Personal information

  • Sex: Male
  • Date of birth: 1971
  • Area of activity: Human rights activist
  • Place of residence: Jazan

He is known for his role in detecting cases of financial corruption, defending victims violated by government authorities. Which made him a subject of frequent harassment and lead to his suspension from his work preventing him from further employment with the government authority. He was imprisoned for his activism several times.

Follow Us:

Arrest and jail information

  • Prison: Al-Ha’ir Prison, Riyadh
  • Date of arrest: December 2016

Trial information

  • Charges: Seeking to destabilise the social fabric and national cohesion; communicating with and receiving money from foreign groups considered to be enemies of the state; using a personal cell phone and the internet to store and transfer information that is harmful to the public order and saying that the ruling family and Saudi police were not at all Islamic
  • Court: Specialised Criminal Court (SCC)
  • Verdict: Six years in prison followed by a further six-year travel ban
  • Date of verdict: 28 February 2018

Violations

  • Arbitrary arrest/ detention ,
  • Denied contact with family ,
  • Denied access to a lawyer ,
  • Torture and ill-treatment ,
  • Observers denied access to court hearings

Violation details

He suffered various forms of harassment by the Saudi authorities on many occasions.

Timeline

  • 15 October 2022 - He started a hunger strike, protesting against not being released from jail despite his sentence expiring the previous week. 
  • 19 May 2022 - He ended his latest hunger strike after the authorities responded to his request to leave prison in order to complete banking transactions.
  • 15 May 2022 - He began a hunger strike to leave prison in order to complete banking transactions.
  • 30 April 2022 - He ended his hunger strike, after the authorities said they will let him out of prison to complete the banking transactions.
  • 17 April 2022 - He begun a hunger strike in Al-Ha’ir Prison, protesting the prison administration’s vindictive delays over letting him out to complete some banking transactions in relation to his salary and ID card renewal. Al-Nukhaifi’s family have failed to receive his salary for two months because his ID card has expired, so this deliberate foot-dragging is causing his wife and children unnecessary hardship.
  • 11 August 2021 - He began a hunger strike for reasons that are not known.   
  • 11 March 2021 - He was transferred to hospital suffering from low blood sugar as a result of the hunger strike. 
  • 6-14 March 2021 - He went on hunger strike, along with 30 prisoners of conscience, in protest against harassment and ill-treatment by prison officials at Al-Ha’ir in Riyadh, including being held on the same wing as psychiatric detainees.  
  • 08 April 2019 - He requested to be transferred to Jizan prison in order to be closer to his 80-year-old mother, who struggles to visit him at Makkah General Prison, which is over 700 km away from their usual residence.
  • 07 April 2018 - In a decision that cannot be further appealed, the Court of Appeal confirmed his sentence.
  • 28 February 2018 - He was sentenced in to six years in prison followed by a further six-year travel and social media ban.  
  • 21 August 2017 - His trial was transferred to Judge Abdulaziz Al Jaber, and the first hearing was held in his absence, with Judge Khaled Al-Jasser attending instead.
  • 17 August 2017 - He was transferred from Makkah Main Prison to Al Malaz Prison in Riyadh to be tried before the Specialised Criminal Court (SCC).
  • December 2016 - Al-Nukhaifi was arrested after having tried to draw attention to financial corruption in organisations where he used to work, and having defended victims of the authorities’ abuses. As a result, he suffered much harassment and was eventually suspended from his job and banned from taking up any other government position. 

Other prisoners

prisoner

Sarah al-Jar

prisoner

Manal al-Gafiri

--

prisoner

Mohammed al-Ghamdi

Academic

prisoner

Mohammed al-Hajji

prisoner

Abdel Nasser Ahmad al-Huwaiti