Skip to footer

Two prominent Saudi human rights activists receive 10 years in jail

Mohammed Fahd al-Qahtani and Abdullah Hamad were sentenced to at least 10 years in jail Saturday for sedition and providing foreign media with false information.

|
Christa Case Bryant/The Christian Science Monitor
Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani is one of Saudi Arabia's most outspoken human rights activists.
  • By Laura Edwins Contributor

On Saturday, Mohammed Fahd al-Qahtani and Abdullah Hamad, two political and human rights activists, were sentenced to at least 10 years in prison by a Saudi Arabian court.

The two were found guilty of sedition and providing foreign media with false information. Mr. Qahtani and Mr. Hamad are the founders of Acpra, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, an organization that documents human rights abuses.

Acpra has called for a constitutional monarchy and elections, which could be viewed as threats to the power of the Saudi royal family. According to Reuters, last year Acpra issued a statement demanding that King Abdullah fire then Crown Prince Nayef. The group charged that Nayef failed to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by the Interior Ministry, which he headed until he died last year. 

Qahtani was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Hamad must complete six years of a previous jail term for political activities and serve an additional five years. Both will remain jailed until a judge rules on their appeal next month.

For more than ten years Qahtani, an economics professor, has been one of the most outspoken human rights activists in the deeply conservative country. Qahtani believes Saudis must demand their rights, and that speaking up and demanding a stronger rule of law is a moral responsibility.

In an interview with the Monitor in 2012, he compared Saudi Arabia to apartheid-era South Africa, saying, “Our goal is to reach a situation where the regime is bound by its own law. It's a duty incumbent on us to educate people and push them forward."

Qahtani and Hamad’s trial was open to the press and the public. While they disagreed with the decision, some Saudi activists called the trial's openness a step forward.

Supporters of the activists said the trial was political motivated. When the judge sentenced Qahtani and Hamad, supporters began shouting and security officers armed with truncheons cleared the courtroom.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Two prominent Saudi human rights activists receive 10 years in jail
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2013/0310/Two-prominent-Saudi-human-rights-activists-receive-10-years-in-jail
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe