Rights group Amnesty International says a court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a peaceful dissident to nine years in prison and banned him from travel abroad for another nine years on charges related to his civil rights work.
Issa al-Hamid is a founding member of the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights, known by its Arabic acronym HASEM. Several HASEM members are serving similarly lengthy jail sentences. On Sunday, Amnesty International described his sentencing as part of a wider "ruthless onslaught against civil society" by Saudi authorities. Al-Hamid was convicted of inciting people to breach public order, insulting the judiciary, defaming the kingdom's senior religious clerics and establishing an unlicensed organization.
He was tried by Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court, established to try cases of terrorism and national security.
Riyadh has long been under fire at the international level for its grim human rights record.
On Friday, the UN torture committee called on Riyadh to stop physical punishment and abuse of bloggers, activists and human rights lawyers in Saudi prisons.
Felice Gaer, a committee member, said a “significant number” of suspects had been tortured into making confessions by the Saudi regime.
In January, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa James Lynch said the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia had worsened significantly over the past year.
“More and more human rights defenders are being sentenced to years in prison under Saudi Arabia’s 2014 counter-terror law, while its allies shamelessly back the kingdom’s repression in the name of the so-called ‘war on terror’,” he said.
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