The Saudi authorities continue to forcibly disappear the academic Dr. Mohamed Fahd Al-Qahtani for the 180th day in a row, despite the end of his 10-year sentence in November 2022.
Al-Qahtani’s disappearance came after he filed a complaint in May last year to the prison administration after being harassed and beaten during his sleep by a psychiatric patient detained with him.
His family tried to inquire about him inside Al-Haiir Prison and they believe that he “entered a hunger strike and his health deteriorated greatly, which puts his life in imminent danger.”
The wife of Al-Qahtani made a distress call to reveal the location of her disappeared husband.
Maha Al-Qahtani shared a tweet saying: “I ask everyone who has information about my husband, Mohammed Al-Qahtani, who is forcibly disappeared, to inform us about his news.”
She added, “We are deeply concerned as we have lost communication with him, and there is no answer to our calls and messages to officials.”
Dr. Mohamed Al-Qahtani is a former professor of economics at the Institute of Diplomatic Affairs at the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one of the founding members of the ACPRA for Civil and Political Rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi authorities arrested Al-Qahtani in mid-2012 due to his human rights activities, and in March 2013 the court sentenced him to 10 years in prison, with a travel ban for another 10 years.
The most prominent charges against Al-Qahtani are participating in the establishment of an unlicensed civil association (Hasm), criticising the state’s policy and its way of managing the country’s economic affairs, inciting public opinion against officials, and describing the “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” as a police state.
It should be noted that the Saudi authorities obscure the conditions of many detainees, while news leaks confirm the deterioration of the health of many of them, or their exposure to torture and ill-treatment.
