RIYADH (Middle East Eye/MEMO) – Rights groups have expressed concern for the whereabouts of Saudi activist Mohammad al-Qahtani as his 10-year prison term came to an end.
Qahtani is a Saudi economics professor, political activist, and one of the founding members of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), a now-disbanded organization.
In 2012, he and ACPRA’s other co-founder Abdullah al-Hamid were arrested and were handed 10- and 11-year prison sentences, respectively, over accusations that include “breaking allegiance to the ruler”, “questioning the integrity of officials”, “seeking to disrupt security and inciting disorder”, and “instigating international organizations against the kingdom”.
According to campaigners, Qahtani’s sentence ended on Tuesday, however, his current whereabouts are unknown.
“Dr Mohammad al-Qahtani’s prison term has expired and he has not been released,” Adel al-Saeed, an activist with the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), told Middle East Eye.
“His wife said more than 20 days ago that the prison administration had prevented him from communicating and transferred him to another unknown location.”
ESOHR said that Qahtani was transferred after he submitted a complaint to prison authorities that he was being harassed by other inmates.
Meanwhile, Hamid, a pioneering Saudi human rights defender, died in prison while serving his sentence in 2020.
He suffered a stroke two weeks before his death but was kept in detention despite being in a coma at the hospital.
Several other founding members of ACRPA are also behind bars, including Waleed Abu al-Khair and Mohammed al-Bajadi, who has been detained without charge or trial since 2018.
Saeed said Saudi Arabia was pursuing a “systematic policy” of not releasing political prisoners despite them having served out their terms.
Meanwhile, the United Nations human rights office has censured Saudi Arabia over the ultraconservative kingdom’s near daily executions in recent weeks and termination of a 21-month moratorium on implementing the death penalty for drug-related offenses.