Rights group calls on Saudi Arabia to release political prisoners

Apr 20, 2011, 14:54 GMT

Cairo/Riyadh - The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) group called on Saudi Arabia to release detained political dissidents and condemned the silence of the kingdom's allies on the matter.

'Saudi authorities have arrested over 160 peaceful dissidents in violation of international human rights law since February 2011,' the rights group said in a report issued Wednesday.

The Gulf kingdom has seen an increase in online activism and a few protests calling for political reforms and greater freedoms, as anti-government uprisings sweep the region.

Nadhir al-Majid, a teacher and writer who wrote an article condemning the government's attempts at squashing the demonstrations - calling it a 'blindness of political vision' - was arrested by security forces earlier this week.

The rights group condemned Saudi Arabia's western allies for their silence on the arrests, noting that the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton visited the kingdom a day after al-Majid was detained.

'The EU's silence on the brazen arrest of a peaceful dissident on the first day of its chief foreign policy representative's visit looks like a pat on the back for an authoritarian state,' said Christoph Wilcke, a senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch.

'Silence when more than 160 peaceful dissidents are locked up should not be an option for Brussels or Washington,' Wilcke said.

Peaceful protesters and Saudis who spoke critically of the government to the media have been arrested, according to the report.

Online activists had called for a Saudi 'Day of Rage' in March, but demonstrations were largely stifled due to the heavy presence of security forces and the government's ban on all protests.

Political freedoms are severely restricted in Saudi, which is ruled by King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz as an absolute monarchy.

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