GENEVA: The top United Nations human rights official called on Saudi Arabia yesterday to release activists she said had been arrested for peacefully demanding freedoms, halt the use of lashings and investigate their alleged ill-treatment.
Navi Pillay, in a rare statement critical of the kingdom, currently an elected member of the UN Human Rights Council, voiced dismay at the conviction and “harsh sentencing” of Walid Abu Al Khair.
The prominent Saudi rights lawyer was sentenced to 15 years on Sunday on charges that included seeking to undermine the state and insulting the judiciary.
“Abu Al Khair’s case is a clear illustration of the continuing trend of harassment of Saudi human rights defenders, several of whom have been convicted for peacefully promoting human rights,” Pillay said.
“I urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release all human rights defenders held in connection with their peaceful advocacy of human rights,” she said.
Abu Al Khair had been on trial on sedition charges that included breaking allegiance to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, showing disrespect for authorities, creating an unauthorised association and inciting public opinion.
Human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia have been charged with “offences defined in a vague manner in counterterrorism legislation”, said Pillay, a former UN war crimes judge.
Abu Al Khair, founder and director of an organisation named the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, was critical of a new anti-terrorism law passed by Saudi Arabia at the start of the year that was condemned by rights activists as a tool to stifle dissent.
“He is not alleged to have been involved in any violent activity but only for expressing his opinion,” Pillay said, noting that he was tried in the Specialised Penal Court.
“Proceedings against human rights defenders in the Specialised Penal Court, as well as in other courts in Saudi Arabia, have fallen short of international fair trial standards,” she said.
Harsh sentences have been handed down in such cases, including “long prison terms, heavy fines, travel bans, as well as corporal punishment”, she added.
Abu Al Khair was fined 200,000 Saudi riyals ($53,300), banned from travelling for another 15 years and had all his websites closed down.
He asserts that he was subjected to solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and denied access to his lawyer and family.
REUTERS
