SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties, called today, Sunday, June 28, 2020, on the authorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to immediately reveal the whereabouts and fate of  the forcibly disappeared Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Zubairi in the prisons of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since his arrest by the Saudi security forces on the 27th of last Ramadan, and four others, including the activist Muhammad Al-Bakari who has been detained since 8 April 2020

The organization said that Abdulaziz al-Zubairi, 67, has been forcibly disappeared since 27 last Ramadan - May 20 this year, when his house was raided at 5 a.m. in the Aziziyah, Makkah area, by a security force consisting of 30 members of the Saudi security forces wearing Military and civilian uniform, where they took his mobile phones and searched his car, and then took him to an unknown place and his whereabouts is still unknown until this moment, which caused panic to his family.

SAM confirmed that it learnt the family of Sheikh Al-Zubairi did not receive an answer from the Saudi authorities about his whereabouts and place of detention, or the reasons for the detention. According to the international law, enforced disappearance occurs when the authorities detain an individual and deny his detention or fail to reveal his fate or whereabouts. Often the risk of torture raises on disappeared persons, especially when they are held outside official detention facilities such as prisons and police detention rooms.

The organization indicated that Saudi Arabia has recently been active in arresting and forcibly disappearing many Yemenis without specific charges, or allowing them to contact their families or pursue a legal aid, including human rights activist Muhammad al-Bukari, who was arrested on April 8, 2020 after he posted a video on social media, adding to three others arrested in late May 2020; Muhammad Fadhail and two of his brothers.

The organization said that the detained and forcibly disappeared Yemenis fled  the capital, Sanaa, after Houthis seized the city, and sought refuge in Saudi Arabia for fear of arrest by the Houthis group, but unfortunately they fell victims of the coercive measures of the Saudi security services that conflict with human rights.

SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties, Geneva

June 28, 2020