AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The daughter of a high-ranking official of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, has urged Saudi Arabia's King Salman to order immediate release of her father and brother amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and as the holy fasting month of Ramadan is drawing near.
Mai al-Khudari, in press remarks to the Palestinian Information Center, called on the Saudi monarch and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to swiftly free the 81-year-old Mohammed al-Khudari and his son, Hani, and send them back to Palestine.
“My father and brother are innocent, and we call on Saudi Arabia to take quick steps to pardon them and other Palestinians who were arrested with no guilt,” she said.
She also expressed her family’s great concern over the health condition and the lives of her father and brother, especially in light of the spread of the highly contagious new coronavirus.
Last month, Amnesty International said Khudari and his son were brought before the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) in the capital Riyadh as part of a mass trial of 68 individuals on trumped-up charges under the so-called counter-terror law.
They were arbitrarily arrested on April 4, 2019 and remained in detention without charges until March 8 this year. Both men were forcibly disappeared for one month after their arrest, and held incommunicado and in solitary confinement for the next two months of their detention.
A month into the senior Hamas official’s detention, his wife received a phone call from authorities in the maximum security Dhahban Prison near the Red Sea port city of Jeddah requesting his medical records. Two weeks prior to his arrest, Khudari had undergone surgery.
Khudari is currently being held in al-Hai’r Prison in Riyadh, while his son is detained in Dhahban Prison. Their next court session is scheduled for May 5.
Khudari has been living in Saudi Arabia for over 30 years, and represented Hamas between mid-1990s and 2003 in the kingdom.
His son is also a university professor and has no political affiliation.
Both men have had no legal representation since their arrest.
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16 April 2020 - 15:50
News ID: 1026561
The daughter of a high-ranking official of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, has urged Saudi Arabia's King Salman to order immediate release of her father and brother amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and as the holy fasting month of Ramadan is drawing near.
