The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) has received reports of several hunger strikes undertaken by human rights defender Issa Al-Nukhaifi in the last few months in protest of his prolonged arbitrary detention and mistreatment. There are reports that he was taken to a hospital because of these hunger strikes. 

In February 2018, Al-Nukhaifi was sentenced to six years in prison followed by six years of a travel ban for charges related to his advocacy against corporate corruption in the southern city of Jizan, as well as for publishing news online about protests of local communities who were forcibly evicted from their homes in border areas with Yemen without compensation. He was charged under the Anti-Cybercrimes Law.

Al-Nukhaifi was scheduled to be released in December 2022, six years after his arrest on 18 December 2016 in Jizan. However, he was reportedly moved to another prison for further interrogation and retrials in October 2023. Since then, he has been unable to call his family, receive visits, or consult with a lawyer, and as such is subject to enforced disappearance. 

On 10 May 2024, Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, wrote on X, “Hearing very disturbing reports that Saudi HRDs Walid Abu Al-Khair, Dr. Mohammed Fahad Al-Qahtani, and Issa Al-Nukhaififace increasing ill-treatment in prison & medical neglect despite a sharp deterioration in their health.”

During his prolonged sentence, he went on hunger strikes on several occasions to protest mistreatment and denial of prisoners’ rights. In his trial in 2018 by the Specialised Criminal Court, he was charged with several vague allegations, including “seeking to destabilise the social fabric and national cohesion,” and “communicating with and receiving money from foreign hostile groups.” 

In 2019, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention qualified his detention as arbitrary because there was no legal basis to prevent him from exercising his fundamental rights of freedom of expression and opinion.

Al-Nukhaifi is among many political prisoners and human rights defenders that the Saudi authorities are actively seeking to silence through arbitrary legal coercion and harassment. 

Recommendations

GCHR calls on the Saudi authorities to:

1. Immediately end the arbitrary detention and mistreatment of human rights defender Issa Al-Nukhaifi and ensure his physical wellbeing;
2. While he remains in prison, allow him to call his family and receive family visits and adequate and transparent legal support; and
3. Respect the rights of Saudi people to express their opinions and peacefully protest unfair displacement practices.