Mubarak bin Zuair: Saudi Media Professor Held Since 2017 Without a Clear Verdict Amid Secret Trials and Arbitrary Detention

Together for Justice recalls the case of Dr. Mubarak bin Zuair, a professor of media at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, who has been detained since October 2017 as part of the wide crackdown targeting preachers, academics, human rights defenders, and independent voices in Saudi Arabia.

More than eight years after his arrest, Dr. Mubarak bin Zuair remains in arbitrary detention, with no clear and publicly announced verdict against him and no genuine guarantees of a fair and transparent trial. Available information indicates that he was subjected to a secret trial in 2018, in proceedings that lacked transparency and raised serious concerns about his right to legal defence and access to a clear case file.

Dr. Mubarak bin Zuair was known as one of the voices calling for reform and freedoms in the kingdom. His peaceful intellectual and reformist positions appear to have made him a target during the 2017 crackdown and the wave of arrests that followed. His case forms part of a broader pattern in which Saudi authorities have used security agencies and the judiciary to silence academics, thinkers, and opinion-holders with independent public positions.

Before his arrest, Dr. Mubarak was reportedly removed from his teaching position and separated from his students, reflecting a pattern of professional and social punishment before the deprivation of liberty itself. He was stripped of his academic role and prevented from continuing his educational and intellectual work before being placed in detention.

Dr. Mubarak bin Zuair obtained a master’s degree in criticism from Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, and later received a doctorate in literature from the same institution before becoming a professor of media. Yet his academic status did not protect him from a crackdown that targeted independent voices inside universities, religious institutions, and media circles.

His continued detention for more than eight years without a publicly disclosed verdict constitutes a grave violation of his right to liberty and security of person and his right to fair trial guarantees. Holding a person in prison for years without a clear judicial outcome or an announced final judgment cannot be treated as lawful procedure; it is a form of prolonged political punishment.

Together for Justice stresses that secret trials do not deliver justice. In many cases involving prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia, they are used to conceal the absence of evidence, prevent public scrutiny, and deny detainees the right to an effective defence. Restrictions on family visits and legal communication further aggravate the violation and deepen the suffering of detainees and their families.

Dr. Mubarak bin Zuair’s case reflects a wider reality in Saudi Arabia, where hundreds of detainees face arbitrary detention, closed trials, denial of family visits, restricted access to lawyers, and psychological pressure. His case is not isolated; it is part of a system that punishes free expression and treats reformist thought as a threat.

Together for Justice holds the Saudi authorities fully responsible for Dr. Mubarak bin Zuair’s physical and psychological well-being. The organization calls for the immediate disclosure of his current health and legal status and for his family and lawyer to be allowed unrestricted access to him.

The organization also calls for his immediate and unconditional release unless clear and lawful charges are publicly presented, or for him to be brought immediately before a fair and public trial before an independent court with full guarantees of defence and transparency.

The continued imprisonment of Dr. Mubarak bin Zuair after more than eight years without a clear verdict shows that this is not a case of law, but a case of opinion and reform. Freedom for Dr. Mubarak bin Zuair, and for all prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia who have paid years of their lives for a peaceful word, position, or call for reform.