HUMAN RIGHTS NGO SENDS OPEN LETTER TO SAUDI KING

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 000069 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP JHARRIS AND JBERNDT AND DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL KISL PGOV KDEM OPDC SA SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS NGO SENDS OPEN LETTER TO SAUDI KING ABOUT JAILED ACTIVIST REF: BERNDT-RAM E-MAIL DATED 01/04/2010 RIYADH 00000069 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On December 28, 2009 the unlicensed Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) appealed to King Abdullah in an open letter to order the release from prison of 73-year old, well-known Human Rights activist, Suliman Al-Reshoudi. The letter claimed that Al-Reshoudi, a former judge, is suffering "severe physical and psychological torture." A copy of the letter was circulated by ACPRA via e-mail to embassies in Saudi Arabia and abroad, as well as to members of the press and to Human Rights organizations. The letter has been widely circulated via the internet and received press coverage from Reuters and the BBC but not from any media outlets in Saudi Arabia. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) The ACPRA's December 28 open letter to King Abdullah said ACPRA had "confirmed information" that Judge Al-Reshoudi had been subjected to severe physical and psychological torture during his three years in solitary confinement. Most recently, according to the letter, Judge Al-Reshoudi's two feet were tied up with two separate chains, one tying the two feet together, the other tying the feet to the bed frame. During the day, the letter reported, the 73-year old is forced into a sitting position where he cannot relax or lie down and at night his feet are in shackles, depriving him of sleep. The letter described how Judge Al-Reshoudi's wife and two young toddlers "burst into tears" upon seeing him during a recent prison visit. ACPRA believes the treatment is in retaliation for Judge Al-Reshoudi's intention of joining ACPRA and is intended to send a threatening message to other Human Rights activists. ¶3. (SBU) The letter describes Judge Al-Reshoudi as a widely-known Human Rights defender who had signed political reform petitions demanding a national constitution, rights for freedom of assembly, and the establishment of civil society institutions. It comments that if the Interior Ministry could get away with inflicting "severe brutalities on activists," it could certainly get away with "torturing ordinary Saudis." The letter asked "what kind of message is the Interior Ministry sending to Judge Al-Reshoudi's "young followers who admire his ideas of peaceful activities?" ¶4. (SBU) The open letter calls for King Abdullah's intervention, challenging him to "prove his genuine intentions" by immediately releasing all political prisoners and bringing those involved in torture (from the Ministry of Interior) to justice. The document names the following political prisoners: Professor Abdulrahman Al-Shomairi; Ali Khosifan Al-Qarni; Mousa Al-Qarni; Professor Saud Al-Hashemi; Fahd Al-Qurashi; Abdulrahman Bin Sadi; Saifaldeen Faisal Al-Sherif; and Mansour Salim Al-Otha. Some of these activists have been detained since February 2007, when internal security police in Jeddah and Medina arrested Isam Basrawi and nine others with allegations that the activists were financing terrorism outside of the KSA. Isam Basrawi was released for health reasons in September 2007. BACKGROUND ON ACPRA -------------- ¶5. (SBU) The ACPRA was founded on October 12, 2009 with the objectives of promoting Human Rights awareness in Saudi culture and of educating citizens on basic freedoms as prescribed by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to its charter. The ACPRA is not licensed. (Note: Other rights organizations such as the Human Rights First Society, have had their applications for licenses languish for years due to alleged legal shortcomings of either the application or the organization.) ¶6. (SBU) ACPRA announced its presence as an organization via an open letter to King Abdullah. The organization has a website, which is currently blocked in the KSA, at www.ksarights.org. The eleven founding members of the organization are academics and Human Rights activists, including Professor Abdulkareem Yousef Al-Khathar, Professor of Islamic Jurisprudence at Qassim University; Prof. Abdullah ¶H. Al-Hamid; Fahad Abdulaziz Ali Al-Orani; Fowzan Mohsen Al-Harbi; Easa Hamid Al-Hamid; Mhana Mohammed Al-Faleh; Dr. Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani; Mohammad Fahad Almohaisen; Mohammed Saleh Albejadi; and Saud Ahmed Aldoughaither. ACPRA founder Mohammad Al-Qahtani is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Institute of Diplomatic Studies and enjoys high visibility, a position that affords him some protection from government harassment RIYADH 00000069 002.2 OF 002 (although he has been arrested before). COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (SBU) The Embassy cannot corroborate the claims of torture in the ACPRA letter. However, while the Saudi government has made attempts to curb and control torture in Saudi prisons, occasional claims of torture, such as this one, persist. ACPRA's rare open letter was notable for bringing public attention to a matter most Saudis prefer to ignore. That it has thus far been tolerated suggests a willingness on the part of the SAG to expand - ever so slightly - the limits of public debate on such subjects. SMITH