Amnesty International: Saudi Arabia increases crackdown on activists

SANAA, May 15 (YPA) –  Saudi authorities in Riyadh have stepped up its campaigns over the past month, in order to target, suppress and detain critics and human rights activists,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Tuesday.

The number of detainees in April reached 14, including journalists, writers and academics, the statement added.

“A group of detainees in Saudi Arabia have been suffering from the terrible ordeal of arbitrary detention for a year,” it said.

Amnesty International indicated Saudi jurists and activists launched a campaign on social media demanding Saudi authorities to release detainees held in prisons “on malicious charges.”

The account of “the prisoners of Conscience” on Twitter, which is concerned with publishing the news about detainees in Saudi prisons, called on Saudi activists to re-tweet the hashtage: #Charges_against_Prisoners_of_conscience_are_void.

Saudi Arabia has arrested hundreds of human right activists over the past months, many of whom merely have tried to express their views and opinions against the country’s changes.

E.M