May Crackdown – Blogger Zainab Al-Hashemi is Subject to Enforced Disappearance So Far

The “Together for Justice” organisation announces its full solidarity with the family of the Saudi blogger Zainab Mohamed Al-Hashemi, who was arrested six months ago as part of the fierce campaign of arrests last May, which affected a large number of activists, tweeters and actors on social media, and since then, her news were disconnected with the complete refusal of the authorities to disclose any information about her.

Blogger and tweeter Zainab Al-Hashemi is considered one of the Saudi actors on Twitter, who are at risk of security prosecution in Saudi Arabia if they tweet against the regime’s policies or the Crown Prince.

According to private sources, Al-Hashemi was arrested after returning from travel after a medical trip with her husband abroad, where she was forced to return to the funeral of her father, but the authorities arrested her and subjected her to enforced disappearance until this moment, while refusing to provide the family with any news or information about her legal position, circumstances and location or reasons for her detention.

Enforced disappearance is a crime punishable by international law and the Charter of the United Nations, which states that “no exceptional circumstance, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability, or any other exceptional case, may be invoked to justify enforced disappearance.”

The charter added that every state must take the necessary measures to make enforced disappearance a crime in its criminal law, as this practice constitutes a grave violation of the human right to freedom and a secure life.

We affirm our total rejection of subjecting activists, human rights defenders and any citizen to enforced disappearance, and in this regard we call on the United Nations with its various agencies to immediately intervene to compel the Saudi regime to reveal the fate of all forcibly disappeared persons in its prisons, and to refer those responsible for this to legal accountability that ensures that these detainees obtain their right to Redress those who practiced these heinous violations against them.

We call on the various governments of the world to take a decisive practical stance that puts an end to the increasing violations of the Saudi regime due to the continuous cooperation with it by the international community, which it did not respect its covenants to preserve and defend human rights and to ensure that everyone obtains their rights around the world.