Saudi activists say kingdom trying to silence them
By Ashley Fantz and Mohammed Jamjoom , CNN
January 15, 2013 -- Updated 1909 GMT (0309 HKT)
CNN.com
(CNN) -- As he was falling asleep, the father of five turned to his wife and
said he hopes it will all be worth it someday.
Maybe someday, Mohammed Al-Qahtani said, his daughter be able to walk somewhere
without a male guardian. Maybe someday, she'll be able to drive a car without
fear of arrest.
"Maybe I'm dreaming," Al-Qahtani said. "My newborn daughter, maybe one day she
will vote for the prime minister in Saudi Arabia.
"Of course, there will be a price to be paid, and we are more than willing to
pay that price."
The 46-year-old economics professor, who is also one of Saudi Arabia's most
prominent human rights activists, has been on trial for several months in
Riyadh. He faces nine charges, including breaking allegiance to the Saudi king,
describing Saudi Arabia as a police state and turning people and international
bodies against the kingdom.
His co-defendant, Abdullah Al-Hamid, faces similar charges, including spreading
chaos, questioning the authority of official clerics and undermining public
order. If convicted, both could go to prison for several years.
Al-Qahtani calls the accusations against them nonsense and says he knows why he
and Al-Hamid were really put on trial. He said he and Al-Hamid have stoked the
ire of the kingdom for running an activist group that is trying to expose human
rights violations in the country.
"We have a number of cases where people are thrown in prison arbitrarily,
torture, forced disappearances. ... Whatever rights abuses (you could think
of), you could find in Saudi Arabia," Al-Qahtani said.
According to rights groups, Saudi authorities have been increasingly targeting
activists through the courts and other arbitrary means such as travel bans.
"This has been a systematic approach by the authorities in Saudi Arabia --
namely, the targeting and harassing of activists across the country," said
Tamara Al-Rifai, spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North
Africa division.
Al-Rifai told CNN that accusations against activists generally include
"instigating chaos, gathering illegally, harming the reputation, talking to
foreigners, talking to the media, etc."
She said there is no clear criminal law in Saudi Arabia and that people "are
being arbitrarily arrested and detained for exercising rights that are
stipulated by all international human rights laws, but also the Arab Charter of
Human Rights to which Saudi Arabia has adhered."
In June, Amnesty International issued a statement calling Al-Qahtani's trial
"just one of a troubling string of court cases aimed at silencing the kingdom's
human rights activists."
"The case against him should be thrown out of court as it appears to be based
solely on his legitimate work to defend human rights in Saudi Arabia and his
sharp criticism of the authorities," said Philip Luther, director of Amnesty
International's Middle East and North Africa Program.
When asked about the case and about accusations that Saudi Arabia is cracking
down on dissent, Saudi officials have been reluctant to comment.
"At the Interior Ministry, our area of responsibility is security," said Maj.
Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry. "My
understanding is that these cases are being looked at by the courts now. Nobody
will comment on cases being looked at by the courts."
In Saudi Arabia, a deeply conservative kingdom and an absolute monarchy,
protests are prohibited. Still, activists say, small gatherings are becoming
more frequent -- demonstrations by both men and women demanding the release of
jailed relatives.
The latest high-profile incident happened early this month. According to rights
groups, Saudi security forces arrested a group of women in the town of Buraida
who were protesting over family members allegedly held for years as political
prisoners. The women said the relatives had been detained without charges on
suspicion of terrorism.
The scene of Saudi police circling the women was caught on video, sparking
anger and more protests.
And in November, activists say, Saudi security forces in Riyadh detained dozens
of protesters, including women and children, who were urging the government to
release political prisoners.
"I don't want my kids to face this Dark Age kind of prosecution," Al-Qahtani
told CNN. "So we are trying to push the limit so our kids will live in a world
where their fundamental rights will be respected."
In 2009, he, Al-Hamid and a few others founded the Saudi Political and Civil
Rights Association, or ACPRA.
ACPRA, according to Al-Qahtani, actively reports on human rights violations and
attempts to help relatives of political prisoners free their loved ones through
lawsuits against the government.
