ALQST has learned through private channels that the Saudi authorities are putting Abdulrahman al-Dowaish, son of the missing preacher Sulaiman al-Dowaish, on trial. Sulaiman al-Dowaish was arrested and forcibly disappeared by the authorities in 2016, and his fate and whereabouts remain unknown. Abdulrahman has been detained since 18 October 2021 for contacting the Public Prosecutor’s Office to ask where his father was.

Earlier, in August 2021, the authorities had re-arrested Abdulrahman’s brother, Abdulwahhab al-Dowaish, who was first arrested back in 2017 because of a dispute with an official at the Interior Ministry over what had happened to his father. According to the information ALQST has received, Abdulrahman al-Dowaish (b. 2001) is being tried behind closed doors without his family’s knowledge, and without his lawyer present.

ALQST condemns the illegal measures taken by the Saudi authorities and the enforced disappearance of detainees. It also calls urgently for all charges against Abdulrahman al-Dowaish to be dropped and for his immediate release.