Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi
Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi is a Saudi human rights defender, who has been active in the rights of detainees. Between 2011 and 2013, he was one of a number of human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia demanding democratic reform through peaceful advocacy campaigns, including for the rights of political prisoners. In particular, he was involved in civil society campaigns such as “Prisoners Until When”, in addition to other campaigns seeking constitutional reform in the country. Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi was forced to flee Saudi Arabia in 2013 because of an intense state-led crackdown on human rights defenders and activists, many of whom where arbitrarily arrested, tortured and forced to make confessions, and sentenced to long term imprisonment under counter-terrorism laws. The human rights defender has continued his human rights work in exile since leaving the country. In Bulgaria, he worked as a journalist, writing articles critical of the Saudi Government under different names for precaution for him and his family. Between 2016 and 2018 he was active with the “electronic bees”, an online Saudi movement seeking to counter pro-government disinformation campaign on social media.
Human rights defenders, activists and individuals who criticise government policies or express dissent or diverging opinion to those of the authorities are subjected to harassment, surveillance, arbitrary detention, smear campaigns, prolonged and unfair trials. Family members of HRDs are also targeted and subjected to intimidation and harassment at the hands of the authorities.
