UN calls on Saudi Arabia to immediately release Palestinian detainees

NEWYWORK, Oct. 24 (YPA) – The United Nations has called on Saudi Arabia to immediately release Palestinian detainees in its prisons.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) said in a it report the Saudi authorities should immediately stop “arbitrary detentions of Palestinians.

This came in a report issued on the Saudi authorities’ treatment of two Palestinians who were arbitrarily arrested in April 2019.

The UN team believes that “Mohammed and Hani al-Khoudari were deprived of their freedom on discriminatory grounds, on the basis of their national origin as Palestinians.”

The report described the detention of Palestinians in Saudi prisons as “arbitrary act,” stressing that the Saudi authorities “failed to establish a legal basis for the arrest and detention of Mohammed and Hani al-Khoudari.

It pointed out that the arrested have been deprived of their basic rights to a fair trial, which represents a grave violation by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The UN organization accused the Saudi authorities of taking “discriminatory measures” against a group including 60 Palestinians who have been arrested en masse and were deprived of their right to appoint a private lawyer to plead before the courts over the charges against them.

“Mohammed Saleh Al-Khoudari”, 83, was appointed in 1993 as the first representative of the Hamas movement in the Kingdom. During his detention, he partially lost the ability to move his right hand and is currently dependent on his detained son, who helps him to feed.

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