UN urges Saudi to stop torture and free rights activists

The United Nations (UN) urged Saudi Arabia to free more than a dozen rights activists detained in the kingdom, alleging some had been tortured or mistreated during interrogation.

The UN Committee against Torture, in a letter dated Tuesday and posted online, advanced “serious allegations” that activists have been detained without charge in Dhahban prison near Jeddah since May.

The letter further said activists including Loujain al-Hathloul, Eman al-Nafjan, Aziza al-Yousef, Samar Badawi, Nassima al-Sada, Mohammad al-Rabe’a and Ibrahim Modeimigh torture, sexual harassment and other forms of ill-treatment during interrogation.

The UN also called for their release and that of six other activists, including blogger Raif Badawi. It is to be noted that Badawi has been publicly flogged for expressing dissenting opinions online and is serving a 10-year sentence handed down in 2014 for breaking technology laws and insulting Islam.

The panel of 10 independent experts in the UN Committee against Torture also sought information on whether an impartial investigation is underway into allegations that “high-level officials were involved in the torture and extrajudicial execution of Jamal Khashoggi”.

Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and critic of the nation’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Riyadh has denied that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing.

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