Saudi Regime Refuses to Release Pro-Palestine Businessman
The Saudi regime has been refusing to release businessman Osama Filali despite completing his prison sentence five months ago for unknwon reasons, while preventing him from having regular contact with his family and appealing against these violations he has been subjected to.
Prominent Saudi entrepreneur Osama bin Yahya Filali is the proprietor of Dar Al-Iman Trading Company, a pioneer in the Hajj and Umrah service industry, and the holder of an international ISO quality certificate. In addition, he held the positions of Vice Chairman of the Hajj and Umrah Committee at the Mecca Chamber of Industry, Chairman of the Hajj and Umrah Authority of the Chamber of Commerce in Jeddah, and Secretary General of the Domestic Pilgrims Authority in the Kingdom.
The Saudi authorities detained him in June 2018 and forcibly disappeared him for a year without bringing him before a court or allowing him to contact his family, despite his good reputation and clean criminal record. It was eventually revealed that the reason for his arrest was his support of the Palestinian laborers who had been arbitrarily detained in Saudi Arabia for defending the rights of the Palestinian people and calling for the end of the Israeli occupation.
Osama Filali was arrested along with his brother Hisham Filali. They both remained in solitary confinement for a year. They were not allowed to receive family visits or to appoint a lawyer to attend their investigations. Months later, they were brought before the court, which ruled that they be imprisoned for 5 years without allowing their lawyers to check their charge file.
Together for Justice renews its call to the relevant authorities in the United Nations and the free people around the world to unite their efforts in order to pressure the Saudi authorities to release all prisoners of conscience and political prisoners and open serious investigations into the violations they have been subjected to.
The organization further states that these individuals’ arrest was unlawful from the start; the Saudi authorities attempted to legitimize the situation by trying to bring them to trial, but those were farcical plays in which the fundamental requirements of justice were not met; additionally, the authorities do not follow through on these same rulings when their sentences come to an end, and they keep these detainees in custody without any legal basis.
