Saudi Regime Bars UN Expert from Visiting Dr. Salman Al-Odah Despite Deteriorating Health

Together for Justice strongly condemns the Saudi authorities’ decision to deny UN Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons, Dr. Claudia Mahler, access to detained scholar Dr. Salman Al-Odah in Al-Ha’ir prison, despite mounting reports of his deteriorating health and near-complete loss of vision in one eye. Al-Odah has been held in solitary confinement for more than seven and a half years.

The Saudi regime’s refusal to allow a UN mandate-holder to inspect Al-Odah’s condition is a blatant challenge to the international human rights system and a flagrant violation of the Kingdom’s obligations under the UN Charter and its cooperation with special procedures. This obstruction reflects the regime’s ongoing attempt to conceal the reality inside its prisons—particularly the prolonged medical neglect and continuous isolation of Dr. Al-Odah since 2017, which in itself constitutes a form of torture under international law.

According to his son, exiled academic and human rights advocate Dr. Abdullah Al-Odah, his father remains in enforced isolation with no access to his family or legal counsel. No final judgment has been issued in his case, and the last court session took place in 2021—over four years ago. During these proceedings, the public prosecution had called for his execution, alongside prominent clerics Awad Al-Qarni and Ali Al-Omari, in cases widely condemned by international rights groups as politically motivated and devoid of fair trial standards.

Dr. Al-Odah’s prolonged detention, without access to an independent judiciary, and despite critical health conditions, represents a gross human rights violation and a clear abuse of the legal system as a tool of repression. This episode further underscores the regime’s intolerance for independent religious voices—despite its public claims of reform and openness.

These developments occur at a sensitive time, as former and current U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to visit Saudi Arabia in the coming days to advance strategic and economic ties. This raises serious questions about the U.S. administration’s continued silence on rampant human rights violations in the Kingdom—especially given reports that U.S. officials are aware of Al-Odah’s situation and others like him, yet fail to take meaningful action.

In light of these alarming facts, Together for Justice calls on:

• UN Special Rapporteurs, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and all relevant UN mechanisms to immediately dispatch a fact-finding mission to Saudi Arabia to investigate prison conditions and demand Al-Odah’s unconditional release.

• The U.S. administration, particularly in the context of President Trump’s upcoming visit, to end its political complicity and exert serious pressure on the Saudi regime to release all prisoners of conscience and end arbitrary detention of scholars, clerics, and reformers.

We further demand accountability for all judicial and security officials complicit in Al-Odah’s continued unlawful detention.

Together for Justice holds the Saudi regime fully responsible for the wellbeing of Dr. Salman Al-Odah, and affirms that ongoing international silence is no longer neutrality—it is complicity. The global community must act decisively to put an end to these systematic violations.