Saudi Arabia: Unjustly Detained Reformist Cleric Tortured
On 13 November 2017, two months after Sheikh Salman Alodah’s arrest, men in civilian clothing and balaclavas who were believed to be from the state security directorate searched Sheikh Salman Alodah’s house and confiscated electronic devices and books. The family asked whether the men had a warrant, and the men said no. The men refused to give the family a reason for the search.
Since his detention, Sheikh Salman Alodah’s entire family in Saudi Arabia are on an unofficial travel ban, a total of 19 individuals.
Sheikh Salman Alodah was detained incommunicado and in solitary confinement for the first five months of his detention, with no access to his family or a lawyer, except for one brief phone call a month after his arrest. In January 2018, he was hospitalized as his health was deteriorating. He was only allowed to call his family a month later. Although he is predominantly held in solitary confinement, Sheikh Salman Alodah has now been permitted regular visits from his family, around once a month.
In court documents reviewed by Amnesty International, Sheikh Salman Alodah is charged on 37 counts, including for association with the Muslim Brotherhood, “incitement to drag the Kingdom into internal revolutions and supporting revolutions in Arab countries by promoting clips that support the revolutions, conveying an image of what the people are suffering, and investing time in focusing on shortcomings in internal affairs, highlighting the grievances of prisoners, and promoting freedom of opinion”, and “inciting discord and inciting public opinion through defamation by publishing speech on social media that included demands that touched the emotions of the masses, inciting them against the state by demanding the release of prisoners, accusing the Ministry of Interior and prisons in the Kingdom of transgression, demanding that the Ministry of Interior admit mistakes, and criticizing the Kingdom's decision-making policy”.
Amnesty International has documented the Saudi authorities’ increasing crackdown on freedom of expression, targeting both citizens and foreign nationals, many of whom have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. This includes criticizing the government and its policies.
Legal proceedings in these cases fall far short of international fair trial standards. Individuals are often held incommunicado without charge, in solitary confinement and denied access to lawyers or the courts to challenge the lawfulness of their detention. Since 2013, Amnesty International has documented the cases of 86 individuals who have been prosecuted solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, including human rights defenders, peaceful political activists, journalists, poets and clerics. Of those, 40 were prosecuted for expressing their opinions on social media. Amnesty International is aware that the real number of such prosecutions is likely much higher.