15,000 Political Prisoners behind Bars in Saudi Arabia: Pakistani Journalist
ISLAMABAD (Tasnim) – Senior Pakistani analyst and journalist Zaid Hamid, who has spent three months in Saudi prisons, says the Riyadh regime is holding thousands of political prisoners.
15,000 political prisoners are behind bars in Saudi Arabia, Hamid told the Tasnim News Agency on Sunday.
The majority of these prisoners are Yemenis and Syrians who do not have any contact with the outside world, he added.
Hamid said that the Saudi intelligence agency arrested him back in July 2015 for alleged links with Iran, but that his charge was indeed his opposition to Pakistan’s participation in Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen.
This outraged Saudi rulers and made them use such a pretext for the arrest, he added.
The Pakistani analyst said he spent time in several Saudi prisons including those in Jeddah, Riyadh, and Medina, and thus, he has first-hand experience of the majority of their political prisons.
Riyadh’s record of crackdown on political and social activists, including its execution of Shiite opposition figures, has been widely criticized by the international community.
Last Saturday, Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shiite Cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, among dozens of others. The execution was widely condemned and by both political and religious figures.
Last month, hundreds of protesters in Saudi Arabia rallied in the east of the kingdom to support activists who are in prisons and are prone to execution.