Waleed Abulkhair

Waleed Sami Abulkhair ( ar, وليد أبوالخير) is a Saudi Arabian lawyer and human rights activist, and the head of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA) organization. He is the first activist to be prosecuted by the Terrorism Law. He was arrested on April 15, 2014, and was sent to al-Ha'ir Prison while awaiting prosecution. On July 6, 2014, Abulkhair was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Specialized Criminal Court, (10 years executed and five suspended) and a travel ban for another 15 years, in addition to a fine of 200,000 riyals (US$). On January 12, 2015, the case returned to the Court of Appeals, after which the judge requested increasing the previous sentence, because Abulkhair refused to apologize. Thus, the judgment was tightened to 15-year executed. In response, Abulkhair prayed for God's victory and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Specialized Criminal Court. Abulkhair is incarcerated in the Dhahban Central Prison in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a facility used to hold high-profile political prisoners, as well as members of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

In 2018, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, together with Abdullah al-Hamid and Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani for "their visionary and courageous efforts, guided by universal human rights principles, to reform the totalitarian political system in Saudi Arabia."

Early life, family and education

Waleed was born in Jeddah, west of Saudi Arabia.

He comes from a Hejazi family of judges and Imams of the Holy Mosque.

Waleed's grandfather Mohammed Saeed AbuAlkhair was one of the Jeddah commissioners who signed the agreement with King Abdulaziz under the condition that ruling Hejaz must be self-governing under the guidance of the Quran and prophets sayings and the four leading Imam's guidance.

Waleed's mother, Elhaam Al Abbasi, also come from a well known Hejazi family. His mother had a huge impact on his character, and continues to be a strong influence on his personality.

Waleed's oldest uncle, Yahya Abulkhair, is a retired professor specializing in Geology. He taught at King Saud University. Waleed's younger uncle, Sameer Abulkhair, was a retired Major General working for the border guards sector in the Ministry of Interior in Medina city.

Waleed married Samar Badawi. After two months of his detention, she gave birth to their daughter, Joud. In 2015 November, while Abulkhair was still in prison, he and Samar Badawi agreed to divorce for personal reasons.

Waleed holds two bachelor's degrees: one in law, which he earned with the highest distinction; and a second degree specializing in Arabic language. In 2009, he got his master's degree in Islamic law from Alyarmook University in Jordan after defending his thesis (Affinities and Differences in the Evidences and Reasons and Judgements: a Consolidating Applicable and Comparative Study). The Thesis was supervised by Dr. Abdul-Jaleel Zuhair Thamrah. Waleed has memorized the Quran and got a license from Shaikh Obaid Allah AlAfqani and was approved by the Teaching Board of the Holy Mosque in Madinah.

Professional career and human rights activism

In 2007 Waleed Abulkhair began his career in the legal profession, where he joined lawyer Essam Basrawi and worked in his office.

In the same year, Waleed—along with several other activists—launched a statement entitled Features of a Constitutional Monarchy, which explicitly demanded the ruling family of Saudi Arabia change the current regime of absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. This led the Saudi Authorities to stop funding his Graduate studies for master's degree, so he studied and finished his master's degree on his own expenses.

Waleed Abulkhair defended a number of clients in the case of Jeddah reformers, including Dr. Mossa bin Mohammed Al-Qarni, Dr. Saud al-Hashimi and Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Shumaimri, who were arrested in February 2007. He filed a lawsuit on June 22, 2009 against the Interior Ministry over the detention of his clients without charge. He was also hired by the British Embassy in Saudi Arabia to defend one of its nationals detained by Saudi authorities.

Abulkhair was one of those who signed a famous petition called “Toward a State of Rights and Institutions”.

Demanding the release of detainees who he considered to be political prisoners, Waleed organized what he called "the first hunger strike campaign in Saudi Arabia for human rights", lasting for 48 hours. Due to this, he was invited in Mexico City to a summit named the “Alliance of Youth Movement”.

He signed other two more petitions in 2011, “Towards a State of Rights and Institutions”, the “National Declaration for Reform”, which called for radical reforms in the political system, and coincided with waves of protests against Arab regimes.

He is the founder, in 2008, of Monitor for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA), an independent human rights organization. In December of that year the Monitor site was blocked, resulting in it being rebuilt on social networking site Facebook. However, in May 2009, this page was also blocked. In 2012, Waleed registered and licensed the Monitor at the Canadian Ministry of Labor. Thus, MHRSA became the first Saudi human rights organization to be licensed abroad. Waleed Abulkhair then sent a letter appealing to King Abduallah to allow recognition of the organization in Saudi Arabia. The Royal Court replied by transmitting the request to the Interior Ministry, which opened an investigation into the organization.

In March 2012, Waleed was nominated by the US State Department to attend an extensive course for six-week titled "Democratic leaders" at Syracuse University in New York sponsored by the US State Department, but the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution in Jeddah summoned him and told him that he was banned from traveling.

Smood, the weekly salon

As a reaction to the Saudi authorities decision to shut down Bridges Café in Jeddah, which was a meeting point for Saudi youth to talk and discuss several topics, in 2013 Abu al-Khair started a weekly gathering in his living room, hosting a few dozen of people, most of them politically engaged Saudi youth from different backgrounds. Topics focused on political, religious and human rights issues, in addition to cultural and intellectual subjects. The salon is named “ Smood” (صمود), an Arabic word that can be translated as “resistance” or “steadfastness”.

Smood was attacked heavily by many conservatives in social media and on TV. It has been claimed that the salon encouraged atheism and skepticism, especially after Hamza Kashgari’s case, knowing that he was a personal friend of Abu al-Khair and many other regular visitors to the meetings. One day, few conservatives visited Smood and secretly recorded the discussion without the attendees' permission; on the next day, they tweeted negatively about the topics discussed and the type of people attending Smood. Moreover, they contacted a TV show and requested from the government and the Hai'ia to take serious action against such meetings. Abulkhair defended his salon by saying that he is offering the freedom of speech, the freedom of belief and the freedom of expression, which are things that cannot be provided outside the door of his house.
Waleed mentioned his salon in an article that he posted on Washington Post titled "Steadfast in pursuing a freer Saudi Arabia".

Samar Badawi and Raif Badawi cases

Waleed was the lawyer of both Samar Badawi, and her brother Raif Badawi.
Samar Badawi is a Saudi woman who was detained in jail for seven months because of the accusations of not obeying her father. Waleed adopted her case and defended her in Saudi courts. He also launched a campaign to demand her release by using various social media such as Twitter and Facebook. In addition, he created a special blog to publish all updates and documents related to the case. After three weeks, the campaign had achieved its goals and Badawi was released from prison.

Waleed represented Raif Badawi, founder of the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group, after he was arrested for establishing the network and charged with "committing violations of legitimacy" and "insulting the Divine self".
Waleed represented Raif before detention when he was sentenced to death for insulting religion but he dropped the case and then directly he was detained, and Raif was sentenced to jail.

Media presence

Waleed conducted interviews with international media, including those with Kevin Sliven of the Washington Post, Jacob Timblin of Time magazine, and Pierre Pray of Le Figaro newspaper, as well as Frank Gardner of the BBC
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