Two prominent reformists and human rights activists in Saudi Arabia are on trial. Mohammad al-Qahtani and Abdullah al-Hamid are being prosecuted for “breaking allegiance to the ruler and his successor” and “trying to impede the country’s developments”.
Mohammad al-Qahtani is an economics professor and was recently named in Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers 2012 list. Abdullah al-Hamid was first detained in 1993, and is probably the longest-standing reformist in the country. They are calling for a constitutional monarchy, protection for political dissent, and an end to human rights violations. Both are founding members of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRAHR), the country’s most active independent human rights advocacy group. Founded in 2009, the organisation has remained unlicensed since then, and continues to document human rights violations to file local lawsuits against the interior ministry and report the violations to the UN Human Rights Council. Several ACPRAHR founders are being prosecuted, and one of them has already been sentenced to prison after a secret trial.
al-Qahtani and al-Hamid’s trial started in June 2012, separately and secretly. After the first hearing the judge merged both cases. Dozens of activists attended the second hearing and live-tweeted the session, taking some photos as well, which the judge later decreed violated courtroom order and decided to close upcoming sessions. Over the course of the next few hearings, both activists refused to be tried in secret and threatened to remain silent. By the fifth hearing, the judge finally capitulated, turning it effectively into a public trial. The eighth hearing was attended by ninety people, including local and international journalists.
Saudi Arabia is one of the few remaining absolute monarchies in the world and has a devastating human rights record which includes arbitrarily detaining over 30,000 people. Since the state officially imposes (its interpretation of) Sharia law, trials and hearings are expected to be religious debates of what Sharia means.
