Twenty One Months After Completing His Sentence, Dr. Amer Al-Almaei Remains Unlawfully Detained by the Saudi Regime
Twenty One months have passed since the end of Saudi physician and prisoner of conscience Dr. Amer Al-Almaei’s prison sentence in September 2023. Yet, the Saudi regime continues to hold him in arbitrary detention without any legal justification or explanation. His family remains in the dark regarding his current whereabouts, the reason behind his continued imprisonment, or even whether he is alive and well—another glaring example of the state’s absolute disregard for law and basic human rights.
Dr. Al-Almaei was arrested in March 2019 from his home in the city of Abha, during a widespread crackdown targeting intellectuals, reformers, and independent voices. He was forcibly disappeared for several months, denied contact with his family and lawyer, and subjected to physical and psychological torture. He was later brought before a court in a trial that lacked the most basic standards of fairness and due process. He was not granted the right to view the charges prior to trial, nor was he allowed to defend himself properly. In September 2021, the court issued a harsh sentence of nine and a half years in prison along with a fine of SAR 500,000, later reduced to four and a half years. However, even after serving the full term, he remains behind bars with no legal basis.
Dr. Al-Almaei’s case is not an exception—it is a clear manifestation of a broader pattern of repression that has come to define the Saudi judicial system, which functions not as a tool of justice, but as an extension of the regime’s security apparatus. Dissidents and reform advocates are routinely prosecuted through show trials, sentenced under vague or fabricated charges, and then, in many cases, denied release even after their sentences expire. It is a system designed not to uphold the law, but to punish independent thought and criminalise free expression.
Dr. Al-Almaei is not a criminal. He is a respected internal medicine specialist, a mosque preacher, and a humanitarian who dedicated much of his professional life to providing healthcare to displaced and low-income populations. His imprisonment, torture, and continued detention are a disgraceful stain on any claim the Saudi regime makes about reform or respect for human rights.
Like other prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Al-Almaei endures harsh detention conditions far removed from international standards. Inmates are subjected to poor hygiene, denial of medical care, long-term isolation, and complete disconnection from the outside world. The regime’s insistence on keeping him behind bars despite the official end of his sentence reflects a deliberate policy of oppression, where even unjust rulings are further abused to extend suffering indefinitely.
Together for Justice strongly condemns the ongoing illegal detention of Dr. Amer Al-Almaei and calls for his immediate and unconditional release. We also urge the international community, human rights organisations, and United Nations bodies to intensify pressure on the Saudi regime to end these grave violations, and to stop using the judiciary as a tool to legitimise state repression. What is happening to Dr. Al-Almaei is not an isolated miscarriage of justice—it is a deliberate political strategy to crush independent voices and maintain a climate of fear.
As long as the international community remains silent in the face of such crimes, the Saudi regime will continue to act with impunity. Justice cannot be delayed. Freedom cannot be negotiated. And the right to speak must never be reduced to a crime.
