UN Rapporteur ‘Concerned’ About Health Condition of Detained Saudi Shia Cleric

Date: 26 August 2022 - 21:29

News ID: ۱۰۶۱۴۹

RIYADH (Dispatches) – The United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders has expressed concern about the deteriorating health condition of Saudi Shia cleric and human rights activist Sheikh Mohammed Hassan al-Habib, as the Riyadh regime presses ahead with its heavy-handed crackdown on members of the religious community and pro-democracy campaigners.
Mary Lawlor said that she is concerned about the fate of prisoners of conscience at detention centers across Saudi Arabia, some of whom are suffering from serious physical conditions due to deliberate medical negligence.
Lawlor, in a post published on her Twitter page, said she is very worried about the report on the deterioration of the physical condition of the Saudi clergyman, who has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Activists say the physical condition of Sheikh Habib, who is being held behind bars in Saudi Arabia’s Dammam Central Prison, is very critical due to the lack of healthcare and medical negligence, which Saudi prison officials exercise to torture and gradually kill prisoners.
According to the London-based rights group ALQST, an independent non-governmental organization advocating human rights in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Shia cleric and human rights activist suffers from sciatica, back pain and headache as a result of systematic torture after his arrest in 2016.
The human rights organization called on Saudi authorities to fulfill their obligations towards Sheikh Habib, and release him immediately.
ALQST also demanded the withdrawal of trumped-up charges leveled against him and all prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, a court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a distinguished cleric and former imam of the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca to 10 years in prison, amid an intensified crackdown led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, against pro-democracy campaigners, Muslim preachers, and intellectuals in the kingdom.
The so-called Specialized Criminal Appeals Court in Riyadh handed the prison sentence to Sheikh Saleh Al Talib after overturning a previous acquittal, according to the U.S.-based rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn).
Abdullah Alaoudh, a spokesperson for Dawn, condemned the prison sentence and said it was part of a growing pattern of clerics and imams facing imprisonment for speaking out against cosmetic freedoms, like allowing concerts, sporting events, and general entertainment, which the crown prince, also known as MBS, is pushing for.
“The sentencing of the Grand Mosque’s Imam Saleh Al Talib to 10 years for criticizing social changes and the sentencing of female activist Salma al-Shehab to 34 years for calling for real social reforms is a stark irony that tells us that MBS’s oppression threatens every group,” said Abdullah.