The Saudi “thumb print” of extrajudicial detention and torture stains the region

Saudi Arabia: Free Islamic Scholar Who Criticized Ministry
Dr. Yusuf al-Ahmad Arrested for Defending Detainee Rights
July 14, 2011

The Saudi Interior Ministry seems intent on arresting every last critic standing. Now it’s put behind bars a prominent cleric, apparently just because he dared to criticize the government’s policy of arbitrarily detaining people without any sort of judicial process.

(Beirut) – The Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abd al-‘Aziz, should immediately release an Islamic scholar who was detained after he criticized the ministry’s handling of detainees, Human Rights Watch said today. Dr. Yusuf al-Ahmad was detained without charge the day after he published his criticism, apparently as a direct result of his internet post.

On July 7, 2011, al-Ahmad posted a video message on YouTube in which he criticized the long-term detention of security suspects without charge or trial. In the video, the Islamic scholar, who teaches at Imam Muhammad bin Sa’ud University in Riyadh, also criticized the arrests of women who went to the ministry on July 2 and on previous occasions to protest, peacefully, the long-term detention of their male relatives.

“The Saudi Interior Ministry seems intent on arresting every last critic standing,” said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Now it’s put behind bars a prominent cleric, apparently just because he dared to criticize the government’s policy of arbitrarily detaining people without any sort of judicial process.”

Al-Ahmad’s Twitter account administrator reported on July 8 that the scholar had been arrested that day at his father’s house in Dammam, in the Eastern Province. Saudi authorities have not announced any charges against al-Ahmad. …more