The Continued Detention of Dr. Mohamed Al-Khudari in Saudi Prisons is Illegal
Together for Justice organisation has condemned the ongoing detention of Palestinian detainee Dr. Mohamed Al-Khudari in Saudi prisons despite finishing his three-year sentence last February. The organisation warned of the further deterioration of his health condition inside the notorious Saudi prisons.
Last August, the Criminal Court in Riyadh had sentenced Al-Khudari to 15 years in prison, with a half-term stay in prison, but in December the appeals court reduced the sentence to 6 years with a stay of execution of three of them, bringing the final sentence to 3 years ending in February 2022.
Mohamed Al-Khudari, 83, and is a Palestinian doctor, was arrested with his son Dr. Hani in February 2019, as part of a massive arrest campaign against more than 60 Palestinians and Jordanians residing in Saudi. They faced charges of rejecting the Israeli occupation and supporting the Palestinian cause.
After more than two and a half years of detention and an unfair trial, 68 Palestinian and Jordanian detainees were either acquitted or sentenced to imprisonment for up to 22 years, however, after a few months, the acquittal sentences were rescinded and replaced again with imprisonment.
Dr. Al-Khudari was subjected to a number of legal and humanitarian violations at the hands of Saudi security and investigators. He was also detained in harsh, inhuman conditions that are inadequate to his health condition, as he suffers from cancer. The Saudi authorities are using his ongoing detention as a means to slowly kill him, as it deliberately denies him medical treatment.
Al-Khudari is also deprived of visitation and has been transferred in a humiliating manner, with about 29 other detainees, to prison in Abha in November 2020 as a form of abuse.
Together for Justice calls on the international community to take a decisive stance against the violations committed by the authorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and stop cooperating with it until the release of all prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders and detainees who are arrested to settle scores with other governments and regimes is guaranteed.
We also appeal to activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and people of conscience in the world to demand the international community and relevant UN bodies to pressure Saudi Arabia for the immediate release of Dr. Muhammad Al-Khudari, and to stop the violations he is subjected to.
