ALQST has learned from its sources that once again the life of a prisoner of conscience is being put at risk, with Ibrahim al-Yamani having been moved to a cell with four “takfiris” who have threatened several times to kill him. A “takfiri” is someone who believes it lawful to kill any Muslim they consider guilty of apostasy.
Islamic scholar Ibrahim Mohammed Ha’il al-Yamani was arrested in September 2017, during the same wave of arrests that swept up prominent cleric Salman al-Odah, Islamic scholar Hassan Farhan al-Maliki and dozens of others. Al-Yamani has already warned the prison administration of the threat he is under and the danger to his life, but the prison administration have ignored his complaint, just as they ignored the letter he sent. ALQST notes that al-Yamani has previously suffered medical neglect and his health has greatly deteriorated. In a further act of vindictiveness, in 2020 the authorities prevented him from attending his father’s funeral.
ALQST is concerned and indeed fearful that al-Yamani may suffer the same fate as political reformer and prisoner of conscience Musa al-Qarni, who was likewise moved to share a cell with takfiri extremists and who, despite making repeated complaints to the prison administration, had his complaints ignored and ended up being murdered in his cell.
Al-Yamani holds a doctorate in criminal law and is on the faculty of Taibah University in Medina, where he serves as a legal consultant. He was formerly also a member of the Saudi Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) Society.
ALQST believes the Saudi authorities have started using various means to take their revenge on reform advocates and rights activists in Saudi prisons, whether by means of deliberate medical neglect (as in the case of Abdullah al-Hamid, leading to his death in April 2020) or, as in the case of Musa al-Qarni, and now too Ibrahim al-Yamani, by transferring them to cells with prisoners who hold takfiri views and would be likely to regard the reformers as apostates, or by moving them into cells with mentally ill and potentially violent prisoners, as in the cases of Mohammed al-Qahtani and Khaled al-Omair.
ALQST once again urges the Saudi authorities to release all prisoners of conscience unconditionally and without restriction and to quash all charges against them. It also urges them to provide the necessary protection for these prisoners both in prison and outside it, and reminds them that the safety and protection of prisoners are the authorities’ responsibility.
