Human rights organisations have urged the Saudi regime to unconditionally release a 51-year-old mother of five who has spent the last six months in solitary confinement. Ten NGOs, including Alqst, Dawn and Human Rights Watch, issued a statement on Thursday sounding the alarm over the detention of Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani, highlighting that her health has seriously declined while in detention.
Solitary confinement is universally applied in Saudi Arabia both as a disciplinary tactic and as a repressive instrument, mainly on political dissidents, activists, and government critics. The Imprisonment and Detention Law of 1978 permits solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure against individuals for 15 days, which is doubled for second-time offenders. Nevertheless, in reality, people have been kept in isolation for far longer than that, in some cases months or even years, usually without trial or the benefit of legal representation.
Qahtani, whose handicapped daughter depends heavily upon her, received a 45-year jail term from the notorious Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) in August 2022 for her social media posts, which the court found to be critical of the authorities. The NGOs’ release called the sentence a “travesty of justice”. It stated that Qahtani’s extended solitary confinement is “a violation of the absolute prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”.
“Noura al-Qahtani has now faced this gross violation of her rights for more than two months,”
they stated. Mena Rights Group claims that Qahtani used two anonymous identities to call for the release of political detainees and denounce violations of human rights by the Saudi government prior to her detention in July 2021. In February 2022, she was first given a 13-year prison term, half of which was suspended.
The SCC, however, upheld the original ruling later that year and added additional charges, extending her sentence to 45 years, including “preparing, sending and storing information, through the internet, seeking to harm public order” and “seeking to disturb the social fabric, national unity, the societal cohesion and basic laws.”
The sentence was lowered to 35 years in jail and a 35-year travel restriction after a retrial in September 2024.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an opinion in June 2023 stating that Qahtani’s detention is arbitrary and a breach of his human rights, after a complaint was lodged by nongovernmental organisations. Although some Saudi prisoners of conscience are now being released, though with harsh restrictions, Nourah’s case is a grim reminder of the numerous others who remain brutally detained and might possibly be subjected to even more severe measures.
The Saudi government‘s appalling human rights record is tarnished by her continued arrest, which UN experts have declared to be arbitrary. She has to be freed and brought back to her five kids right away.
Her case is used to highlight the Saudi government’s brutal repression of peaceful dissent and abusive treatment of targeted prisoners. It includes solitary confinement, incommunicado detention, and enforced disappearance by the NGOs. Further, it noted that Qahtani is one of the other female activists who have suffered abuses in Saudi prisons, which contradicts the kingdom’s attempts to enhance its record on women’s rights.