ALQST is deeply concerned that veteran human rights defender Mohammed al-Bejadi has now been arbitrarily detained for two years beyond the expiry of his prison sentence, in a glaring example of the Saudi authorities’ unlawful and vindictive treatment of prisoners of conscience.
Al-Bejadi, a founding member in 2009 of the now banned Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), has been arrested and imprisoned three times for his peaceful human rights activism, most recently on 24 May 2018 during a crackdown on women’s rights defenders. He was subsequently sentenced to a 10-year prison term (with five years suspended) that expired in April 2023, since sentencing in Saudi Arabia is based on the Islamic Hijri calendar in which a year has 354 days.
Al-Bejadi previously spent four months in prison without charge or trial from September 2007 to January 2008, and was again jailed for more than five years, from March 2011 to April 2016, after taking part in a protest outside the Ministry of Interior. During that protest, he memorably declared:
“I do not have a family member in detention, but we must defend not only our own family but our whole country and all those who are oppressed. All prisoners of conscience are my family.”
In prison, he has faced torture and ill-treatment, including physical abuse and prolonged incommunicado detention, and has undertaken several hunger strikes.
His treatment illustrates a worrying trend in Saudi Arabia in which prisoners of conscience continue to be arbitrarily detained even after their sentences expire, in violation of basic international standards and the kingdom’s own domestic legislation. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, recently drew attention to this trend, highlighting al-Bejadi’s case.
Other cases include activist Abdulaziz al-Sunaidi, whose eight-year sentence expired in November 2022; writer Mohammed al-Hudaif, whose five-year sentence expired in January 2023; and journalist Wajdi al-Ghazzawi, whose 12-year sentence expired in March 2024. Two other prominent human rights defenders, Mohammed al-Qahtani and Essa al-Nukheifi, remained arbitrarily detained for more than two years after completing their prison terms before being conditionally released in January 2025.
In other cases where prisoners have neared the end of their prison terms and expected to be released, the Saudi authorities have increased their sentences in order to keep them in jail. Human rights activist Mohammed al-Rabiah, who was arrested alongside al-Bejadi during the 2018 crackdown, was resentenced in 2022, after completing his original sentence, to a further 17 years in prison. Also in 2022, human rights activist Israa al-Ghomgham, whose initial eight-year sentence would have expired by now, had her sentence increased on appeal to 13 years.
It is hard at present to see a consistent pattern to the authorities’ treatment of prisoners of conscience. Several have been released in recent weeks, on terms that remain unclear but have often included travel bans and other restrictions on their freedom. Many others, however, remain arbitrarily imprisoned like al-Bejadi, including fellow ACPRA members Issa al-Hamid (sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment) and Abdulaziz al-Shubaily (eight years), and fellow human rights defenders Mohammed al-Otaibi (17 years) and Waleed Abu al-Khair (15 years).
ALQST calls on the Saudi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mohammed al-Bejadi and all others being detained beyond the completion of their prison sentences, as well as all others detained for the peaceful exercise of their fundamental freedoms.
