Saudi Regime must release kidnapped Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr

Charge or release Saudi cleric: Amnesty
10 August, 2012 – Al Akhbar

A leading Saudi cleric must be either charged or released after a being detained for over a month without charge, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric, was violently arrested on July 8 after leading a number of pro-reform protests in the restive Qatif region.

Nimr was attacked by police and a photo after the arrest appeared to show he had been shot, sparking protests in the country’s fractious Eastern Province in which at least two people were shot dead.

He has since been detained for a month without formal charge and Amnesty demanded he be released.

“It has been a month since his arrest and Amnesty International is not aware of any charges being brought against him,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Program Director at Amnesty International said.

“Amnesty calls on the Saudi Arabian authorities to either charge him with a recognizably criminal offense or release him,” he added.

The Ministry of Interior announced Sheikh Nimr had been arrested as an “instigator of sedition” and was shot at as “he and those with him resisted security forces at a check-point, opened fire at security forces and crashed into a car belonging to security forces as he sought to escape.”

But they have provided no evidence for the claim that he resisted arrest, while his family said he was not armed, did not own a gun and was on his own at the time of his arrest.

His family also told Amnesty International they had been worried about him following his arrest and that they were not allowed by security officials to see him or talk to him in hospital until mid-July, when they were permitted just 15 minutes. …more