On April 23, 2020, the prominent political activist, Dr. Abdullah al-Hamed, died after years of medical neglect and being exposed to unhealthy conditions while serving an 11-year prison sentence due to his political and civil activism.
Al-Hamed was suffering from a deteriorating health condition and was taken to the hospital around three months before passing away. The doctor told him, at the time, that he needed an urgent cardiac catheterization procedure. However, the Saudi authorities returned him to prison in poor health conditions and subjected him to psychological pressure. He was prevented from calls and visits several times and was not allowed to tell his family about his health condition. On April 23, 2020, al-Hamed passed away without official comment or detail
Al-Hamed was one of the founders of the Association for Civil and Political Rights, ACPRA, and has authored several books on human rights and the independence of the judiciary. He was a professor of contemporary literature at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, but he was arbitrarily dismissed for his activity.
Dr. al-Hamed had been arrested several times because of his reformist activism and heroic defense of human rights. In March 2013, he was sentenced to prison on several charges related to his human rights activism: including disobeying the ruler, publicly defaming officials and their integrity, disturbing the security of society, and inciting violations of the system by calling for demonstrations, and inciting international organizations against the kingdom.
The United Nations had repeatedly written to the Saudi government about the case of al-Hamed, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had confirmed that his detention was illegal. The special rapporteurs had also called for his release. After his death, the United Nations experts sent a letter to the Saudi government on June 2, 2020, expressing their deep concern about the lack of medical care in prison, which deprived al-Hamed of his right to live. The experts asked Saudi Arabia to clarify the circumstances of Abdullah al-Hamed’s death and the reason that prevented him from treatment at the hospital and explain the extent to which this is consistent with Saudi Arabia’s obligations under international human rights law.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights affirms that the government's procrastination in providing the necessary medical care to human rights defender Abdullah Al-Hamed is a disregard for his life and makes it responsible for his death. We also believe that her ignoring to comment on his death and the failure to conduct a transparent investigation clarifying the circumstances of the case and the reason for the delay perpetuates medical mistreatment in Saudi prisons and may cause other deaths in the future.
The organization believes that the ill-treatment and medical neglect that al-Hamed had been subjected to is a systematic policy practiced against many prisoners of conscience and human rights defenders. In some cases, it drives them to declare a hunger strike. The insistence of the Saudi government on continuing to abuse human rights defenders and opinion holders and depriving them of medical makes it responsible for their lives. Especially since some of them suffer from poor health conditions, and there is no legal justification for detaining them because they are prisoners of conscience.