Since Mohammed bin Salman was appointed crown prince of Saudi Arabia in June 2017, a new era of massive violations of the civil and human rights of human rights defenders, including bloggers and Internet activists, and the general public, has begun. Restrictions on diverse opinions has become a reality, as documented in this report by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR).

The crown prince’s rise was followed on 20 July 2017 by the establishment of a new repressive security apparatus, the Presidency of State Security, by order of King Abdullah, comprising all security forces, and linked to the Prime Minister, a position held by the King himself.

After these dangerous developments, Saudi Arabia has quickly turned into a police state that suppresses the voices of opponents by arbitrary arrest and detention, sometimes torturing them in prison, as happened to the prominent woman human rights defender Loujain Al-Hathloul, or killing them, as happened to journalist Jamal Khashoggi and human rights defender Dr. Abdulallah Al-Hamid after he was prevented w from obtaining proper medical care in prison. In addition, prison sentences were issued successively against human rights defenders and other activists on false charges, and in trials that lacked minimum international standards for fair trial and legal procedures.

Furthermore, the Saudi authorities have often harnessed the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC or the Terrorism Court), which was established in 2008 to hear cases of terrorism, in order to restrict the diversity of opinions and put human rights activists and reform advocates in prison for long periods.

Violations of the Criminal Procedure System

The dominant feature of most arrests that are carried out under direct orders from the Presidency of State Security and are executed directly by it or by other security services and forces, is that they are often arbitrary, and in violation of Articles 36 and 37 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Article 36 (1) states that, “The detainee shall be treated in a manner that preserves his dignity and shall not be physically or morally harmed. He shall be informed of the reasons for his arrest, and he shall have the right to contact whomever he deems to inform them.” While Article 37 states the following, “No one may be detained except in prisons or places of detention designated for that [purpose] by law.” There are many citizens who are languishing in official or secret Saudi prisons and do not know the reasons behind their detention or the nature of the charges against them, in addition to the widespread pattern of raiding citizens’ homes, especially human rights activists, including Internet activists, ransacking the contents of the house, confiscating personal belongings and making arbitrary arrests, all of which is taking place. without a court order. Detainees are often denied regular contact with their families and are not allowed to hire a lawyer even during their trials.

Electronic intelligence committees

The General Directorate of Investigation (Al-Mabahith), which represents the secret police and is affiliated with the Presidency of State Security, has established, under direct orders from Mohammed bin Salman, the electronic intelligence committees that include large numbers of electronic flies, and their task is limited to monitoring cyberspace and inciting attacks on free voices calling for reform and opposing the government’s repressive policies.

Among the tasks assigned to the members of the electronic committees, the electronic flies, is to carry out electronic harassment of the accounts of many Internet activists on Twitter, which are characterised by their opposition and call for respect for human rights.

Electronic intelligence accounts

One of the responsibilities of the electronic committees is the creation of electronic intelligence accounts, whose main task is to intimidate and harass Internet activists, opponents and critics of government policies online. Some of these accounts affiliated with the Saudi electronic flies launched a large campaign to dig up old tweets and incite the arrest of other opinion holders or who are popular among citizens, especially the youth category. 

Amani Al-Zain

The arrest of Internet activist Amani Al-Zein came after a major campaign launched by electronic flies against her on Twitter with the hashtag: #Amani_Al-Zein_offends_the Crown Prince. This electronic army consists of government supporters and spies on the Internet who have demanded her arrest.

An old recording of a video chat between Al-Zain and Egyptian Internet activist Wael Ghonim has spread widely on social networks in which Al-Zain called the Saudi crown prince by the nickname “Abu Munshar” (“father of the saw”), referring to the order he issued to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose body was cut up with a saw at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 02 October 2018.

On 17 May 2020, the Presidency of State Security arbitrarily arrested Al-Zain, on direct orders issued by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. She remains in detention in an unknown location since her arrest in Jeddah. Reliable reports recently received by GCHR confirmed that she has not been allowed to contact her family so far, and has also been denied access to a lawyer. She was working as the Human Resources Manager for the Hala Group of Companies in the Middle East.

Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan

Internet activist Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan appeared before the Court of Appeal in Riyadh on 04 August 2021, in order to appeal the sentence issued against him of 20 years in prison and a travel ban for a similar period after the completion of his sentence. His sister, human rights defender Areej Al-Sadhan, said on her Twitter account, “He looked exhausted. He denied the absurd allegations. His lawyer made the appeal, which showed that there was no credible evidence for the allegations.” The date of 13 September 2021 is the next hearing. Areej Al-Sadhan has also been subjected to threats by electronic flies on several previous occasions.

