Al Saud authorities prevented prisoner of conscience preacher Ibrahim Hayel Al Yamani from attending his father’s funeral.
The “Prisoners of Conscience” account on Twitter stated that the Al Saud authorities prevented “Al Yamani” from going out to attend the funeral of his father.
The account demanded the Al Saud authorities release the sheikh immediately.
“Al-Yamani” holds a PhD in criminal legislation and a master’s degree in jurisprudence. He is a faculty member at Taibah University, a legal advisor at the same university, and a member of the former municipal elections appeals committee, a former mufti at the Prophet’s Mosque, and a former instructor at “Muhammad University” Bin Saud”.
The Saudi preacher has been in detention since September 2017.
On August 30, the Al Saud authorities refused a request for the release of one of the prisoners of conscience, the preacher and Islamic thinker, “Saud Mukhtar Al-Hashemi,” from his detention camp to attend his brother’s funeral.
The “Prisoners of Conscience” account, concerned with the affairs of Saudi detainees, stated that “Saud Al-Hashemi” is currently prevented from receiving condolences for the death of his brother and sister-in-law.
This came a few days after Bloomberg confirmed that the Al Saud authorities prevented contacts between the well-known Saudi prisoners of conscience and their families, and increased repression against any opponent threatening to strain the relationship between the Kingdom and its Western allies.
The agency pointed out that the cessation of contact with the detainees represents to their families an unexpected escalation in the repression practised by Saudi Crown Prince “Mohammed bin Salman” against his local critics.
The families of the detainees live in a state of constant anxiety for their detained sons and daughters, especially after the death of “Abdullah Al-Hamid,” who was imprisoned during the reign of the former Saudi king, “Abdullah bin Abdulaziz”, and was transferred last April to the hospital after suffering a stroke and died in June. According to a letter from special rapporteurs at the United Nations to the Saudi government.
Al-Hamid – one of the founders of the “Hasm” reform project in Saudi Arabia – was arrested in March 2013 and sentenced to 11 years in prison, without explaining the reasons for the sentence.
It is noteworthy that the Al Saud authorities have arrested hundreds of businessmen, preachers and academics as part of the crackdown carried out by Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman since he assumed power in the Kingdom.