Abdulrahman al-Dowaish

Arrest and jail information

• Prison: Malaz Prison, Riyadh
• Date of arrest: 18 October 2021
• Manner of arrest: He was arrested for sending a text message to Badr al-Asaker, the director of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s private office, to ask about his father Sulaiman al-Dowaish, whose fate and whereabouts have remained unknown since he was forcibly disappeared by the authorities in 2016. Al-Asaker then sent the order to the Public Prosecution for Abdulrahman’s arrest.

Trial information

• Charges: While in detention Abdulrahman was forced to sign a typed document in which he confessed under duress to a number of offences under the Anti-Cybercrime Law, including the preparation, storage and transmission by means of his mobile phone of material harmful to public order and privacy and defamatory of others. He was also made to confess to adopting an extremist ideology; attempting to damage community safety, the social fabric and public order by means of content sent from his mobile phone; and sending a message to someone via his mobile phone asking about his father and attaching tweets his father had posted insulting the country’s ruler.

Violations

• Arbitrary arrest/ detention ,
• Denied contact with family ,
• Denied access to a lawyer