On 4 May 2017, Ben Emmerson, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, returned from a five-day visit of Saudi Arabia. Upon the conclusion of his trip, he released his preliminary observations. While he noted that the Saudi government was engaging in some positive steps to[…]
The Government of Saudi Arabia is pressuring the Government of Qatar to extradite Saudi activist Mohammed Abdullah al-Otaibi from Qatar, where he is seeking political asylum, back to Saudi Arabia. If Qatar gives into the Saudi government’s pressure, al-Otaibi is at risk of being arbitrarily detained and sentenced to prison in an unfair trial, if[…]
On 21 March 2017, Nader Almatrook delivered an oral intervention at the 34th session of the Human Rights Council under Item 9 on behalf of Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain. In his intervention, Almatrook brought the Council’s attention to religious discrimination in Saudi Arabia, particularly against the country’s Shia Muslim minority population[…]
In October, five Saudi prison officers physically assaulted and beat Dawood al-Marhoon, the 21-year-old Saudi inmate arbitrarily detained on death row, for filing a complaint over his mistreatment in prison. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) condemns this reprisal by Saudi authorities against Dawood. ADHRB calls on the Saudi government to immediately[…]
On 6 December 2016, Saudi Arabia sentenced 15 people to death for allegedly spying for Iran. The Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh sentenced 15 other suspects to prison terms ranging from six months to 25 years and acquitted two individuals. Of the 32 subjects, 30 are Shia, while the other two are Iranian and Afghani[…]