Amnesty International
Prisoner of conscience, Issa al-Nukheifi,
a human rights activist and member of the independent Saudi Civil and
Political Rights Association (ACPRA), was released on 6 April after
serving his prison sentence of three years and eight months. He remains
banned from travelling for four years and from using social media such
as Facebook and Twitter.
Issa
al-Nukheifi was arrested on 15 September 2012, three weeks after he
appeared on TV accusing the local authorities in the south-western
region of Jazan of corruption and numerous human rights violations,
especially forcibly evacuating residents of the border areas of Jazan
with northern Yemen in 2009. He was detained for five months before his
case was moved first to the Criminal Court in Mecca, which refused to
try him, and later to the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, which
sentenced him to three years in prison and a four-year travel ban on 29
April 2013, mainly for violating Article 6 of the Anti-cyber Crime Law.
The court also ordered that his Facebook and Twitter accounts be closed
down. The appeal judge at the same court told him in June 2013 that his
conviction had been upheld and his sentence increased by eight months.
Click here for more information about the case.