A group like that needs a license to operate. But despite repeated attempts,
Al-Qahtani says, the Saudi government did not give them one.
Al-Qahtani, who was educated in the United States, believed that if he pushed
harder, he might get somewhere. He, Al-Hamid and other members began regularly
posting updates about their campaign on ACPRA's website and e-mailing
information to a growing base of members and supporters.
In December 2010, ACPRA called for all Saudis to participate in a public sit-in
to demand political reform. The sit-in was eventually canceled, as the ministry
of interior told the organizers their request was refused.
Last January, ACPRA crossed one of the country's ultimate red lines by being
openly critical of Saudi Arabia's interior ministry and demanding the interior
minister be prosecuted for human rights violations.
They've also circulated petitions for the release of Saudis they believe are
political prisoners. While Al-Qahtani and Al-Hamid have tried to file
complaints in court, those efforts went nowhere because the court system did
not process them, Al-Qahtani said.
The activists also wrote to United Nations special rapporteurs, independent
experts who investigate human rights abuses worldwide.
Al-Qahtani said the United Nations responded to their letters and that U.N.
human rights investigators issued opinions on a few of the cases. He said
that's another reason why he's in hot water with the authorities.
"We were trying to highlight the violations, document these violations, try to
write officials in Saudi Arabia, try to remedy the situation, try to improve,
push the limit for freedom of expression," Al-Qahtani told CNN via Skype.
While Al-Qahtani and Al-Hamid are still free, al-Qahtani says they've been
banned from travel, and the Saudi authorities keep a close eye on them,
repeatedly calling them in for questioning.
"We have weekly sessions of interrogation," he said. "They [would] ask these
details that's just about our ... activism."
But as their own freedoms have been fettered, they've begun finally reaching an
audience they envisioned from the start. The activists' profile brightened in
recent months with coverage of their upcoming trial. Stories began appearing in
both Eastern and Western press.
Foreign Policy, a highly respected global news magazine, named Al-Qahtani as
one of its 100 top global thinkers of 2012.
"He has broken some of Saudi Arabia's biggest taboos, highlighting corruption
within the monarchy and questioning its legitimacy to govern," the magazine
wrote.
Along with his organization's website and YouTube channel, Al-Qahtani regularly
tweets updates about his case and his interrogation sessions.
"We have seen young kids being attracted to the campaign that we are running,"
he said. "Many people want to join our organization. So these are encouraging
signs."
Throughout their trial, other Saudi activists, academics and intellectuals have
crowded the courtroom on several occasions. They've also taken to social media
to express their support.
"So there are some positive signs," Al-Qahtani said. "It's not all bleak."
But if the fate of other ACPRA members provides any clue of how things might
go, the outlook isn't bright for him and Al-Hamid.
In April, group member Mohammed Al-Bajadi was sentenced to four years behind
bars. Amnesty International said he was found "guilty of participating in the
establishment of a human rights organization, harming the image of the state
through the media, calling on the families of political detainees to protest
and hold sit-ins, contesting the independence of the judiciary and having
banned books in his possession."
And in December, political activist Suleiman al-Rashudi was arrested, according
to his wife, after giving a lecture in which he said protests were permitted in
Islam. His wife, Um Ammar, told CNN she has not been allowed to see her husband
or speak to him since he was detained and is extremely worried about him.
Al-Rashudi, who was recently elected president of ACPRA, previously spent five
years in detention and, according to activists, was found guilty last year of,
among other things, financing terrorism, incitement against the king and
attempting to seize power.
"There's no guarantee that [ACRPA's work] will get people the rights for
freedom of expression," Al-Qahtani said. But he said even if he and Al-Hamid go
to prison, they've started something special.
Their cause won't end if they're locked up, he said. The belief that freedom
can be had in Saudi Arabia has now been shared with others who want it. They've
embraced it, he said, and will shoulder the effort.
"At least," the professor said, "we have done our share."
© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
------------------------------------
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe : [email protected]
Unsubscribe : [email protected]
List owner : [email protected]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
