Maha al-Qahtani, who lives in the United States, gave AFP her first interview this week since her husband, Mohamed al-Qahtani, was sentenced in Saudi Arabia in 2013.
“Is he okay? Is he alive?” “I was silent for 10 years but now my patience is running out,” she said in a phone interview.
Mohamed al-Qahtani is one of the co-founders of the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights, an NGO established in 2009 to document human rights abuses and advocate for the holding of elections in the kingdom, where no critical voice is not tolerated.
The activist was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2013, after being charged with undermining state security, incitement to disorder, disobedience and non-allegiance to the Saudi ruler. His association was dissolved the same year.
According to UN expert Mary Lawlor, Saudi authorities have accused the activist of providing false information to outside sources, including the UN.
Mohamed al-Qahtani, 58, was to be released on November 22 and subject to a ten-year travel ban.
While Maha and their five children spoke to her every day on the phone, they have not heard from them since October 23.
“He used to call us once or twice a day for 10 years,” she claimed. “He pushed us to move on and enjoy life. He didn’t abandon his responsibilities as a father and a husband, even in prison.”
“The fact that communication has been completely broken indicates that there is something hidden,” she added.
Mohamed al-Qahtani is being held in Al-Ha’ir prison, a high-security facility near Riyadh.
According to his wife, he complained on October 10 about a fellow prisoner who “watched him everywhere and all the time” and “brought mentally ill prisoners against him”.
The activist informed the prison authorities of this situation, without result, according to his wife. “Whatever happens to me, they are responsible because they know about it,” he had told his wife before the line was cut.
Since then, Maha al-Qahtani has tried, in vain, to obtain information about her husband from the Saudi authorities.
– “Just hear his voice” –
Often accused of repressing dissidents, Saudi Arabia has recently been criticized for the very harsh prison sentences imposed on two women who relayed critical messages on social networks.
Maha al-Qahtani is all the more concerned that another founder of the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights, Abdallah al-Hamid, died in the same prison in 2020.
His relatives then accused the prison authorities of having refused him the necessary care.
On Wednesday, Mary Lawlor, UN rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, expressed concern about the fate of Mohamed al-Qahtani.
The expert claimed that he had complained of attacks by other detainees, but that the prison authorities had refused his transfer request.
The London-based human rights association ALQST denounced a “forced disappearance”.
Mohammed al-Qahtani “has already suffered years of cruel punishment for his courageous activism, including repeated harassment and mistreatment. Yet it seems that the authorities are determined to punish him further”, said Lina al-Hathloul, an official of the ALQST.
His wife hopes to hear from him by Saturday, their youngest daughter’s tenth birthday. “If he doesn’t call her as usual, I’ll be sure something bad happened to her,” Maha al-Qahtani said.
“I just want to hear his voice”.
