Rohingya Advocate Mohammed Alam Yassin Remains Imprisoned in Saudi Arabia Over His Peaceful Defense of the Rohingya Cause

Together for Justice reminds the international community of the case of Rohingya activist Mohammed Alam Yassin, Vice President of the Global Rohingya Center, who has been detained in Saudi Arabia since October 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison over his peaceful advocacy for the Rohingya people, despite the overturning of his sentence and his continued detention while awaiting a new ruling.

Nearly five years after his arrest, Mohammed Alam Yassin remains behind bars in a case that shows how repression in Saudi Arabia does not only target political opponents or domestic critics, but also extends to humanitarian activists and members of minority communities who raise their voices for justice beyond the kingdom’s borders.

Yassin was arrested in October 2021 in Mecca as part of a campaign targeting several Rohingya activists residing in Saudi Arabia. Their work focused on highlighting the suffering of the Rohingya minority and defending the rights of Rohingya refugees and displaced people around the world. Since then, his case has become a clear example of how independent humanitarian advocacy can be criminalized when it operates outside state control or does not fit the official narrative.

Mohammed Alam Yassin belongs to the Rohingya community in Saudi Arabia, with family roots in Arakan/Rakhine State in Myanmar, where the Rohingya have endured decades of systematic persecution, religious and ethnic discrimination, and forced displacement. Although he grew up in Saudi Arabia, Yassin remained connected to the cause of his people and dedicated years of his life to human rights and media advocacy, including organizing events, conferences, and awareness campaigns on the suffering of the Rohingya.

Yet these peaceful activities were not protected as legitimate humanitarian work. Instead, they became grounds for arrest and prosecution. Saudi authorities reportedly raided his home and detained him without clear legal safeguards before referring him to the Specialized Criminal Court, which issued a harsh 20-year prison sentence in proceedings that lacked transparency and basic guarantees of justice.

Although the sentence against him was later overturned, Mohammed Alam Yassin remains detained while awaiting a new ruling, raising serious concerns that judicial procedures are being used to prolong his imprisonment rather than remedy the violations committed against him. The overturning of the sentence should have opened the door to a serious review of the case and its legal flaws, not years of continued detention under uncertainty.

At its core, this case is not about a real crime. It is about peaceful advocacy for a minority that has suffered extensively documented persecution. Defending the rights of the Rohingya, organizing campaigns to raise awareness of their suffering, and engaging with groups concerned with their cause cannot legitimately justify imprisonment, let alone a 20-year sentence.

Together for Justice stresses that the continued detention of Mohammed Alam Yassin constitutes a clear violation of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful human rights work, and fair trial guarantees. His case also reflects a wider Saudi policy aimed at suppressing any form of independent civil activity, even when it concerns an external humanitarian cause that poses no genuine threat to the state or society.

His case further exposes a striking contradiction in Saudi Arabia’s official rhetoric. The Saudi authorities repeatedly claim to support Muslim causes around the world, yet they have imprisoned a Rohingya activist for peacefully defending a persecuted Muslim community. Punishing a person for standing with victims of persecution is not a matter of security; it is the criminalization of human solidarity.

From a legal perspective, Yassin’s arrest, prosecution, harsh sentence, and continued detention despite the overturning of his conviction raise serious concerns of arbitrary detention, denial of fair trial guarantees, and the misuse of the Specialized Criminal Court in a case involving no violence or genuine security threat.

Together for Justice holds the Saudi authorities fully responsible for Mohammed Alam Yassin’s physical and psychological safety and calls for his immediate and unconditional release, the dropping of all charges linked to his peaceful advocacy, and an end to the targeting of Rohingya activists residing in the kingdom.

The organization also urges the United Nations, the Human Rights Council, and international organizations concerned with minority and refugee rights to include Mohammed Alam Yassin’s case in the broader file of arbitrary detention in Saudi Arabia and to press for an end to the criminalization of independent human rights and humanitarian work.

Mohammed Alam Yassin was not imprisoned because he committed a crime. He was imprisoned because he chose to be a voice for his people. Nearly five years after his arrest, his case raises a clear moral and legal question: how can a state that claims to defend Muslim and humanitarian causes imprison a Rohingya activist for defending the Rohingya?