HRW demands immediate release of Saudi activist

Human Rights Watch has demanding the immediate release of a Saudi rights activist after the university professor was arrested in Riyadh on Monday.

The New York-based advocacy group said on Wednesday that Saudi secret police apprehended Matrook Al-Faleh on the premises of King Saud University where he teaches political science.

The arrest took place after he publicly criticised conditions in a prison where two other Saudi human rights activists are serving jail terms.

Joe Stork, deputy director at Human Rights Watch Middle East, said in a statement the Saudi Interior Ministry should immediately release Al-Faleh.

“Saudi Arabia’s arrest of confirms that human rights advocacy in that country remains a risky business. By suppressing peaceful dissent, Saudi Arabia only stands to gain further notoriety as an abuser of human rights,” Stork said.

Stork said Al-Faleh's family has not been informed of the reason for his detention or whether he has been charged with any crime.

Stork said the Interior Ministry has not responded to Human Rights Watch’s enquiries.

Al-Faleh on Saturday emailed a statement to human rights activists and journalists addressing visiting procedures and detention conditions at Buraida General Prison.

Al-Faleh’s fellow activists, Abdullah Al-Hamid and Isa Al-Hamid, are serving prison sentences for supporting a demonstration in front of Buraida prison by relatives of long-term detainees held there without charge or trial.

Al-Faleh’s statement described the laborious visiting procedures and likened the visiting area to "a chicken coop", describing the prison as overcrowded, dirty, and lacking healthcare facilities.

Stork said Human Rights Watch has independent information detailing unhygienic conditions, overcrowding and substandard medical services in Saudi prisons.

He said these conditions contribute to the deaths of inmates, especially in Jeddah’s Buraiman prison and the deportation centre there.

Prison administrations have made no discernible efforts since Human Rights Watch first raised concerns in May 2007, he added.

“It is outrageous that the Ministry of Interior arbitrarily arrests Al-Faleh rather than addressing the inhumane conditions he documented,” Stork said.

Saudi authorities in December arrested blogger Fouad Al Farhan after he called for the release of a group of detained peaceful reform activists on his website.

Authorities released Farhan in April after four months of solitary confinement, but the reformers remain in detention.

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