UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 000069
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP JHARRIS AND JBERNDT AND DRL
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, KISL, PGOV, KDEM, OPDC, SA
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS NGO SENDS OPEN LETTER TO SAUDI KING
ABOUT JAILED ACTIVIST
REF: BERNDT-RAM E-MAIL DATED 01/04/2010
RIYADH 00000069 001.2 OF 002
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On December 28, 2009 the unlicensed Civil
and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) appealed to King
Abdullah in an open letter to order the release from prison
of 73-year old, well-known Human Rights activist, Suliman
Al-Reshoudi. The letter claimed that Al-Reshoudi, a former
judge, is suffering "severe physical and psychological
torture." A copy of the letter was circulated by ACPRA via
e-mail to embassies in Saudi Arabia and abroad, as well as to
members of the press and to Human Rights organizations. The
letter has been widely circulated via the internet and
received press coverage from Reuters and the BBC but not from
any media outlets in Saudi Arabia. END SUMMARY.
2. (SBU) The ACPRA's December 28 open letter to King Abdullah
said ACPRA had "confirmed information" that Judge Al-Reshoudi
had been subjected to severe physical and psychological
torture during his three years in solitary confinement. Most
recently, according to the letter, Judge Al-Reshoudi's two
feet were tied up with two separate chains, one tying the two
feet together, the other tying the feet to the bed frame.
During the day, the letter reported, the 73-year old is
forced into a sitting position where he cannot relax or lie
down and at night his feet are in shackles, depriving him of
sleep. The letter described how Judge Al-Reshoudi's wife and
two young toddlers "burst into tears" upon seeing him during
a recent prison visit. ACPRA believes the treatment is in
retaliation for Judge Al-Reshoudi's intention of joining
ACPRA and is intended to send a threatening message to other
Human Rights activists.
3. (SBU) The letter describes Judge Al-Reshoudi as a
widely-known Human Rights defender who had signed political
reform petitions demanding a national constitution, rights
for freedom of assembly, and the establishment of civil
society institutions. It comments that if the Interior
Ministry could get away with inflicting "severe brutalities
on activists," it could certainly get away with "torturing
ordinary Saudis." The letter asked "what kind of message is
the Interior Ministry sending to Judge Al-Reshoudi's "young
followers who admire his ideas of peaceful activities?"
4. (SBU) The open letter calls for King Abdullah's
intervention, challenging him to "prove his genuine
intentions" by immediately releasing all political prisoners
and bringing those involved in torture (from the Ministry of
Interior) to justice. The document names the following
political prisoners: Professor Abdulrahman Al-Shomairi; Ali
Khosifan Al-Qarni; Mousa Al-Qarni; Professor Saud Al-Hashemi;
Fahd Al-Qurashi; Abdulrahman Bin Sadi; Saifaldeen Faisal
Al-Sherif; and Mansour Salim Al-Otha. Some of these
activists have been detained since February 2007, when
internal security police in Jeddah and Medina arrested Isam
Basrawi and nine others with allegations that the activists
were financing terrorism outside of the KSA. Isam Basrawi
was released for health reasons in September 2007.
BACKGROUND ON ACPRA
-------------------
5. (SBU) The ACPRA was founded on October 12, 2009 with the
objectives of promoting Human Rights awareness in Saudi
culture and of educating citizens on basic freedoms as
prescribed by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
according to its charter. The ACPRA is not licensed. (Note:
Other rights organizations such as the Human Rights First
Society, have had their applications for licenses languish
for years due to alleged legal shortcomings of either the
application or the organization.)
6. (SBU) ACPRA announced its presence as an organization via
an open letter to King Abdullah. The organization has a
website, which is currently blocked in the KSA, at
www.ksarights.org. The eleven founding members of the
organization are academics and Human Rights activists,
including Professor Abdulkareem Yousef Al-Khathar, Professor
of Islamic Jurisprudence at Qassim University; Prof. Abdullah
H. Al-Hamid; Fahad Abdulaziz Ali Al-Orani; Fowzan Mohsen
Al-Harbi; Easa Hamid Al-Hamid; Mhana Mohammed Al-Faleh; Dr.
Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani; Mohammad Fahad Almohaisen;
Mohammed Saleh Albejadi; and Saud Ahmed Aldoughaither. ACPRA
founder Mohammad Al-Qahtani is an Assistant Professor of
Economics at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Institute of
Diplomatic Studies and enjoys high visibility, a position
that affords him some protection from government harassment
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(although he has been arrested before).
COMMENT
-------
7. (SBU) The Embassy cannot corroborate the claims of torture
in the ACPRA letter. However, while the Saudi government has
made attempts to curb and control torture in Saudi prisons,
occasional claims of torture, such as this one, persist.
ACPRA's rare open letter was notable for bringing public
attention to a matter most Saudis prefer to ignore. That it
has thus far been tolerated suggests a willingness on the
part of the SAG to expand - ever so slightly - the limits of
public debate on such subjects.
SMITH