Saudi authorities set trial for imprisoned preacher Saleh Al-Shami
The Saudi authorities decided to set trial for Sheikh Saleh Al-Shami nearly a year after his arbitrary arrest without a clear legal basis. He will go on trial in May on charges of supporting the Gazan people and tweeting against the Israeli occupation.
Sheikh Saleh Al-Shami, 89, and his son were arrested for unknown reasons and in an undisclosed detention center, where they were both denied their right to legal presentation. He is currently in danger of dying as a result of intentional medical negligence.
His arrest came as part of a Saudi security campaign against a number of Syrian figures residing in Saudi Arabia and working in humanitarian activism. His charges were made public only a few days after they were referred to the judiciary. The indictment listed among its crimes “accepting foreign financial transfers, transferring funds to a Palestinian group that aids the northern Syrian Palestinians, transferring funds and aid to Gaza and the city of Idlib, and tweeting against a friendly nation.”
Sheikh Saleh bin Ahmed Al-Shami was born and raised in the countryside of Douma, Damascus. He spent forty-three years living in Saudi Arabia, teaching Sharia sciences in scientific institutions connected to the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University until 1998 AD.
Sheikh Al-Shami is regarded as one of the most well-known experts in Hadith sciences of the modern day. He is the son of Sheikh Ahmed Al-Shami, the former Douma mufti. Despite his distinguished biography and his maintaining a clean criminal record, Sheikh Al-Shami was detained and subjected to enforced disappearance despite his old age and his difficult health situation.
It is important to note that Sheikh Saleh Al-Shami’s life is in real danger as a result of the prison administration’s willful medical negligence. Private sources revealed that prior to last Eid al-Fitr, the sheikh’s attorney requested his transfer to the hospital over his health deterioration. Nevertheless, the request was turned down, and despite the fact that the sheikh’s condition was worsening, the prison authorities only allowed him to take small amounts of medication without sending him to the hospital.
We emphasize that Sheikh Saleh Al-Shami, who is almost ninety years old, and the other Syrian detainees in this case have been in the Kingdom for a long time—some of them since the 1980s—have valid official residences within the Kingdom, have no criminal records, and conduct all of their charitable work and relief efforts in compliance with the established legal channels in the Kingdom.
Together for Justice is urging the governments of all countries to take a strong stance against the Saudi Arabian government and to stop any kind of cooperation in order to guarantee the release of all political prisoners, human rights activists, and detainees held in Saudi jails.
In addition, Together for Justice makes a call to journalists, human rights advocates, activists, and all liberated people worldwide to insist that the international community and pertinent UN agencies put pressure on Saudi Arabia to free Sheikh Saleh Al-Shami and his companions right away and to cease the abuses they are suffering inside the infamous Saudi prisons.
