Name: Ghassan Bahaauddin Zrek
Field of Work: Executive Director of the “By My Hand, I Wrote It” project
Date of Arrest: January 3, 2023
Sentence: 13 years in prison
Current Place of Detention: Unknown
Charges Against Him:
- Communicating with foreign entities
Trial and Sentencing Timeline:
- January 3, 2023: Arbitrarily arrested without a warrant
- Days after his arrest: Sentenced to 13 years in prison by the Specialized Criminal Court, without a fair trial
- Denied the right to legal representation and appeal
Violations:
- Arbitrary Detention: No legal basis for his arrest
- Violation of the Right to a Fair Trial:
- Denied the right to a lawyer
- No access to a proper legal defense
- A rushed trial that lasted only a few days before sentencing
Targeting Due to His Work:
- Arrested for gifting a book to Yasin Aktay, a former advisor to the Turkish president
- Part of a continued crackdown on individuals with any ties to Turkey, despite the official normalization of relations between the two countries.
Who is Sheikh Ghassan Bahaauddin Zrek?
Sheikh Ghassan Zrek is an educator, Islamic scholar, and executive director of the “By My Hand, I Wrote It” project—a unique initiative aimed at helping people memorize and review the Quran by writing it by hand. The project, launched in 2018, gained widespread recognition for its educational value, with Zrek promoting the idea and gifting copies of the workbook to officials, media figures, and public personalities.
His so-called crime? Meeting with Turkish President Erdogan’s former advisor Yasin Aktay and gifting him a copy of his project.
Within days of his arrest, Zrek was sentenced to 13 years in prison for “communicating with foreign entities,” highlighting the absurdity of Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on free speech and harmless interactions.
Sham Legal System
While Saudi Arabia promotes its “reform and openness” and secures global events like FIFA World Cup 2034 and Expo 2030, it runs secret courts that issue harsh sentences against peaceful individuals in mere days.
How can the world believe in Saudi Arabia’s “modernization efforts” when people like Sheikh Ghassan Zrek are imprisoned for gifting a book?
FIFA and Expo 2030, you are legitimizing a regime that weaponizes its judicial system to silence and imprison innocent people. Is this what you stand for? We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Sheikh Ghassan Bahaauddin Zrek. His continued imprisonment is a grave injustice that must end now!