance, placing her life and safety at constant risk and denying her family the most basic right: to know her fate.

Aisha Al-Marzouk’s case began before her disappearance, after she had left Saudi Arabia for Sweden following a long struggle linked to a custody dispute involving her daughter, according to rights information. SANAD states that she returned to Saudi Arabia after promises that she would not be harmed, but was arrested upon arrival and then disappeared.

The seriousness of the case lies not only in the arrest itself, but in the official silence that has continued for years. Since October 2017, no clear and reliable information has been made public about her whereabouts or detention conditions. Rights and media reports have repeatedly stated that all news about her has been cut off since she was detained at King Khalid Airport.

Together for Justice stresses that enforced disappearance does not harm only the victim. It also punishes the family. Years without answers, visits, calls, or official disclosure amount to a form of psychological suffering for relatives who are left suspended between fear, hope, and the same unanswered question: where is she?

Aisha Al-Marzouk’s continued disappearance exposes a dangerous pattern in Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women who try to escape family or judicial abuse, speak about injustice, or seek protection abroad. Instead of protecting them and guaranteeing their right to justice, the state turns their return or their complaints into a gateway to arrest and disappearance.

From a legal perspective, denying Al-Marzouk contact with her family and lawyer, withholding information about whether she has been brought before a court, and failing to disclose the reasons for her detention are serious violations of her right to liberty and security of person, protection from arbitrary detention, the right to know the charges against her, and the right to a fair and public trial.

Together for Justice holds the Saudi authorities fully responsible for Aisha Al-Marzouk’s life and physical and psychological safety. A state that takes a person from an airport to an undisclosed location and then withholds all news about them for nearly nine years bears direct responsibility for their fate and for anything they may have suffered during those years.

The organization calls on Saudi authorities to immediately disclose Aisha Al-Marzouk’s place of detention, health condition, and legal status, and to allow her family and lawyer to communicate with her without restriction. It also calls for guarantees that she receives any medical and psychological care she may need.

Together for Justice further calls for her immediate and unconditional release, an independent investigation into the circumstances of her arrest and disappearance, and accountability for all those involved in taking her, hiding her, or concealing her fate over the past years.

Aisha Al-Marzouk’s case is not an old file that can be buried by silence. It is an open wound in Saudi Arabia’s record of enforced disappearance. Nearly nine years later, the question remains urgent: where is Aisha Al-Marzouk, and why is her family still denied the truth?