HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANISATION URGES UN TO INTERVENE IN SALMAN AL-OUDA’S RELEASE

Fri 29 January 2021:

A Swiss human rights organisation has called on the United Nations (UN) Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to urge Saudi Arabia to release detained preacher Salman Al-Ouda.

The Geneva-based Alkarama organisation demanded that independent doctors visit Al-Ouda to examine him and report on his condition and needs.

According to a tweet posted by Abdullah Al-Ouda, Salman Al-Ouda’s son, Alkarama addressed the UN body to: “Intervene and urge Saudi authorities to release the prominent scholar Dr Salman Al-Ouda, who was arbitrarily detained, and stop the reprisals against his family.”

Earlier this month, Abdullah Al-Ouda revealed that his father was tortured, blindfolded and handcuffed inside his cell, deprived of sleep for days, in addition to suffering from medical neglect.

In September 2017, the Saudi authorities arrested prominent preachers and activists in the country, most notably Salman Al-Ouda, Awad Al-Qarni, and Ali Al-Omari, on charges of “terrorism and conspiring against the state,” amid calls by international and Islamic personalities and organisations for their release.