The Saudi authorities continue to arbitrarily detain Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Fawzan, 59, for 53 months, without trial.
On July 31, 2018, he was arrested for sharing a tweet in which he called for standing against delusion, which was interpreted as criticising Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Saudi authorities placed Al-Fawzan in in solitary confinement in Al-Hayer prison for a long period.
Al-Fouzan is a professor of comparative jurisprudence at the Higher Institute of Judiciary at Imam Mohamed bin Saud University, a member of the Council of the Governmental Human Rights Commission, and the general manager of the global media network “The Message of Islam”.
Prior to his arrest, the Saudi authorities dismissed Al-Fouzan from his job as a university professor and banned him from traveling.
Recently, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while combating terrorism, Fionnuala Ni Olin, published a report within the work of the 49th session of the Human Rights Council on global practices on secret detention. The report criticised the use of terrorism charges as a pretext for arbitrary detention in Saudi Arabia.
