Among the primary tools of this suppression, the government employs the tactic of
arbitrary detention without charge or trial, in addition to staging sham
trials lacking any semblance of due process, both of which have become
hallmarks of Saudi ³justice.²
Political imprisonment in Saudi Arabia is an epidemic has not spared any
sector of Saudi society, with insider reports estimating the number of
political prisoners in the country to be over 30,000 out of a population of
around 18 million Saudi nationals. The full magnitude of this shocking
number becomes clear when compared to the Soviet Union at its height in the
mid 1970s, when a 1975 Amnesty International report estimated that 10,000
political prisoners were being held from a population of approximately 250
million.
The purpose of this briefing is to draw attention to some key case studies
of political imprisonment in Saudi Arabia, providing a brief overview of the
development of this issue throughout the last two decades, from the 1990s
until today, highlighting the diverse nature of the victims of imprisonment,
with a focus on ongoing cases of suppression.
Massoud Shadjareh, chair of IHRC, stated:
³This appalling situation in Saudi Arabia is being supported indirectly by
the international community that has been turning a blind eye to government
repression. We call on the international community to break its long silence
and to hold Saudi Arabia to account for its actions.
³These realities must be addressed, rather than following propagandistic
stories about women Œgaining the right to vote¹, when there is no democracy
or freedom in the country. With political suppression worse than that
practiced at the height of the Soviet Union, one can legitimately ask, what
use is the right to vote if you do not even have your freedom?²
