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Sunday, August 22

Saudi activists call for release of reformists

Petition: “In Order to Stop all Violations of Detainees’ Rights by Security Forces”

More than 60 Saudi activists have signed a petition calling for the release of a group of reformists held in the kingdom since early February accused of funding terrorism.

The petition was signed by 67 activists and sent to the justice ministry and advisory Shura council in Riyadh, as well as to two government-sanctioned human rights watchdogs.

The petition said the reformists had been held for longer than six months without a trial and that under Saudi law they should therefore be released.

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy that has taken tentative steps towards reform, including holding male-only elections in 2005 to pick half of the members of municipal councils.

The petition stated the seven reformists had been arrested in an “undignified way” and had been “denied and access to lawyers to be informed of the specific accusations of their detention.”

   It listed those being held as Issam Basrawi, Saud Al-Hashimi, Suleiman al-Rashudi, Sharif Khalib, Musa Al-Qarni, Abdul Rahman al-Shamiri and Abdul Aziz Al-Khariji.

   It also said that the reformists should be compensated upon their release.

   Writer Mohammed bin Hudeijan Al-Harbi said in April that three of the reformists being held had themselves signed a petition to King Abdullah calling for the establishment of an Islam-based constitutional monarchy.

   The petition demanded the introduction of a parliament “elected by all adults, men and women” in oil-rich Saudi Arabia.