Mohammad Fahad Muflih al-Qahtani (, born 1965)
is a human rights activist, economics professor
and political prisoner currently jailed at
Al-Ha’ir Prison in
Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...
co-founding and later leading
the
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
human rights organisation
Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association
The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (''ACPRA'') ( ar, جمعية الحقوق المدنية والسياسية في السعودية) is a Saudi Arabian human rights non-governmental organisation created in 2009. On 9 March 2013, the ...
prior to his arbitrary 2012 arrest.
Alkarama
Alkarama ( ar, الكرامة لحقوق الإنسان / ISO 233: / Dignity) is an independent Swiss-based human rights non-governmental organization established in 2004 to assist all those in the Arab World subjected to, or at risk of, extrajud ...
described al-Qahtani as "one of
Saudi_Arabian_judiciary's.html" ;"title="Legal system in Saudi Arabia">Saudi Arabian judiciary's">Legal system in Saudi Arabia">Saudi Arabian judiciary'smost eloquent and fervent critics".
On 9 March 2013, al-Qahtani was sentenced to ten years in prison followed by a ten-year travel ban, ostensibly for "co-founding an unlicensed civil association".
He has carried out several hunger strikes to protest Saudi prison conditions endured during his politically motivated incarceration. As of 2022, he remains jailed and has been intermittently kept in
solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...
since 2018.
In 2018, he was awarded the
Right Livelihood Award
The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob v ...
, together with other jailed activists
Abdullah al-Hamid
Abdullah Hamid Ali al-Hamid () or Abu Bilal was a Saudi poet, Arabic professor, human rights activist and a co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA). He was imprisoned several times for calling for the establishmen ...
and
Waleed Abulkhair for "their visionary and courageous efforts, guided by universal human rights principles, to reform the totalitarian political system in Saudi Arabia." Their awards were received on their behalf by his son Omar al-Qahtani and
Yahya Assiri.
Jailed Saudi activists honored with Right Livelihood Award
Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...
Education and academic career
Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani has a PhD from Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
in the United States. , he was employed as an economics professor at the Institute of Diplomatic Affairs of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Human rights activities
2008 hunger strike
In November 2008, al-Qahtani was among 20 human rights activists who started a two-day hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
in protest against the imprisonment without fair, public trials of 11 activists, including Suliman al-Reshoudi and former university professors. Al-Qahtani stated that petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication.
In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offici ...
s calling for the activists to receive fair trials and better conditions of detention were ignored, and that freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
and freedom of assembly
Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...
were not respected in Saudi Arabia.
2009 Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association
Al-Qahtani co-founded the Saudi Arabian human rights organisation Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association
The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (''ACPRA'') ( ar, جمعية الحقوق المدنية والسياسية في السعودية) is a Saudi Arabian human rights non-governmental organisation created in 2009. On 9 March 2013, the ...
(ACPRA) in October 2009 together with Mohammed Saleh al-Bejadi
Mohammed Saleh al-Bejadi (or ''Muhammad'', ''Salih'', ''al-Bajadi'', ''albjadi'') is a co-founder of the Saudi Arabian human rights organisation Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) who has campaigned for prisoners' rights since ...
and nine others. , he continued to be active in ACPRA.
2011 prisoner demonstration
On 5 Feb 2011, about 40 women demonstrated in front of the Interior Ministry in central Riyadh, calling for the release of prisoners. Mohammed al-Qahtani later told Reuters, "The women demand to free people imprisoned in the campaign against terrorism. Many people have been held up for a long time without trial, or have nothing to do with al Qaeda.
According to an ACPRA website, they were carrying signs that said, "free our prisoners or try them in a fair public court.
2012 court case
Charges and trial
Al-Qahtani was charged in a Saudi court on 18 June 2012 on 11 charges related to his human rights activism, including:
If convicted, penalties for al-Qahtani could include a 5-year prison term, a travel ban and a fine. Another founding member of ACPRA, Mohammed al-Bejadi
Mohammed Saleh al-Bejadi (or ''Muhammad'', ''Salih'', ''al-Bajadi'', ''albjadi'') is a co-founder of the Saudi Arabian human rights organisation Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) who has campaigned for prisoners' rights since 2 ...
received a four-year jail sentence in April 2012.
One of the charges against al-Qahtani was "sending 'false information presented as facts to the official international mechanisms.'" The human rights organisation Alkarama
Alkarama ( ar, الكرامة لحقوق الإنسان / ISO 233: / Dignity) is an independent Swiss-based human rights non-governmental organization established in 2004 to assist all those in the Arab World subjected to, or at risk of, extrajud ...
interpreted this to refer to al-Qahtani's founding role in ACPRA and ACPRA's work with Alkarama in preparing documents to give to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) is a body of independent human rights experts that investigate cases of arbitrary arrest and detention. Arbitrary arrest and detention is the imprisonment or detainment of an individual, by a State, wi ...
.
Mohammad al-Qahtani's trial started on 1 September 2012 with nine charges, including "setting up an unlicensed organisation and breaking allegiance to the king". The trial of Abdullah al-Hamid
Abdullah Hamid Ali al-Hamid () or Abu Bilal was a Saudi poet, Arabic professor, human rights activist and a co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA). He was imprisoned several times for calling for the establishmen ...
, another ACPRA co-founder, started on the same day. Supporters of al-Qahtani and al-Hamid were initially present in the courtroom. Text and photo reports of the trial were published live on the social networking service
A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...
s Twitter and Facebook, which was described by the Sebastian Usher of the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
as "a measure of transparency that is unusual in Saudi Arabia".
The judge ordered some of the audience to leave the court room. According to
...