On 26 May 2022, human rights defender, and ACPRA member Dr. Muhammad Fahad Al-Qahtani was physically assaulted while sleeping in his cell in Al-Ha'ir Prison in Riyadh, by a prisoner suffering from mental illnesses. According to his wife, Maha Al-Qahtani, via Twitter, the issue was solved and the aggressor prisoner was taken to Al-Amal Hospital for treatment.
Al-Qahtani pointed to the increase in the number of inmates suffering from mental illnesses in the wing where her husband is being held, which poses a threat to the lives of other prisoners, a clear violation of the rights of detainees, and a violation of international laws and agreements. Al-Qahtani held the prison administration responsible for this abuse and the harm that might happen to her husband as a result of the repetition of these violations and demanded that the issue be resolved and those who deliberately harm detainees in various ways be held accountable.
Dr. Al-Qahtani is currently imprisoned in the ward (8A) of Al-Ha'ir prison, accompanied by several human rights defenders, including Fawzan Al-Harbi (member of ACPRA) and Issa Al-Nukhaifi. In addition, the writer Muhammad Al-Hudayf and dozens of activists were detained in this wing due to their activity on social media. Systematically and deliberately, this ward has been crowded with mentally ill patients since 2017, putting the lives of human rights defenders and other activists at risk.
As a result of this policy, several serious accidents occurred, including a fire that one of these patients set in the ward in 2021, endangering the lives of all inmates due to the lack of emergency exits in all prison wards. Fortunately, the fire was extinguished, which could have caused a disaster had it not been for the intervention of detainees in the cell and their control over the fire. Despite the various requests made by the families of detainees in the ward (8A) that prisoners suffering from mental illnesses should be transferred, the authorities did not do anything about it.
Al-Qahtani suffered from poor conditions in Al-Ha’ir prison in Riyadh. The violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Ill-treatment led to his hunger strike several times to protest the conditions inside the prison, the last of which was in August 2021. Al-Qahtani also waged two hunger strikes in December 2020 and March 2021, they continued for several days, to protest the mistreatment of inmates.
Al-Qahtani had the Coronavirus in April 2021, after the prison administration deliberately placed him with prisoners infected with the virus without his knowledge. Not only did the prison administration neglect all of that, but it also deprived him of treatment for a skin disease he suffers from, despite the disease’s significant development and despite the repeated promises from the prison administration to look into the matter and solve the problem, no actual response took place. Al-Qahtani was taken to the prison hospital several times for examinations, but every time he arrived at the hospital, no examinations were conducted for him and he was returned to the prison on the pretext that there was no appointment.
What happened to Dr. Al-Qahtani is no exception. Rather, many cases confirm Saudi Arabia's disregard for the lives of political prisoners and their deliberate endangerment. On April 24, 2020, Dr. Abdullah Al-Hamid is in prison, due to his denial of treatment and the delay in conducting an urgent operation for him. Al-Hamid is a companion of Dr. Muhammad Al-Qahtani and one of the founding members of the ACPRA. In May 2021, the activist Zuhair Ali Sherida Al-Mohammed died after medical negligence in prison, and on October 10, 2021, a group of extremist detainees attacked the prisoner of conscience, Dr. Musa Al-Qarni, which led to his death. The Saudi government did not comment on this nor mention the cause of his death, although Saudi activists published a medical report stating that Al-Qarni was severely beaten in several areas of his body, including bruises on the head, as the reason for his death.
In addition, many detainees died in Saudi prisons and security centers as a result of torture or in mysterious circumstances, as statistics from the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights indicate the death of at least 23 detainees in prisons. This is in addition to the information that confirmed that some of the detainees died shortly after their release due to their serious health conditions. According to official documents reviewed by the organization, many detainees said in court that interrogators threatened them with death and bragged that they would no longer be legally accountable and that they could falsify the cause of death.
ESOHR believes that the Saudi government is deliberately endangering the lives of political detainees to liquidate them in prisons in various ways. It also holds her responsible for the safety of Dr. Muhammad Al-Qahtani, whose sentence expires after several months (November 2022), and all the other prisoners. In addition, the organization believes that Saudi Arabia neglects to comment on the killings in its prisons, which indicates its indifference to their safety and right to life.