Your Majesty,
In July 2014, human rights lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair was sentenced to 15 years in jail by a counter-terrorism court after years of harassment, arrests, threats and court cases. Through his work, he had challenged the widespread attack on human rights in Saudi Arabia.
Waleed has been beaten, deprived of sleep and kept in solitary confinement while in prison.
Respectfully, Majesty, I urge you to:
● Release Waleed Abu al-Khair immediately and unconditionally so that he can be with his family.
● Ensure Waleed is protected from torture and other ill-treatment.
● Have all charges against him dropped and his sentence quashed.
● Stop harassing, intimidating and detaining peaceful activists and human rights defenders.
● Stop treating human rights defenders as terrorists, and trying them under the counter-terror law and before the counter-terror court.
Thank you,