Loujain Daghestani

On 05 June 2021, physician, social entrepreneur and Internet activist Dr. Loujain Daghestani was released. She had posted her last tweets on 16 March 2021, when she decided to stop tweeting after she was summoned by the General Investigations Directorate on 17 March 2021. She was investigated about old tweets she had posted in 2013 and 2014, which she later deleted, calling for respect for human beings as a supreme value in the homeland and a change to the mentalities that do not support reform.  

In November 2020, electronic flies driven by the Saudi security services launched the following hashtag against her: #Lujain_Daghstani_offends_homeland

One of the conditions of her release was that she delete her Twitter account and this is what she was forced to do as a search for her account currently shows the following message, “This account does not exist.”

Rakan Al-Asiri

Rakan Al-Asiri, a prominent blogger, was arbitrarily arrested, according to some press reports, in early April 2020, after electronic flies searched his old recordings and tweets, in which he criticised government policies, and for his defense of public freedoms, including freedom of expression.

His YouTube channel bearing his name has more than ten thousand subscribers, and there are many videos in which he expresses his personal opinions on various topics, including women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, and the cultural elites in the age of Twitter. He has been working on this channel since 2016.

He also published on Snapchat many recordings in which he was talking about important topics, including the role of youth in reform.

His Twitter account, which he created in 2011, has a pinned tweet posted on 17 October 2019, in which he said, “I continue to annoy you through any platform that I can reach…sorry.” He posted his last tweets on 14 March 2020, before his arrest, including a tweet in which he stated, “If the disease [Covid-19] spreads, God forbid, the Ministry of Health does not have enough beds to accommodate and treat everyone, and the problem becomes out of control.”

A Morab’a podcast channel on YouTube conducted an interview with him in which he mentioned details about his life, studies and views, including completing his studies at the University of Petroleum and Minerals for one preparatory year and moving to King Saud University in Riyadh to study software engineering. He then obtained a scholarship to the United States and traveled there in January 2013, where he obtained a BA in Business and International Relations.

Osama Al-Sahli

Press reports, which could not be confirmed by GCHR, stated that Osama Al-Sahli, a journalist in Al-Bilad newspaper, was sentenced in February 2021 to eight years in prison after being accused of terrorism and endangering the country’s security.

His Twitter account is headed with the following phrase, “My Doctrine is my Conscience!” On 07 April 2019, he posted a number of tweets before he was arrested. The last of these tweets was his following question, “Isn’t there a wise man in the Ministry of Finance and the officials of the Saudi Credit Bank?” In another tweet, he said, “The scalpel remains sharp and the citizen is a victim.” In a third tweet, he said, “Either you are a crown prince, as the people look forward to, or do not be puppet.” He was arbitrarily arrested after posting these and other tweets, and there is no confirmed information about his fate.

Yazid Al-Faifi

On 03 April 2019, journalist Yazid Al-Faifi was arrested solely due to his opinions and conversations against the spread of corruption in his Governorate, Al-Faifa, in the Jazan region, in the south of the Kingdom. He published his opninions in the local press and his account on Twitter, in addition to his YouTube channel, as well as launching the following hashtag and publishing several tweets using it: #Governor_FIFA_development_or_destruction.

Al-Faifi has worked for several local newspapers, including Al-Watan and Al-Shorouk. He also wrote many articles and contributed to television and radio interviews, in all of which he was strongly critical of government corruption, especially in his region.

On 30 March 2021, Al-Faifi returned to Twitter after his release and wrote a tweet stating, “We are back after more than a year and a half of our absence from you, to which we were led by special circumstances, and also brought us back to you by special circumstances.”

During his detention, the authorities deleted all of his 50 recordings on his YouTube channel, in which he talked about corruption in Al-Faifa, and a group of previous tweets in which he criticised the various bad conditions in his region disappeared.

Marwan Al-Muraisy

Saudi authorities do not apply most of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), including Rule 5, which states, “The prison regime should seek to minimise the differences between prison life and life at liberty.” This was evident when the authorities prevented Yemeni writer Marwan Al-Muraisy twice from taking a temporary release after losing two members of his family.

 On 01 January 2020, his sister Tahany Al-Muraisy wrote a tweet on her Twitter account, stating, “More than a year has passed since the arrest of my dear brother Marwan Al-Muraisy, and today we lost his son Sanad while he is far from him.” However, the authorities prevented him from attending the funeral of his eight-and-a-half-year-old son.

