The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) welcomes the release of more activists in Saudi Arabia after years of imprisonment. We have previously reported on a sudden trend with the release of activists that started late last year.

These activists were arrested years ago based on their online critical comments about what the authorities claimed to be reforms, in addition to supporting the release of prisoners of conscience and documenting violations to people’s rights.

Among them are Mohammed Al-Rabiah, Asmaa Al-Subaie and Shaimaa Al-Buqmi, who mostly were sentenced on fabricated charges related to the vague definition of some terms included in articles of both the Anti-Cybercrime Law and Counter-Terrorism Law.

In trials confronting peaceful activities on the Internet, the Saudi authorities used Article 6 of the Anti-Cybercrime Law, which states: “Any person who commits any of the following shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years and a fine not exceeding three million riyals, or by one of these two punishments.” Among the cyber crimes listed is “1. Producing something that would prejudice public order.”

The Saudi authorities also used the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC), which was established in 2008 to hear cases of terrorism, to restrict diverse opinions and put human rights activists and reform advocates in prison with heavy sentences.

Mohammed Al-Rabiah, a writer and a youth cultural activist, was arrested on 15 May 2018 along with the most prominent women rights activists, for his role in supporting the women activists’ calls for rights. He was publicly defamed as a traitor in the state-sponsored newspaper and digital media accounts, and denied access to a lawyer or family visits while allegedly endured brutal torture. Al-Rabiah was subject to electrocution, waterboarding, kept in a small wardrobe for days unable to sit or sleep, hung upside down by his feet, and beaten until unconscious. He was sentenced on 20 April 2021 by the SCC to six and a half years in prison, with two years suspended, followed by a travel ban of the same length, on charges related to his activism and defence of women’s rights. Al-Rabiah was then retried and sentenced to 17 years in prison in December 2022. He was released in May 2025, after serving seven years of imprisonment.

Asmaa Al-Subaie, a 26-year-old university student and human rights defender, was very active online supporting women’s rights campaigns and women survivors of domestic violence. She was arrested with dozens of online activists on 01 June 2021, forcibly disappeared, and detained for a year without being charged, and without access to family visits or legal consultation. In June 2022, she appeared, probably forcibly, on a televised state-sponsored interview promoting the government policies from Al-Ha’ir, the political prison in Riyadh. She was reportedly released in April 2025.

Similarly, Shaimaa Al-Buqmi, 27 years old, is a survivor of lengthy domestic violence by her father who threatened to kill her – as did other male relatives, she managed to file a report in a police station, but her uncle intervened and forced her to withdraw it. Al-Buqmi communicated with online activists to help her seek refuge in another city. However, she was arrested in April 2022 and detained in Dhaban prison. No information was available on her case, but some reports alleged that she was arrested based on a malicious complaint of absence from home and disobedience submitted by her father. However, both charges were admissible in courts at that time. She was released in June 2025.

GCHR has been documenting in recent years an escalation in arrests and sentencing of online activists for simply stating opinions in relation to public affairs on social media networks. It is unconfirmed how many of the online activists have been released, for many are concerned about retaliation by the state if they announced their release or resumed their social media activities.

Additionally, the lack of transparency of the legal system in Saudi Arabia makes tracking the cases almost impossible without credible sources close to those affected. Many prominent human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and bloggers remain in prison. Among them are prominent human rights lawyer Waleed Abu Al-Khair, online activist Amani Al-Zain, and human rights defenders Mohammed Al-Otaibi and Abdullah Al-Atwani, among so many others.

It is of increasingly serious concern for GCHR that there is a trend of political executions in trials which do not meet the bare minimum international standards of fair trial and due process. GCHR has reported on the execution based on Ta’zir, meaning based on the judge’s discretion, of journalist Turki Al-Jasser, after seven years of imprisonment.

The Ministry of Interior has also published a statement after a suspicious execution of an official in the Ministry of Interior, Abdullah Hajis Al-Shammari, who was accused of treason, among six other executed people. His execution was also based on Ta’zir. A credible source inside Saudi Arabia said that Al-Shammari has been well-known to activists for many years, and he was a patriotic citizen who supported the human rights defenders and other activists in their pursuit of reforms, even though he couldn’t publicly advocate for them.

Considering the mixed picture of waves of arrests and arbitrary releases, along with lack of accountability or legal recourse in cases of execution, GCHR believes that there is a serious lack of reforms and that the judiciary is used as a tool for suppression of independent voices rather than targeting real crimes.

Recommendations

GCHR calls on the Saudi authorities to:

1. Immediately and unconditionally end all practices of arbitrary arrests, lengthy imprisonment, torture, and travel bans, against human rights defenders, intellectuals, bloggers, and online activists; and
2. Establish a transparent system in accordance with the country’s international commitments for human rights to ensure monitoring and accountability of violations of human rights against all citizens.