Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Dakhil Arbitrarily Detained for Tweeting against Corruption
Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Dakhil
Dozens of activists, opponents, government critics, intellectuals and human rights defenders are being subjected to arbitrary detention and trial simply for expressing their views on social media. This comes while the Saudi authorities are currently trying to improve their reputation in the media and by fixing their political and diplomatic positions with other countries in an attempt to appease to the new US president who has threatened to makes Saudi a pariah.
For the second time, Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Dakhil, former Undersecretary of the Saudi Ministry of Finance, has been arbitrarily detained for nearly 9 months for tweeting about one of the detainees in Saudi Arabia.
His son Abdelhakim, 42, law graduate who worked in Al-Dakhil Financial Group, stated that his father is an old man who got arrested despite his social status and diplomatic immunity.
Abdelhakim published tweets about his father’s attempts to combat financial corruption and his calls for freedom and justice, for which he was arrested and his relatives threatened by security forces, which also hacked some of their social media accounts.
Smear campaigns also targeted Abdelhakim questioning his relationship to the family as he called for revealing the fate of his father. Therefore, Abdelhakim recorded a video introducing himself and displaying his personal data.
Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Dakhil is one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent scholars who obtained a master’s and doctorate degree in economics from Indiana University Plumington, USA in 1969 and 1973 and worked as an assistant teacher in economics in the same the University.
Upon his return to Saudi Arabia, he worked in government jobs until he became an undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance and National Economy for financial affairs and accounts. In 1979, Dr. Al-Dakhil resigned from government work and established the Consultative Center for Investment and Finance in Riyadh.
According to his son; following the Arab Spring revolutions and the spread of social media platforms, Al-Dakhil called to Diwaniyah where he spoke at length on development and economy. Al-Dakhil was keen on making positive changes for the benefits of the country, and he was never critical of the king or the government.
Together for Justice calls on the Saudi authorities to release Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Dakhil immediately and unconditionally, and to respect the right of the Saudi citizen to express his opinions without harm or intimidation, since respecting human rights and giving the public the freedom of speech is the only way to achieve stability and win the respect of all countries of the world.
READ: Saudi detainees should not be used as a political tool
