Yahya Ibrahim Assiri, Saudi Arabian human rights defender, is the founder of ALQST for Human Rights, an independent NGO established in August 2014 to document and advocate against human rights violations in Saudi Arabia based on monitoring by an in‑country team and advocacy by a London‑based team. He served earlier as an officer in the Royal Saudi Air Force and later as Secretary‑General of the National Assembly Party before seeking asylum in the United Kingdom around early 2017 following the arrests of prominent Saudi activists, where he also obtained a Master’s degree in Human Rights and Political Communications from Kingston University and a Bachelor’s degree in Administration. Between 2018 and 2020 Assiri and an Amnesty International researcher were targeted with Pegasus and QuaDream spyware by Saudi authorities while residing in the UK. Independent analysis by Citizen Lab confirmed the infections, enabling access to messages, calls, location data and files, posing risks to Assiri’s contacts in Saudi Arabia. On 11 October 2024, the UK High Court granted Assiri permission to serve a legal claim against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the High Court of England and Wales for misuse of private information, harassment and trespass to goods, finding that there was an arguable case, and Assiri has publicly stated that he would withdraw the case if Saudi Arabia released an unspecified number of prisoners of conscience.