On February 22, 2019, Abdulrahman Farhaneh was on his way to Dammam airport to travel to Jeddah when he was stopped at a checkpoint just before the airport controlled by the Saudi State Security Service.
Farhaneh was arrested and taken back to his home, where the officers searched his belongings for two hours, confiscating his mobile phone and laptop before taking him to an unknown location.
Witnesses of the arrest asked the State Security forces about the reason for his arrest, but they replied only by saying that he was “suspicious”.
The State Security forces did not allow Farhaneh to take medicine with him which he needs to take on a daily basis for his high blood pressure, diabetes and cerebral ischemia.
Despite the fact that Farhaneh was under State Security custody at the time (i.e., at the Mabahith-run prison in Dammam), his family was denied information on his fate and whereabouts when enquiring with the State Security services, several prisons and detention facilities in Dammam, Mabahith-run Dhahban Prison, Mabahith-run and central prisons in al-Sharqiyyah province and in Riyadh, as well as with the Jordanian Embassy in Saudi Arabia. On two separate occasions, relatives went to the Saudi Public Prosecution Office in order to check whether Farhaneh’s name was listed in the registry of court cases. Nevertheless, Farhaneh’s name was not mentioned in any state records.
After being disappeared for four months, during which he was held in solitary confinement, Farhaneh was allowed to make a phone call to his family and inform them that he was being detained in Dammam prison. Farhaneh had not been charged and remained detained without trial. Relatives state that Farhaneh has been subjected to psychological and physical ill-treatment and is suffering from poor health.
In 2020, under the pretext of the Covid-19 pandemic, Farhaneh was placed once again in solitary confinement for six months.
On March 8, 2020, Farhaneh was presented before the Saudi Public Prosecution with charges brought against him, which included “belonging to a terrorist entity or aiding a terrorist entity.” His first hearing took place on March 10, 2020, before the Saudi Specialised Criminal Court which on August 8, 2021, sentenced him to 19 years in prison. Farhaneh has since appealed his sentence.
On November 18, 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted Opinion 84/2022, finding that Abdelrahman Farhaneh’s detention is arbitrary and calling for his immediate release. In particular, the Working Group expressed concern about the systemic problem with arbitrary detention in Saudi Arabia, highlighting that since its inception, it has found a violation of human rights obligations in over 70 cases related to Saudi. In addition, it recalls that “under certain circumstances, widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty in violation of the rules of international law may constitute crimes against humanity”.
