Saudi women protest
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Activists report arrests of women in Saudi cities
- Protesters unhappy with pace of judicial system
- Saudi officials have been reluctant to comment
(CNN) -- Dozens of women and at least five children
were arrested on Saturday after demonstrations were held in two Saudi
cities, Riyadh and Buraida, according to human rights activists. The
women were demanding the release of relatives they say have been held
for years without access to lawyers or a trial, the activists said.
Mohammed Al-Qahtani, a
prominent activist currently on trial in Saudi Arabia on charges that
include breaking allegiance to the Saudi king, told CNN the women who
were protesting are "female relatives of political prisoners."
"They are asking the
authorities to either take these prisoners to court," said Al-Qahtani,
"or set them free."
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In the capital city of
Riyadh, one activist who was part of the demonstration said it was held
outside a building that houses one of the country's government-backed
human rights groups.
The activist, who
requested anonymity for fear for her safety, said she had to quickly
flee the scene to avoid arrest. About 50 women demonstrated there, and
at least two of them had been arrested as police tried to disperse the
crowd, she said.
"They went out there
today to ask that their relatives be freed," said the activist. "They
have been in prison for a long time and have had no lawyer and no
trial."
According to two other
activists, three of the women arrested in Riyadh were the wife and
daughter and granddaughter of Suleiman al-Rashudi, a political activist
who was arrested in December after giving a lecture in which he said
protests were permitted in Islam.
Al-Rashudi previously
spent five years in detention and was found guilty last year of, among
other things, financing terrorism, incitement against the king and
attempting to seize power.
One amateur video
purportedly shot at the scene shows women, some who brought their
children, chanting, "The people call for the liberation of the prisons."
In Buraida, the
provincial capital of deeply conservative Qassim Province, activists say
at least 26 women protested and were arrested outside the city's Board
of Grievances on Saturday -- the scene of a similar protest in early
January.
Many of the women
brought their children, who they say were also arrested.
One of the female
protesters, Um Abdullah, spoke to CNN by phone as she was being held in a
police station in Buraida.
"I demonstrated for the
release of my husband, Abdulmalek Al-Muqdin," explained Um Abdullah,
"who has been in jail without charge for 12 years."
According to Um
Abdullah, whose son was detained alongside her, the police told her and
the other women that they would be released if they signed a piece of
paper that would compel them to show up at any government office if
summoned to do so, but the women refused to do so.
One amateur video posted
online purports to show several of the women, and some of the children,
in the back of a police bus after having been detained. In the video,
the women express solidarity with the political prisoners in Saudi
Arabia.
Despite repeated
efforts, CNN has been unable to reach Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry
for comment. Protests are prohibited in Saudi Arabia.
In early January, a
small group of women held a demonstration in the same part of Buraida,
calling for the release of detained family members. Their arrest, a
short time later, caused great outrage and sparked several days of small
protests in various cities.
Saudi Arabia's Interior
Ministry confirmed to CNN later in the month that the women were
eventually all released.
When asked in late
January about demonstrators' claims that their relatives are political
prisoners who should be released, Interior Ministry Spokesman Major Gen.
Mansour Al-Turki told CNN that Saudi government officials would not
comment on cases currently being "looked at by the courts.
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