Saudi young man spends four years in arbitrary pre-trial detention for demanding a job
The Saudi activist Bandar Al-Jahdali has continued to be held in arbitrary pre-trial detention since 2019 for demanding a job.
Al-Jahdali was arrested in November 2019 shortly after posting a tweet criticising the high unemployment rates in Saudi Arabia and demanding his right to work.
However, his demand was met with arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and torture.
Despite spending more than four years in jail, Al-Jahdali was not brought to court or allowed to meet his lawyer.
Since 2017, Saudi authorities have tightened restrictions on freedom of speech and escalated a brutal crackdown on individuals using online spaces to voice their opinions.
The 2017 crackdown campaign led to the arrest of dozens of social media activists who received harsh prison sentences up to decades.
Together for Justice calls on the Saudi authorities to release Al-Jahdali, who has been detained for more than four years without legal basis, and all those held behind Saudi bars for freedom of expression charges.
