Reports

 Mohamed Al-Qahtani Still Forcibly Disappeared for 120 Days

120 days have been passed since the forced disappearance of Dr. Mohamed Al-Qahtani from al-Ha’ir prison. No information has been passed about his fate since Oct. 24 despite his family calls to disclose his whereabouts.

The wife of the imprisoned human rights defender Dr. Mohamed Al-Qahtani launched a cry for help to disclose her husband’s fate after being denied any family contact by the al-Ha’ir Prison administration despite his difficult health situation.

Mrs. Maha Al-Qahtani affirmed that her husband has been denied any family contact since 24 October 2022.

Since then, the Saudi authorities have refused to provide any information about Al-Qahtani, thus subjecting him to enforced disappearance.

The sudden disappearance of Al-Qahtani came shortly after he demanded, in a phone call with his wife, to file a complaint about the repeated harassment and ill-treatment he has faced in prison. However, the phone conversation was suddenly ended, and his fate remained unknown till today.

Al-Qahtani, a former professor at the Riyadh Institute for Diplomatic Studies, was arrested in 2012 along with a large number of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) which called for focussing on the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and for an elected parliament and the creation of legal institutions to support transparency and accountability in the Kingdom.

One year later, Al-Qahtani was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by a 10-year travel ban after an unfair and secret trial.

Al-Qahtani is scheduled to be released last November after serving his prison sentence. However, he was moved to an unknown detention center.

In detention, Al-Qahtani was subjected to repeated harassment and human rights violations, pushing him to declare a hunger strike more than once in protest against his difficult detention conditions.

In this regard, Together for Justice calls on the international community to take serious action against the growing human rights violations being reported in Saudi prisons and to intervene to disclose the fate of Dr. Al-Qahtani and all those forcibly disappeared in the Kingdom.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button