Saudi Authorities Continue to Ignore Appeals of Dr. Muhammad Al-Qahtani’s Family to Reveal his Fate
Almost ten months have passed since the enforced disappearance of Dr. Muhammad Fahd Al-Qahtani from Al-Ha’ir prison. However, the Saudi authorities continue to ignore his family’s appeals to disclose his whereabouts or provide any information about his fate. No information has been passed on about his fate since Oct. 24.
His wife, Mrs. Maha Al-Qahtani, launched a cry for help more than once to disclose her husband’s fate after being denied any family contact by the al-Ha’ir Prison administration despite his difficult health situation.
On July 23, the family contacted the prison administration to ask again about Dr. Al-Qahtani. However, the prison administration claimed that “his name and ID number are not registered in their logs!”
The response came after repeated calls and appeals by the family, the last of which was on July 2023, during which the prison director vowed to call them back by himself soon.
The sudden disappearance of Mohamed Al-Qahtani came shortly after he demanded, in a phone call with his wife, that she file a complaint about the repeated harassment and ill-treatment he has faced in prison. However, the phone conversation suddenly ended, and his fate remained unknown until 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 focusing on the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 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 in November 2022 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.
Together for Justice expresses full solidarity with the Al-Qahtani family, calling on the Saudi authorities to disclose his fate and that of all those who have forcibly disappeared in the Kingdom.
