GENEVA – Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties warns of a serious deterioration in the health of a Saudi journalist who has been arbitrarily detained for years due to negligence and abuse.
The Council said it had received documented evidence of the deteriorating health of journalist Nazir al-Majid, who is serving an unfair sentence of seven years in prison and a seven-year ban on traveling abroad for expressing his opinion.
Al-Majed was sentenced in January 2017 after being loosely charged “breaking the rules of crown prince ” and “disturbing the country’s security.” Al-Majid is a journalist in several Saudi and Arab newspapers.
He was first arrested by the Saudi authorities in 2011 on the basis of an article entitled “I protest, then I am human” in which he supports the right to peaceful protest in the Kingdom and calls for the release of public freedoms.
According to the Geneva Council for Rights and Freedoms, Al-Majid suffers from continuous and isolated health deterioration in a solitary cell where he is subjected to constant psychological and physical torture, as are hundreds of prisoners of conscience in Saudi jails .
The International Human Rights Council called for urgent international action to secure Al-Majid’s release, stop his arbitrary detention and press the Saudi authorities to stop their gross violations of public freedoms and target opponents of their policies and those demanding reform in the Kingdom.
He warned that the Saudi authorities impose the slow death of prisoners of conscience in their prisons in an effort to silence those who do not abide by the official line or dare to give an independent opinion in politics, religion or human rights.
The UN Human Rights Council stressed that the issue of prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia, including repression, deliberate medical negligence, harassment, intimidation, defamation campaigns and travel bans, should become the title of effective action by the United Nations and the international community to stop the Saudi violations.
GCRL warns of serious health deterioration of Saudi detained journalist
