Secret Trial without Notice or Legal Representation: Saudi Regime Escalates Violations against British National Ahmad Al-Doush

Together for Justice expresses its deep concern over credible reports confirming that a secret court session was held for British citizen Ahmad Al-Doush on May 4, 2025, without notifying his family or legal counsel. This marks a grave escalation in the case and highlights the Saudi regime’s determination to conceal the reality of what political detainees are enduring, while openly violating the most basic principles of due process.
According to sources with direct knowledge of the matter—who requested anonymity—the session was conducted in complete secrecy, without any formal notice to his family or to his British lawyer, Heidi Dejkstal. The Saudi authorities have not disclosed the outcome of the hearing and continue to suppress all details related to the proceedings, which lacked the minimum guarantees of a fair trial.
Ahmad Al-Doush, a 41-year-old financial analyst with Bank of America, was arrested on August 31, 2024, during a personal visit to his family in Saudi Arabia. Since then, he has been held in solitary confinement, completely cut off from the outside world, even on the day his fourth child was born.
To date, Al-Doush has not been formally charged. The only consular visit allowed by Saudi authorities took place in November 2024, further underscoring the extreme isolation he is subjected to. According to his legal team, the investigation has revolved around minor personal posts on social media—none of which relate to Saudi Arabia—and alleged personal ties to the son of Saudi dissident Saad Al-Faqih, despite the absence of any actual relationship with the latter.
In December 2024, Al-Doush’s lawyer filed a formal complaint with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, stating that his arrest is in flagrant violation of international law and his right to freedom of expression and communication.
With the revelation of this unauthorized secret hearing, Together for Justice asserts that what occurred on May 4 cannot be deemed a legitimate legal process. Rather, it is part of a broader pattern of enforced disappearance, judicial abuse, and procedural manipulation used to issue politically motivated rulings prepared in advance.
There is growing concern that this hearing could lead to a harsh and arbitrary sentence issued behind closed doors, with no independent oversight or international scrutiny—particularly in a climate where Western governments, including the UK, remain conspicuously silent and refuse to provide substantive support, citing vague data privacy laws.
Together for Justice affirms that the continued secret and arbitrary detention of Ahmad Al-Doush—with no access to legal representation or a public hearing—is a flagrant violation of justice and human dignity, and a clear example of how the Saudi regime weaponizes its judiciary to punish dissent and silence independent voices, even when no crime has been committed.
In light of these alarming developments, Together for Justice:
- Demands an immediate, impartial, and transparent international investigation into the May 4 court session and the broader violations in Al-Doush’s case.
- Calls on the British government to end its silence, fulfill its legal and moral obligations to protect its citizen, and take concrete diplomatic measures.
- Urges the international community to suspend political, security, and diplomatic cooperation with the Saudi regime until it demonstrates a minimum commitment to human rights and the rule of law.
The ongoing silence over Ahmad Al-Doush’s ordeal—and that of countless other political prisoners in Saudi Arabia—represents not neutrality, but complicity. Secret trials are a warning sign of deeper and more dangerous abuses on the horizon if the world continues to look away.