On 03 June 2020, his younger sister, who had wished to see him before her death, passed away, but he was again prevented from participating in her funeral.

On 01 June 2018, he was arbitrarily arrested by plainclothes members of the Special Security Forces affiliated with the Presidency of State Security, and taken from his home in Riyadh to an unknown destination. His sister, Tahany Al-Muraisy, wrote in a series of tweets detailing his arrest, saying, “On 01 June 2018, Marwan took his sick son to the hospital and spent a long night there, then he went to his house to take a rest and to see his children whom he left with his neighbours, and while he was returning from the hospital, he was surprised by people he did not know, who took him to an unknown location.” She added, “His neighbours called my brother’s wife and told her what had happened to him, so she had to leave her seven-year-old son alone in the hospital to go and see what happened to her husband. When she got home, she found the house turned upside down, after her husband’s computer and papers were confiscated.” There is no doubt that these actions violate the Criminal Procedure System.

He was subjected to enforced disappearance and did not contact his family until 13 May 2019, when his wife, Rawan, tweeted on her Twitter account the following, “A year after my husband’s arrest, he contacted me today… A call that lasted only minutes.” He told them that he is being held in Al-Ha’ir prison. Reliable reports confirmed that he is still does not know the nature of the charges against him and that he has not been allowed access to a lawyer.

Al-Muraisy, 31, is a distinguished Yemeni writer and journalist, who has worked in several fields, including digital media and e-marketing. He has also translated a large number of books in the field of human development into Arabic and been hosted several times by various TV channels to present his views in various fields of knowledge. His Twitter account currently has now more than eighty-five thousand followers, and all his tweets are focused on his areas of specialisation.

Mohammed Al-Rabiah

On 15 May 2018, writer and human rights defender Mohammed Al-Rabiah was arrested, along with more than a dozen women’s rights activists. After an arbitrary detention of more than three years, he was charged with broad charges that included “striving to destabilise the social fabric and weaken national cohesion and community cohesion,” “communicating with others with the intent of disturbing the security and stability of the nation,” and “writing and publishing a book containing suspicious instructions.” The Public Prosecution demanded a 25-year prison sentence under Article 6 of the Anti-Cyber Crime Law and Articles 53 and 55 of the Law on Combating and Financing Terrorism Crimes. Electronic flies contributed by threatening him and inciting the charges which were brought against him.

On 21 March 2021, his case was transferred to the SCC, which sentenced him on 20 April 2021, to six years in prison and to a travel ban for a similar period after the completion of his sentence. He is currently in Dhahban Prison in Jeddah.

Credible reports confirmed that he was subjected to torture during the first year of his detention, which included torture with electric shocks, waterboarding, preventing him from sitting or sleeping, hanging him by the feet, and beating him until he lost consciousness. This treatment took place despite the fact that he suffers from many diseases, including herniated disc, diabetes, and asthma.

His Twitter account has a pinned tweet saying, “Palestine is a centre around which your options in the region and the world are shaped, without its support, it is not possible to build an independent national security strategy, for example.” The day before his arrest, he tweeted, “They hate the victim, and exonerate the perpetrator, just because the victim’s death is annoying and makes a fuss!”

Fatima Al-Nassif

Woman human rights defender Fatima Al-Nassif worked as a nurse where she lived in the town of Al-Awamiya in Qati. She was arbitrarily arrested on 05 September 2017, in a violent manner while she was with her two daughters on her way to Qatif airport, when a civilian car stopped her, and its passengers beat her in front of the children and took her to an unknown destination without having any judicial order. The next day, members of the General Investigations Directorate broke into her house and tampered with its contents. She is still held in the General Intelligence prison in Dammam. Local reports confirmed that the reason for targeting her is her defense of the civil and human rights of prisoners of conscience, including her two brothers detained due to their participation in the protests in the eastern region, in addition that she bandaged the wounded at a protest.

In July 2019, her daughter Shahad Al-Dubaisi, when she was only 15 years old, sent a letter to the judges, in which she said, “Judges: Batoul and I were in the car with her. Suddenly a civilian car stopped us. Masked people got out. So we sheltered with my mother out of fear, they violently pulled her from us and insulted us. They hit her face with the car. I still remember the bruise on my mother’s face.”

She also stated, “Judges: We did not have money to hire a lawyer for my mother. We ran out of money in the trials of my mother’s brothers Mustafa and Majed. Majed (born in 1980) was arrested in 2011, he is sentenced to 17 years in prison, and Mustafa (born in 1983) was arrested in 2009. He is still awaiting trial.” She added, “We lost a large amount of our savings in gold and money when a group of security men led by an officer wearing a red shemagh entered. They took everything in the house safe after they terrified us the day after my mother’s arrest.”

