News - Middle East: An international human rights organization denounced the exposure of opinion activists to enforced disappearance and isolation from the outside world in Saudi prisons.

In a statement, Right Livability expressed "grave concern about the situation of the detainee of conscience, human rights activist Mohammad Al-Qahtani, who has been subjected to enforced disappearance since October 24, 2022."

The organization stated that “the Saudi authorities refused to give any details about Al-Qahtani’s whereabouts or his health condition, despite numerous inquiries from his family.”

Al-Qahtani is scheduled to be released on November 22, nearly ten years after his arbitrary arrest and the end of his sentence.

Mohammed al-Qahtani is a renowned human rights activist who in 2009 co-founded the now-disbanded Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights, known in Arabic as HASM and English as ACPRA.

In 2012 he was arrested alongside ACPRA's other co-founder, Abdullah al-Hamid.

In 2013, the pair were handed 10 and 11-year prison sentences over their peaceful activism. 

Al-Hamid, a pioneering Saudi human rights defender, died in prison while serving his sentence in 2020.

He suffered a stroke two weeks before his death but was kept in detention despite being in a coma at the hospital. 

Throughout his detention, Al-Qahtani was subjected to harassment and ill-treatment and was regularly denied contact with his family, access to books and essential medicines.

He also went on hunger strike several times to denounce his ill-treatment, which also included being held in a ward alongside mentally ill prisoners. However, he did not notice a slight improvement in his condition.

Amnesty International said on Friday that Mohammed al-Qahtani has been denied contact with his family since 24 October and his whereabouts are unknown.

The family suspects his disappearance could be linked to complaints he made about being assaulted by another inmate earlier in the month. 

Al-Qahtani's wife told the Saudi rights organization Sanad last week that she had become "concerned" for her husband after he didn't contact her at the time of his regular, scheduled call. 

She then contacted the prison to enquire about her husband and was told he had been transferred to another prison but did not disclose which one, Amnesty said. 

"Amnesty International urges the Saudi Arabian authorities to reveal Mohammed al-Qahtani's whereabouts, allow him to contact his family, and immediately and unconditionally release him," the group said.