Press releases
Saudi Arabia: new King's prisoner pardons must not include conditions that silence activists
Call on the new UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia to act over Raif Badawi case
Last night’s royal decree offering pardons for Saudi Arabian prisoners convicted on “public rights” charges will only be a step in the right direction if the releases do not carry conditions, Amnesty International said.
The announcement of the impending pardons came as part of the new King Salman’s latest set of royal decrees, issued at 11:35pm local time on Thursday. The decree referred to an official communication issued two days earlier stating that it would be up to the Minister of Interior to decide on the extent and conditions of the pardon.
The Saudi Arabian authorities have in the past offered to drop charges against activists if they apologised for their “offences” and halted their legitimate activities. This has typically meant that activists have had to stop their work and give up their right to free expression.
Amnesty has learnt that officials have approached current prisoners of conscience this past week to unofficially inquire about their thoughts on such potential conditional pardons.
Amnesty knows of more than a dozen prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia who are behind bars for their peaceful activism. They include Raif Badawi, Waleed Abu al-Khair, Sheikh Suliaman al-Rashudi, Dr Abdullah al-Hamid, Dr Mohammed al-Qahtani, Dr Abdulaziz al-Khodr, Mohammed al-Bajadi, Fowzan al-Harbi, Dr Abdulrahman al-Hamid, Saleh al-Ashwan, Omar al-Sa’id, Fadhel al-Manasif, Loujain al-Hathloul and Maysaa al-Amoudi.
Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Director Philip Luther said:
“It’s a positive move for the Saudi Arabian authorities to consider releasing political prisoners as part of reforms under the new government.“But any releases that impose conditions on the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly would be a slap in the face to activists who should not have been imprisoned in the first place.“Prisoners of conscience should be released immediately and unconditionally. An unconditional pardon would be the first step, but it should be followed by their sentences and convictions being overturned because they did nothing wrong in the first place.”
UK ambassador asked to intervene in Raif Badawi case
Over 20,000 people have supported an Amnesty call on the newly-appointed UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia - Simon Collis - to prioritise the case of the jailed blogger Raif Badawi in all forthcoming meetings with the Saudi authorities, including by requesting permission to personally visit Mr Badawi in prison.