Lawyer Issa Al-Nukhaifi Remains Missing Despite Completing Sentence
Despite having completed his prison sentence, lawyer Issa Al-Nukhaifi has been subjected to enforced disappearance by Saudi authorities, depriving him of his legal and human rights. For over 21 months, Al-Nukhaifi has been completely cut off from his family, with Saudi officials ignoring their pleas for information regarding his whereabouts and the conditions of his detention.
Al-Nukhaifi was arbitrarily arrested in 2016 after documenting the violations faced by 12,000 citizens in Jizan during their forced displacement from their homes, which was accompanied by embezzlement and corruption. He accused the Saudi authorities of human rights violations and corruption.
Sources close to the situation report that Al-Nukhaifi was systematically tortured at the beginning of his detention, including being held in solitary confinement for extended periods. He was also subjected to enforced disappearance for months before his court appearance in 2017, where he faced an unfair trial. During this trial, he was deprived of the right to appoint a lawyer or even know the details of the charges against him.
Al-Nukhaifi was charged with typical accusations such as promoting sedition, insulting the state, and practicing terrorism. However, his real crime was expressing his views on the human rights situation in the Kingdom and criticizing the military intervention in Yemen. He did this through tweets on his Twitter account, calling on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to release prisoners of conscience and opposing the forced displacement of citizens for so-called development projects.
In a familiar pattern of behavior by the Saudi authorities, Al-Nukhaifi was arrested and became one of many detainees advocating for their release. Following a sham trial devoid of justice standards, he was sentenced to six years in prison in March 2018. The court also banned him from writing or participating in social media and from traveling outside the Kingdom for six years after his release.
Throughout his detention, Al-Nukhaifi endured severe human rights abuses, including being held in inhumane conditions and a disease-ridden environment, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like other prisoners of conscience, he was denied essential medical care and nearly lost his life due to medical negligence.
In mid-October 2022, Al-Nukhaifi began an open hunger strike to protest his continued imprisonment and non-release despite the end of his sentence. Instead of addressing his demands, the authorities transferred him to an unknown location, rendering him forcibly disappeared, similar to Dr. Muhammad Fahd Al-Qahtani, who vanished during the same period from the same prison.
Together for Justice urges the international community and relevant UN agencies to intervene urgently and pressure the Saudi authorities to disclose the fate of those forcibly disappeared in the Kingdom’s prisons, release them all, and launch serious investigations into the violations they have endured.