A Saudi court issued a 23-year prison sentence against Dr. Khaled Al-Ajimi, one of the founders of relief work inside and outside Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi authorities had arrested Al-Ajimi as part of the “September 2017 campaign,” then released him in August 2021 due to the deterioration of his health caused by the deliberate medical negligence in prison.
Three months later in November 2021, the authorities rearrested Al-Ajaimi and kept him in detention to date.
The September 2017 arrest campaign contained the largest series of arrests in Saudi Arabia.
It targeted a number of preachers and academics, such as Dr. Salman Al-Awda, Dr. Awad Al-Qarni, the academic at the Higher Institute for the Judiciary Abdulaziz Al-Fawzan, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saleh Al-Talib, and Dr. Safar Al-Hawali. It also included intellectuals and economists, such as Essam Al-Zamil, Abdullah Al-Maliki, Jamil Farsi, and Mustafa Al-Hassan, who was later released after becoming sick with with cancer. The arrest campaign also included journalists and a number of women and human rights activists.
The Saudi authorities impose a complete blackout on the conditions of many of the detainees, while news leaks confirm the deterioration of the health of many of them, or their subjection to torture and ill-treatment.
