Two Months since Enforced Disappearance of Mohammed Al-Qahtani
Two months have been passed since the enforced disappearance of the Saudi prominent human rights defender and academic Mohammed Al-Qahtani.
A month ago, Mohammed Al-Qahtani has completed his 10-year prison sentence he received on charges relating to his peaceful human rights work, including establishing the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA). However, he was kept in detention amid sudden disappearance for nearly two months.
According to family sources, Al-Qahtani has been denied any family contact since 24 October 2022.
Since then, the Saudi authorities have refused to provide any information about Al-Qahtani, thus subjecting him to enforced disappearance.
The sudden disappearance of Al-Qahtani came shortly after he demanded, in a phone call with his wife, to file a complaint about the repeated harassment and ill-treatment he has faced in prison. However, the phone conversation was suddenly ended, and his fate remained unknown till today.
In detention, Al-Qahtani was subjected to repeated harassment and human rights violations, pushing him to declare a hunger strike more than once in protest against his difficult detention conditions.
Al-Qahtani, a former professor at the Riyadh Institute for Diplomatic Studies, was arrested in 2012 along with other cofounders of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) which called for focussing on the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and for an elected parliament and the creation of legal institutions to support transparency and accountability in the Kingdom.
Together for Justice declares total support to the Al-Qahtani family, and calls on the Saudi authorities to disclose his location and to release him immediately and unconditionally, as there is no legal basis for his continued detention.
