Mohammed Saleh al-Bejadi (or ''Muhammad'', ''Salih'', ''al-Bajadi'', ''albjadi'') is a co-founder of the

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

organisation Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) who has campaigned for prisoners' rights since 2007. He spent four months in prison without charge or trial in 2007 and was banned from foreign travel in 2009. He was arrested 21 March 2011, and on 11 March 2015 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was released later in 2015, only to be arrested again in May 2018.Saudi Arabia arrests key activist in human rights crackdown
25 May 2018

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Human rights activities

2007–2008

In 2007, al-Bejadi contacted international media about a sit-in held in front of a provincial governmental authority and calling for the release of prisoners. He was "detained in solitary confinement without charge or trial" from 4 September 2007 to 1 January 2008. He was released "on the condition that he would not organise any fora or gatherings, nor contact any foreign press."

2009

In 2009, al-Bejadi managed a

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"Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia - al-Marsad". In March 2009, he was interrogated by the external security agency, Al Mukhabarat Al A'amah, his passport was confiscated, and he was forbidden from international travel until July 2009 or later. In July, the

World Organisation Against Torture The World Organisation Against Torture (''Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture''; OMCT) is the world's largest coalition of non-governmental organisations fighting against arbitrary detention, torture, summary and extrajudicial executions, ...

and the International Federation for Human Rights protested against the travel ban, saying that it was aimed at "muzzling his freedom of expression".

ACPRA

In 2009, al-Bejadi and 10 other Saudi

activists and academics co-founded a human rights

non-governmental organisation A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA).

2011–2015 detention

On 21 March 2011, during the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests, al-Bejadi was arrested along with about several other people following a protest calling for the release of political prisoners that had taken place on 20 March. Al-Bejadi was arrested in his house by Mabahith, the Saudi Arabian internal security agency, in

Buraidah Buraidah ( ar, بريدة ') is the capital and largest city of Al-Qassim Region in north-central Saudi Arabia in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. Buraydah lies equidistant from the Red Sea to the west and Persian Gulf to the east. Its known fo ...

. Security forces surrounding his house and blockaded roads leading to it. He was arrested in handcuffs and manacles and taken to his office, which was searched for several hours while he remained shackled. ACPRA stated that the arrest was

arbitrary Arbitrariness is the quality of being "determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle". It is also used to refer to a choice made without any specific criterion or restraint. Arbitrary decisions are not necess ...

, in violation of the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia and the ''Law of Criminal Procedures''. Amnesty International designated al-Bajadi a prisoner of conscience, "held solely for the peaceful exercise of his rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association". Al-Bejadi was held for four months in solitary confinement and allowed a few minutes each week to telephone to his wife. He was shifted to a by cell with 9 other prisoners and "bright lighting all day and night". He was denied access to a doctor for 7 months. In August 2011, al-Bejadi appeared in the Specialized Criminal Court on charges of "insurrection against the ruler, instigating demonstrations, and speaking with foreign ediachannels." Judge al-'Abd al-Latif prevented al-Bejadi's defence lawyers from attending the August trial session. On 3 October 2011, he appeared at a secret meeting of a court which journalists and human rights activists could not attend, on charges of "membership in a banned association, the possession of prohibited books and the intent to harm the reputation of the country". , 38 people planned a 2-day public

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

on 15–16 March 2012, coordinated by ACPRA, calling for al-Bejadi's release. According to ACPRA and

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

, al-Bejadi joined the hunger strike himself, and as of 11 April 2012 had been on hunger strike for nearly a month. ACPRA stated that it believed al-Bejadi's life to be in danger, as he had stopped taking water. The

Ministry of Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

denied the report, saying that al-Bejadi was "in good health". On 10 April 2012, al-Bejadi was sentenced to four years' imprisonment and a five-year ban on foreign travel. He was released in 2015.

2016–present

Following his 2015 release, al-Bejadi stopped public aspects of his human rights advocacy. On 26 October 2016, he wrote a "final tweet", stating, "I will stop writing and participating on all social media accounts for reasons that are not unknown to all of you." On 24 May 2018, during the 2018–2019 Saudi crackdown on feminists, al-Bejadi was again arrested.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bejadi, Muhammad Salih Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Saudi Arabia Living people Human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabian human rights activists Year of birth missing (living people) Saudi Arabian prisoners and detainees