ALQST has learned that Abdulrahman al-Dowaish, son of the missing preacher Sulaiman al-Dowaish, was transferred to Malaz Prison in Riyadh on Sunday, 28 November, following two weeks in intensive care after he became ill in solitary confinement. Abdulrahman had been forcibly disappeared since 18 October 2021, and on 5 November 2021 was put on trial behind closed doors without his family’s knowledge and without his lawyer present.

According to ALQST’s information, Abdulrahman was arrested for sending a text message to Badr al-Asaker, the director of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s private office, to ask about his father Sulaiman al-Dowaish, whose fate and whereabouts have remained unknown since he was forcibly disappeared by the authorities in 2016. Al-Asaker then sent the order to the Public Prosecution for Abdulrahman’s arrest.

While in detention Abdulrahman was forced to sign a typed document in which he confessed under duress to a number of offences under the Anti-Cybercrime Law, including the preparation, storage and transmission by means of his mobile phone of material harmful to public order and privacy and defamatory of others. He was also made to confess to adopting an extremist ideology; attempting to damage community safety, the social fabric and public order by means of content sent from his mobile phone; and sending a message to someone via his mobile phone asking about his father and attaching tweets his father had posted insulting the country’s ruler.

It should also be pointed out that as ALQST reported earlier, in August 2021 the authorities arrested Abdulrahman’s brother, Abdulwahhab al-Dowaish, whose family still have no information about him or his whereabouts.

ALQST once again urges the Saudi authorities to release both Sulaiman al-Dowaish and each of his sons, Abdulwahhab and Abdulrahman, and drop all charges against them.