Dr. Adel Bana’ema is a Saudi academic, poet, writer and faculty member of the Arabic Language College at Umm Al-Qura University, who was arbitrarily arrested from his home in Mecca on 12 September 2017 during a midnight raid in which his devices, many books, and research papers were seized. He holds a PhD with honours and was also active in TV presentation and production, served on boards such as the Jeddah Literary Club and contributed as an editor / writer to local and Arab newspapers. He was sentenced in Saudi Arabia to eight years in prison under arbitrary detention. During his imprisonment he has suffered violations including prolonged solitary confinement, denial of legal representation, denial of communication with his family, dismissal from his academic post, and medical neglect especially regarding chronic gastrointestinal/stomach-intestinal illness. Despite international pressure for his release, Bana’ema remained detained until July 2025, when he was finally released from Jeddah Dahban prison nine years after his arrest.