HRD threatened with deportation to Sudan
18 November 2018 marks the one year anniversary of Hisham Ali Mohamed Ali’s detention without any legal grounds. The human rights defender’s health has been constantly deteriorating.
On 8 May 2018, Sudanese human rights defender Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali informed his family that the Saudi authorities have begun deportation procedures against him to send him to Sudan, where he will be prosecuted for his human rights work. The human rights defender has been held in detention in Saudi Arabia since he was arrested in November 2017 at the request of the Sudanese authorities.
Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali is a Sudanese blogger and human rights defender. He has contributed to various online forums and news websites and has been vocal about corruption and the practice of torture in Sudan. He has also been an advocate of Sudan’s civil disobedience, which began in late 2016 and included the “stay-at-home strikes”, protesting the violation of human rights by government austerity measures and corruption. The human rights defender moved to Saudi Arabia in 2010 where he had been working as an accountant.
18 November 2018 marks the one year anniversary of Hisham Ali Mohamed Ali’s detention without any legal grounds. The human rights defender’s health has been constantly deteriorating.
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On 18 November 2017, at the request of the Sudanese authorities, Hisham Ali Mohamed Ali was arrested by Saudi security forces. After almost six months in detention in Saudi Arabia, on 8 May 2018, Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali informed his brother that the Saudi authorities had begun procedures to deport him to Sudan on 2 May 2018. He reported that the authorities had forced him to sign his deportation memorandum as a wanted detainee.
On 29 May 2018, Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali was deported to Sudan, where he is being held in the State Security detention center. He has never been presented to the prosecution. The human rights defender described the state security detention place to his family as inhuman. His health has been deteriorating constantly and he has been brought to the hospital several times for significant loss of weight, a blood disorder and high cholesterol rates, which according to his doctor, increases the risk of a potential heart attack significantly.
Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali might be facing up to seven charges, including for crimes which carry the death penalty such as “undermining the constitutional order” and “provoking war against the state of Sudan”.
Front Line Defenders is concerned for the safety of Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali, especially in light of his health problems, and condemns his ongoing unlawful detention, which it believes it to be solely connected to his legitimate and peaceful work in promoting and protecting human rights in Sudan.
Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Sudan to:
1. Immediately and unconditionally release Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali as Front Line Defenders believes that he is being held solely as a result of his legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights;
2. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali and ensure that his treatment, while in detention, adheres to the conditions set out in the ‘Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment', adopted by UN General Assembly resolution 43/173 of 9 December 1988;
On 8 May 2018, Sudanese human rights defender Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali informed his family that the Saudi authorities have begun deportation procedures against him to send him to Sudan, where he will be prosecuted for his human rights work. The human rights defender has been held in detention in Saudi Arabia since he was arrested in November 2017 at the request of the Sudanese authorities.
On 8 May Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali informed his brother via phone from Al-Shumaisi Detention Centre outside Jeddah that on 2 May the Saudi authorities began procedures to deport him to Sudan. He said that the authorities had forced him to sign his deportation memorandum as a wanted detainee.
Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali was arrested by members of the Saudi General Security on 18 November 2017 at his apartment in Jeddah. His laptop and phones were confiscated during his arrest. The human rights defender was subjected to incommunicado detention and solitary confinement until January 2018. It was during an interrogation that he came to know that his detention was carried out at the request of the Sudanese authorities.
Front Line Defenders is concerned for the safety of Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali, who is at serious risk of deportation to Sudan where he would be prosecuted. Front Line Defenders condemns his ongoing detention, which it believes it to be solely connected to his legitimate and peaceful work in promoting and protecting human rights in Sudan.
Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in Saudi Arabia to:
1. Immediately and unconditionally release Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali and ensure that he is not deported to Sudan as Front Line Defenders believes that he is being held solely as a result of his legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights;
2. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali and ensure that his treatment, while in detention, adheres to the conditions set out in the ‘Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment', adopted by UN General Assembly resolution 43/173 of 9 December 1988;
3. Ensure that Hisham Ali Mohammad Ali has immediate and unfettered access to his families and lawyer.
