The Human Rights Watch condemned the escalation of violations by the Saudi authorities in the Kingdom.
The organization said that many activists and human rights defenders are still subjected to harassment and unfair sentences inside the Kingdom.
It stated that the year 2021 witnessed arrest campaigns carried out by the Saudi authorities targeting peaceful activists and people calling for political and human rights reform.
It referred to the most prominent arbitrary judicial rulings during 2021, as the Saudi judiciary issued an arbitrary ruling last April against Mohammed Al-Rabiah, serving a 6-year prison sentence.
In the same month, the Saudi judiciary issued an arbitrary ruling against the detained young man, Abdul Rahman Al-Sadhan, serving a twenty-year prison sentence for his relief activity.
In June, Sudanese journalist Ahmed Ali Abdel Qader was sentenced to 4 years in prison because of his opposition to Saudi interference in Yemeni and Sudanese affairs.
The organization criticized the continued repression by the Saudi authorities against activists and opinion expression, despite allegations of formal reform promised by the authorities during 2020 and 2021.
The international human rights organization also denounced the continued provision of arms by the United States to Saudi Arabia, despite its continued repression.
The Saudi authorities continue to detain scientific competencies and national figures because they express opinions on the policies pursued by the Authority in managing the country’s affairs internally and externally.
The arrest of Dr Zayed Al-Banawi was among the figures who were authorized by the Authority to arrest and repress, against the background of his visual statements and his warning of the external dangers surrounding the country and the American conspiracy that wants to overthrow the Kingdom.
Al-Banawi is considered a military expert specializing in political and security sciences, as the authorities prevented him from being promoted to academics. He neglected his health until he became ill with cancer and diabetes during his imprisonment.
The Saudi Authority bears full responsibility for infringing on the scientific competencies and experts of the country, who had a prominent role in saving the country from the cycle of danger and international conspiracy and improving its reputation and standing through their arbitrary detention without legal basis.
In this context, the victims of the April 2019 campaign of arrests in Saudi Arabia are awaiting upcoming court sessions after two years of suffering and abuse in detention centres that lack human rights standards.
The account of Prisoners of Conscience concerned with detainees’ affairs on Twitter confirmed the holding of sessions for the trial of activists arrested by the Authority in the April 2019 campaign, which will start from 17 to 19 January.
Among the most prominent victims of the April 2019 campaign of arrests are the writer Abdullah Al-Duhailan, Musa Abu Hussein, Ayman Al-Drees, Nayef Al-Hindas, Abdullah Al-Shehri, and many other young people who are arbitrarily detained in the prisons of the Authority.
Many detainees are still being held without trial, as the authorities deliberately procrastinate and delay sentences to hide and abuse them.