Saudi human rights activist Waleed Abu al-Khair remains in prison even after 7 years

-


Waleed Abu Al-Khair is a lawyer and head of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, an organisation which monitors and documents human rights violations in Saudi Arabia.

The human rights defender was sentenced on 6 July 2014 to 15 years' imprisonment, a travel ban of equal duration, as well as a fine of 200,000 Saudi Riyal, on charges of “striving to overthrow the state and the authority of the King”; “criticizing and insulting the judiciary”; “assembling international organizations against the Kingdom”; “creating and supervising an unlicensed organization, and contributing to the establishment of another”; and, “preparing and storing information that will affect public security”.

Human Rights Defenders are deeply concerned about the deteriorating health of human rights defender Waleed Abu Al-Khair, who remains in prison since 7 years, especially given that he suffers from diabetes. Human Rights Defenders are also concerned about the ill-treatment he has been subjected to while in prison, which is believed to be directly linked to his peaceful and legitimate human rights work.

Human rights defender Waleed Abu Al-Khair started an open-ended hunger strike on 29 November 2019, to protest against the ill-treatment and solitary confinement he has been subjected to while in prison. On 10 December 2019, he ended his hunger strike after being moved back to his previous cell from the high security solitary confinement section. The next day, he restarted it when he was returned to solitary confinement. On 9 January 2020, after 30 days on hunger strike which caused his health to deteriorate drastically, the human rights defender was transferred to a hospital under high security measures. While in hospital, he was denied appropriate medical attention. He has been returned to solitary confinement since and has restarted his hunger strike.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chicago Police release footage of officer fatally shooting 13-year-old boy

-
Image
Police Bodycam footage of a 13-year-old boy being shot dead by police in Chicago shows the youth appearing to drop a handgun and raising his hands less than a second before an officer kills him. A still frame taken from Officer Eric Stillman’s body camera footage shows that Adam Toledo was empty handed had his hands up when Officer Stillman shot him once in the chest at about 3am on 29 March. Police, who were responding to reports of shots fired in the area, say the boy had a handgun on him before the shooting. Officer Stillman’s footage shows him shining a light on a handgun on the ground near Adam after he shot him.    The release of the footage and other investigation materials comes at a sensitive time, with the ongoing trial in Minneapolis of former Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd and the recent police killing of another black man, Daunte Wright, in one of that city’s suburbs. Before the Civilian Office of Police Accountability posted the material on it...
Read more

Israel destroys nature reserve, uproots 10,000 trees

-
Image
The Israeli army destroyed a natural reserve and uprooted at least 10,000 trees in a military campaign in the northern West Bank in a move that Palestinians termed a "crime". Moataz Bisharat, who is responsible for monitoring Israeli settlement activity in the Jordan Valley, told Anadolu Agency that the occupation army pushed military vehicles and dozens of soldiers into the Ainun area in Tubas city in the morning and destroyed a nature reserve built on an area of about 400 dunums (98 acres). The occupation army "chopped down and destroyed about 10,000 forest trees and about 300 olive trees," he said. Trees were planted in the nature reserve eight years ago as part of the Greening Palestine project supervised by the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture and funded by the Venezuelan consulate in Palestine. Bisharat stressed that the occupation alleged that the destruction of the reserve came as it was classed as a military zone even though it was not more than 300 metr...
Read more

Unrest in South Africa increases fars of food and fuel shortages

-
Image
 Violence and looting has raged in South Africa for the sixth day running, stoking fears of food and fuel shortages as disruption to farming, manufacturing and oil refining began to bite amid the country’s worst unrest in decades. More than 70 people have died as grievances over the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma have widened into an outpouring of anger over the inequality that remains 27 years after the end of apartheid. Poverty has been exacerbated by severe social and economic restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. More than 1,200 people have been arrested in the lawlessness that has raged in poor areas of two provinces, where a community radio station was ransacked and forced off the air on Tuesday and some COVID-19 vaccination centres were closed, disrupting urgently needed inoculations. Many of the deaths in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces occurred in chaotic stampedes as thousands of people stole food, electric appliances, liquor and clothing from ...
Read more