The message sent by the Saudi regime to its youth is clear and unmistakable: demanding work and a dignified life is not a right, but a crime punished by long prison sentences and severe retaliation. The case of Saudi activist Abdullah Yusuf Jilan stands as a living example of this repressive logic, where questioning unemployment and the future of young people becomes sufficient grounds to destroy an entire life. What happened to Jilan is not an isolated incident, but part of a systematic policy aimed at silencing any voice that dares to hold the authorities accountable for economic rights or the fate of a generation deprived of the most basic foundations of a dignified life.
Abdullah Jilan, a graduate of West Chester University in the United States, was arrested on 12 May 2021 immediately upon his return to Saudi Arabia after completing his studies. A large security force raided his family home in the Shadhah neighborhood of Medina, deploying six vehicles and approximately twenty officers. He was arbitrarily arrested without a judicial warrant, without an arrest order, and without any official notification of the reasons for his detention. He was then subjected to enforced disappearance for nearly ten months, before it was later revealed that he was being held in one of the General Intelligence (Mabahith) prisons in Medina.
Abdullah remained arbitrarily detained without trial until November 2022, when the Specialized Criminal Court issued a sentence of ten years in prison, followed by a ten-year travel ban upon release. The trial was conducted in secret sessions that lacked even the most basic standards of justice. He was denied the right to defend himself, was not allowed legal representation, and the authorities failed to clearly disclose the charges brought against him—constituting a blatant violation of fundamental legal guarantees.
During his detention, Abdullah Jilan was subjected to multiple forms of abuse amounting to torture and ill-treatment. These included months of solitary confinement, prolonged handcuffing for hours at a time, and deprivation of sleep for three consecutive nights during interrogation. He was also electrocuted by State Security officers and denied access to his prescribed medication despite medical need, before being transferred to Dhahban Prison. Such practices constitute grave violations of international law and of domestic laws that prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
Jilan’s case becomes even more alarming when placed within its broader economic and political context. While unemployment among Saudi youth continues to rise and thousands struggle with the absence of job opportunities and stability, the regime not only ignores this suffering but actively punishes those who speak about it. At the same time that a young man like Abdullah is imprisoned simply for demanding employment opportunities inside his own country, Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan has publicly stated that the fund has invested more than $85 billion in the European economy, contributing to the creation of over 240,000 jobs, with plans to generate 330,000 additional jobs abroad. The contradiction here is not merely economic—it is political and moral: jobs are exported overseas, while those who demand them at home are silenced and imprisoned.
What Abdullah Jilan is enduring is not an anomaly or an isolated case. It is part of a clear and deliberate policy to suppress calls for social and economic reform and to criminalize any public discussion of unemployment or basic rights. This policy exposes the hollowness of the regime’s claims of “modernization” and “openness,” as no genuine development or prosperous future can exist while young people are imprisoned for legitimate demands related to work and dignity.
Together for Justice affirms that the continued detention of Abdullah Jilan constitutes a serious violation of human rights. The organization calls for his immediate and unconditional release, for an independent and transparent investigation into the grave abuses he suffered during detention, and for accountability for all those responsible. It also urges the international community and human rights organizations to exert real pressure on Saudi authorities to end these repressive policies and to respect the fundamental rights of citizens—foremost among them the right to freedom of expression, the right to work, and the right to a dignified life within their own country.