ALQST has learned that the Saudi authorities have arbitrarily stopped 85-year-old political prisoner Mohammed Saleh al-Khudari’s hormone treatment for prostate cancer, in callous disregard for his life. The jailed former Hamas representative has not seen a specialist consultant or had any medical tests or assessments for two years, despite repeated appeals from his family as his health has continued to deteriorate during this time. The Abha Prison administration has persisted in ignoring his medical needs, and even denied him the health supplements brought for him by visitors. Meanwhile, ALQST recalls that the courts previously agreed to al-Khudari’s release from jail on medical grounds and ruled that he could be placed under house arrest instead, but the security authorities have never implemented the court order.
Mohammed al-Khudari is a former Palestinian official and long-term resident of Saudi Arabia who was undergoing post-operative cancer treatment at the time of his arbitrary arrest in April 2019. He was brought before the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) on 8 March 2020, along with 67 other Palestinians and Jordanians associated with the Palestinian cause, at the start of a mass trial that was marred by numerous violations of international fair trial guarantees. On 8 August 2021, the court handed down prison sentences ranging from six months to 22 years against them. Al-Khudari got 15 years with half the term suspended, which was reduced on appeal on 28 December 2021 to six years with half the term suspended, meaning that his sentence has now expired.
The Palestinians and Jordanians were subjected to numerous violations in detention following their mass arrest early in 2019, including months of enforced disappearance, long periods in solitary confinement, and torture. Several of them have been denied adequate medical care in prison for chronic ailments including diabetes, hypertension and arthritis.
Al-Khudari’s condition worsened once he stopped getting even the limited treatment he was previously given in Dhahban Prison before being transferred to Abha Prison in November 2020. His family are seriously concerned for him and fear that his life is in danger as a result of this gross neglect on the part of the Saudi authorities. Meanwhile, al-Khudari’s son Hani al-Khudari, who is also in detention, requires urgent surgery for gallstones.
ALQST calls on the Saudi authorities to provide Mohammed al-Khudari and Hani al-Khudari with the medical care they urgently need, and to release them immediately and unconditionally. Furthermore, ALQST calls for all detainees in Saudi prisons to receive the medical treatments and medications they require, as well as basic healthcare of the same standard as the general population; and for an end to the harassment and ill-treatment of prisoners of conscience, who should be immediately and unconditionally released.
