The human rights activist and lawyer “Waleed Abulkhair” has been arrested since 413 days by Saudi authorities. The Specialized Criminal Court in Jeddah, on July 6, 
sentenced Abulkhair to 15 years in prison in addition to a travel ban for a similar period and a fine of 200000 Saudi Riyal. The sentence was over several charges, including the international organizations’ hostility to KSA, as Abulkhair cooperates with a set of international groups on human rights area. He was also accused of inciting public opinion against authorities, setting up and watching an unlicensed association- in the matter of establishing and managing the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia- and preparing, saving and publishing information that could harm public order.
Abulkhair is one of the most prominent human rights activists in Saudi Arabia. Forbes magazine has listed his name one of Top 100 Most Influential Arabs on Twitter. He set up “Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia”, aiming at protecting activists and monitoring human rights situations in Saudi Arabia, but it was shut in December 2008. Therefore, Abulkhair transferred his activism to his Facebook account. Nonetheless, his page was blocked in May 2009. Waleed Abulkhair belongs to a judicial and legal family at Emirate of Mekka and Al-Haram Sheikhdom. Abulkhair’s record is full of cases that occupied the Arab public opinion, as he defended AbdelRahman Al-Shemiri over the case known as “Jeddah Reformers”. He also litigated a lawsuit against Saudi Bureau of Investigation on account of detaining Al-Shemiri without accusations. Hence, Saudi authorities threatened his father to abandon the case.
Additionally, Abulkhair was an agent for the human rights activist “Raef Badawi”- founder of Saudi Liberal Network- after the Saudi authorities accused the latter of breaching the Sharia and insulting Islam. In 2012, Saudi authorities informed Badawi that he is prevented from travelling, after Badawi had enrolled in a training entitled “Leaders of Democracy” at Syracuse University in the USA. Also, Abulkhair has won the Olof Palme Prize in Sweden as recognition of his strong and continuous struggle and characterized by selflessness in order to promote respect for human rights. But his wife, Samar Badawi, has received the prize instead.
On the 3rd of July 2014, the nineteenth hearing of his trial was convened during the attendance of his lawyer, mother and wife. In a message to the court on 26 June 2014, AbulKhair announced that he would not cooperate with it, as he believes it is illegitimate. It is worth mentioning that the Specialized Criminal Court deals with the terrorism-related issues in accordance with the new law “anti-terrorism”, which was passed by the authorities in February 2014 in Saudi Arabia. This law is increasingly used recently to target human rights defenders. Following attending the hearing on 15 April 2014, Abulkhair was arrested and transferred to al-Ha’ir Prison in Saudi Arabia, where he was held incommunicado and tortured, according to the testifies of activists and human rights defenders.
What can you do?
1- Post to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud via his Twitter account “@KingSalman”; calling upon him to set Waleed ABulkhair free.
2- Make a complaint to the royal court on the Saudi royal court website:
https://tawasol.royalcourt.gov.sa/.
3- Send a letter to the Saudi royal court:
Postal code: 11111 Tel.: 00966114822222 City: Riyadh
4- Send an email to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights
5- Publish images of Waleed Abulkhair and some information about him on your Facebook & Twitter accounts and use this hashtag #حريتهم_حقهم
6- Send to newspapers in your country some information about Abulkhair and the unfair sentence against him.
About #TheirRightIsTheirFreedom Campaign:
http://anhri.net/?p=144030&lang=en
Prisoner of May