On 15 June 2021, her 20-year-old son, Mohammed Al-Dubaisi, was stabbed to death in Ontario, Canada resulting in his death due to the injuries. He was studying mechanical engineering at his own expense, and lived with his uncle and his two sisters, after their emigration, following the arrest of their mother. Canadian authorities have arrested three suspects in the attack.

Despite this  tragedy, the Presidency of State Security prevented her from leaving temporarily to participate in the funeral of her son.

Abdulaziz Al-Dakhil

On 09 July 2021, Internet activist Abdulhakim Al-Dakhil posted on his Twitter account about the “Release of my father, Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Dakhil.” Dr. Al-Dakhil, 81, was arrested more than a year ago after he posted a tweet on 25 April 2020, following the death of prominent human rights defender Dr. Abdullah Al-Hamid in prison the previous day due to ill-treatment. His tweet included the following: “Dr. Abdullah Al-Hamid, the man who was loyal to his country, high values, morals, and honest citizenship, departed to his Lord, but he did not leave the hearts of the faithful to the homeland who believe in giving advice and consultation without fear or apprehension and without special interest.”

He progressed in government jobs until he assumed the position of Assistant Undersecretary for Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance in 1976, where he was known for his fight against corruption and his demand for justice. In 1979, he resigned from government work, and established the Advisory Center for Investment and Finance in Riyadh. He was also a prominent academic and worked in a number of well-known universities, including Georgetown University in the United States in 1997 as a visiting professor. He authored several books, including “A Gulf View of Arab Issues” in 1994, in addition to writing more than eighty articles and research pieces. He was previously imprisoned for two years in 2015 for opposing the government’s economic policy in a lecture he gave.

Two lawyers, Aqel Al-Bahili and Sultan Al-Ajmi, were arrested in the same month for also publishing tweets after the death of Dr. Al-Hamid, mourning and saluting him. After numerous threats Al-Bahili received from electronic flies, he was forced to delete his tweet. Al-Bahili was released in July 2021, and there are no reports of Al-Ajmi’s release.

Lina Al-Sharif 

On 26 May 2021, the home of Dr. Lina Al-Sharif, 33 years old, a front-line health worker and activist in the capital, Riyadh, was raided by agents affiliated with the State Security Service, who took her to an unknown destination. As soon as the news of her arbitrary arrest spread, her name trended on Twitter in Saudi Arabia, where Twitter users demanded her immediate release. Local reports confirmed that her arrest was linked to her opinions published on social media. She has not been notified of any specific charges or allowed to contact her family or hire a lawyer. The Criminal Procedures System was also violated when she was arrested. Al-Sharif defended women’s rights including the right to drive and other campaigns.

Ahmed Ali Abdelkader

On 20 April 2021, journalist Ahmed Ali Abdelkader, 31, from Sudan, was arrested by the security authorities upon his arrival at Jeddah airport from Khartoum. On 08 June 2021, the Criminal Court in Jeddah handed him a four-year prison sentence on charges that included “insulting state institutions” and “speaking negatively about the country’s policies.” The court also decided to permanently deport him from the country after the end of his sentence.

The sentence against him is related to his views published in 2018 and 2019 on his Twitter account or in television interviews published on social media, in which he expressed his support for the change that took place in Sudan, and criticised the Saudi role in both Sudan and Yemen. He was not allowed to defend himself or to appoint a lawyer, and his trial was limited to two short sessions, and the higher authorities had appeared to have issued a verdict against him even before the trial began.

His Instagram account contains pictures showing his various activities, including being awarded three times the Best Press Correspondent award in the Arab world, and working as a political analyst and consultant in international and diplomatic relations. He also works as an advisor to the Human Rights Committee of the Sudanese Bar Association.

The last thing he posted on his Facebook page when he was arrested was a picture showing the handcuffs placed in his hands and the following words, “I was arrested right from Jeddah airport. Your prayers, our Lord, do justice to the truth. I will not be available for a period of time. You know the rest.”

GCHR urges the authorities of Saudi Arabia to:

1. Immediately and unconditionally release all detained human rights defenders, including journalists, women’s rights activists and all online activists, as well as anyone who expresses themselves in public, and drop all charges against them;
2. Protect public freedom including the right to freedom of expression off and online; and end the use of the Cyber crimes law to prosecute peaceful online expression;
3. Lift travel bans on people who have been released from prison after serving their sentences; and
4. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders and journalists in Saudi Arabia are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.