DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A U. S. citizen who is also Saudi is expected to be prosecuted Thursday in Saudi Arabia through an anti-terrorism court that used to imprison human rights activists in a case that could create new tensions. -Relations with Arabia.
The case of Salah al-Haidar, arrested since April 2019 in Saudi Arabia, has caught the attention of members of Congress who urge President Donald Trump to call for his prompt and unconditional release.
Al-Haidar, who has a circle of relatives at the house in Vienna, Virginia, faces between 8 and 33 years in prison for alleged Twitter posts criticizing the Saudi government, according to others wisely about his case, and added an American official familiar with the case that insisted on anonymity to discuss it with The Associated Press.
Her mother is the prominent Saudi women’s rights activist Aziza al-Yousef, one of a dozen women prosecuted for fees similar to her activism, as the right to drive is not easy before the women’s ban is lifted in mid-2018. , a grandmother and former university professor, was released as a thief the week before her son’s arrest. She and others told a court of Saudi criminals that they had been subjected to interrogations of ill-treatment, adding that they were beaten with water, beaten with canes and electrocuted. prevented him from leaving the kingdom, despite his permanent apartment in the United States.
The crackdown on the government’s alleged denunciation has intensified under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who continues to be criticized for the murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consupast due in Istanbul in 2018. Since Khashoggi’s murder, the imprisonment of activists and others. in Saudi Arabia has provoked widespread condemnation of members of Congress, the British Parliament and others.
Representatives of a congressional delegation in Virginia, where al-Haidar has specific relatives, urge the U. S. State Department to send a body of workers to practice their judgment and make some transparency as far as the Saudis allow, the US official said.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a high-ranking Democrat in the foreign relations subcommittee overseeing Middle Eastern countries, and Democratic Congressman Gerald E. Connolly, who is part of the Foreign Affairs Committee and his Middle East Subcommittee, asked Trump in a letter Wednesday. to raise the case of al-Haidar “at the highest levels” of the Saudi government. They said they believe their arrest is a selective effort opposed to the circle of relatives because of their advocacy for social reforms.
“We urge you to unload the prompt and unconditional release of Mr. al-Haidar and facilitate his return to the United States and that of Mrs. al-Yousef. in Saudi prisons due to accusations of nonviolent dissent,” Virginia officials said in the letter, also addressed to the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Princess Reema bint Bandar.
The Trump administration has been criticized by Democrats for not putting enough emphasis on Saudi Arabia on its human rights record, but for prioritizing the kingdom’s lucrative arms agreements and the kingdom’s t incitement to normalize the Arab Gulf with Israel.
The Saudi embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment from the AP on the case.
The specialized criminal court in Riyadh presiding over his trial is known for its secrecy. According to a 53-page report previously published earlier this year through Amnesty International, the court used the court as a “weapon of repression” to imprison nonviolent critics, activists, journalists and clerics. and minority Shia Muslims, some of whom were sentenced to death and executed.
Several cases of broad-language counter-terrorism legislation that criminalize acts such as insulting the government and “disobedience to the leader” are brought to court.
The government contends that the specialized court follows the same rules and procedures as other corrupt courts and that possibly defendants, their lawyers and their families will participate in the hearings. However, Amnesty International said it had documented cases of secret trials. Attempts to appeal the Court’s rulings were carried out behind closed doors, without the presence or involvement of the defendants or their lawyers.
A user familiar with the case, who spoke under anonymity to discuss the case, said al-Haidar had not been allowed to meet with his lawyer to discuss the fees he faces.
Al-Haidar, 35, has been imprisoned since his arrest 17 months ago in Saudi Arabia, where he and his two-year-old son reside.
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Tucker, the Palestinian Authority’s national security editor, reported from Washington.
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