Originally posted to The Middle East Monitor website, 8 November 2021
The Saudi Court of Appeal today postponed until next month, the hearing into the case in which defendants have been charges with “supporting the resistance and the Palestinian people”.
The head of the Jordanian Committee for the Defence of Jordanian Detainees in Saudi Arabia, Khader Al-Mashaikh, said in statements to Quds Press yesterday, that the trial will be carried out over three weeks and include over 60 detainees.
Three months ago, the competent criminal court in Riyadh issued sentences ranging from acquittal to 22 years in prison, against dozens of Palestinians and Jordanians, on charges related to supporting the resistance and the Palestinian people.
In February 2019, Saudi Arabia arrested more than 60 Jordanians and Palestinians who reside in the kingdom, including the former Hamas representative, Muhammad Al-Khodari, on charges of “providing financial support to the Palestinian resistance.”
In August, the Saudi Criminal Court sentenced Al-Khodari to 15 years in prison on charges of supporting the resistance.
On 24 October, Hamas revealed that the head of its political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, had extensive contacts with several countries in the region to intervene in order to release the movement’s detainees in Saudi Arabia, including Al-Khodari.
Al-Khodari, 82, and his Hani have been detained in Saudi since early 2019. He suffers from prostate cancer and needs medical care which has not been provided to him in prison.
In April, security forces raided his house and interrogated his 70-year-old wife, Wejdan, forcing her to sign an undertaking that prevents her from talking about her husband’s condition to the media and confiscating her phone.
