Muhammad Bin Alawi Bin Jaafar AlShakhoori

Muhammad Bin Alawi Bin Jaafar AlShakhoori, a 34-year-old Saudi activist in the 2011 democratic movement in Qatif, was arrested without a warrant in 2017 at a checkpoint. He was then forcibly disappeared and tortured, and forced to sign a confession, which resulted in chronic pains and injuries. Muhammad was sentenced on various charges and sent to Mabahith Prison in Riyadh, where he remained arrested until 2017, and then was transferred to Al-Ha’ir prison in Riyadh, and after that, news was cut off, and he was not allowed to contact his family.

On 17 April 2017, Muhammad was arbitrarily arrested at one of the search checkpoints in Al-Awamiyah in Al-Qatif by the Eastern Province Police Forces who did not disclose the reason for arrest nor present an arrest warrant. After being disappeared for three days, his family came to know that he was arrested only when the entire neighborhood was surrounded by tanks and cars armed with machine guns to raid Muhammad’s house. The raid took place in Muhammad’s presence, while his hands and legs were chained. He was then taken to Mabahith Prison in the Eastern Province where he was allowed his first visit approximately between the seventh and eighth months of detention, and later authorities began to organize a monthly visit and weekly contact. After he was transferred to the Mabahith Prison in Riyadh, he was interrogated, prevented from visiting and contacting, and forcibly disappeared for three months. After he was transferred to Al-Ha’ir prison in Riyadh, there was no news about him for the first while, and then he was allowed to receive visits regularly until before the spread of the Corona pandemic in the country, which is when the Saudi regime took advantage of the epidemic to prevent visits and even to prevent contact for a period ranging from 3 months to 6 months, after which the visits were restricted to only 3 people, excluding his parents, under the pretext of their old age. The last visit with his family was on July 15, 2021.

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