Eighteen Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have sent a letter to the Bulgarian government expressing concern over the situation of Saudi human rights defender Abdulrahman AlBakr al-Khalidi, now in his fifth year of administrative detention in Bulgaria and facing the threat of deportation to Saudi Arabia. Pointing to Bulgaria’s obligations under international law, the letter calls for guarantees that no deportation will take place.
The letter, signed by members of the Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA), the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and the Left Group, highlights the plight of al-Khalidi, who has been caught in a prolonged asylum process in Bulgaria since November 2021 and under a deportation order since 2024. In July 2025, and again in February 2026, Bulgaria’s Supreme Administrative Court rejected his appeal against the detention order, placing him at imminent risk.
The MEPs warn in their letter that deportation would expose al-Khalidi to a real risk of torture, persecution and other grave human rights violations in Saudi Arabia due to his activism in the past. This began during the 2011 Arab Spring when he participated in peaceful pro-reform protests; following a wave of arrests of fellow activists in 2013, and after himself being summoned for interrogation, he fled Saudi Arabia and continued his advocacy in exile. He later joined dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s “Electronic Bees Army”, a project aimed at countering state disinformation.
In 2021, facing escalating threats in Turkey, al-Khalidi sought asylum in the European Union, but was arrested shortly after crossing the Turkish-Bulgarian border on 23 October 2021. Since then he has spent more than four years in detention, one of the longest periods in detention of any asylum seeker in Europe. He spent much of this time in harsh and degrading conditions at Sofia’s Busmantsi Detention Centre, where he faced repeated ill-treatment before being transferred in late January 2026 to the Lyubimets Detention Centre in southern Bulgaria.
The MEPs’ letter further asserts that al-Khalidi’s prolonged detention, justified by the authorities on unsubstantiated “national security” grounds, raises serious concerns under EU law, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the European Convention on Human Rights, and Bulgaria’s obligations under the Common European Asylum System. The letter also points out several procedural violations, including overreach by the National Security Agency (SANS). Bulgarian courts have repeatedly found the continuation of al-Khalidi’s detention unlawful and ordered his release, but these rulings have been neutralised by the issuance of new detention decisions.
The MEPs therefore urge the Bulgarian government to reassess the necessity and proportionality of al-Khalidi’s continued detention; to guarantee that no deportation or indirect refoulement will occur; and to ensure that his ongoing asylum proceedings are conducted free from undue interference.
They request a written response.
