Trial information

Alleged crimes: preacher, detained in September 2017, on trial facing
charges related to his religious ideas.

Victim's charges: Two charges relate to his peaceful expression of his religious opinions about certain sayings of the prophet and his criticism of several seventh century Islamic figures. Other charges include “insulting the country’s rulers and the Supreme Council of Religious Scholars, and describing them as extremist,” and accusing Gulf countries of supporting ISIS. Praising Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and “having sympathy” for the Houthi group in Yemen, and expressing his religious views in television interviews, attending discussion groups in Saudi Arabia, writing books and studies and publishing them outside of Saudi Arabia, possession of banned books, defaming a Kuwaiti man by accusing him on Twitter of supporting ISIS, and violating the country’s cybercrime law.

Court: Specialised Criminal Court (SCC)

Verdict: Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the Saudi authorities are trying the researcher, Hassan Farhan al-Maliki, with the aim of executing him, and that the Saudi Public Prosecution Office is seeking to impose the death penalty on him through vague charges related to his peaceful religious ideas.

Date of verdict: Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the Saudi authorities are trying the researcher, Hassan Farhan al-Maliki, with the aim of executing him, and that the Saudi Public Prosecution Office is seeking to impose the death penalty on him through vague charges related to his peaceful religious ideas.

Updates on trial: Almalki’s trial was scheduled to take place on 16 October 2019, 16 December 2019 and 3 February 2019, but was postponed each time. On 3 February 2020, Almalki was informed that his session was postponed until 8 March 2020. The pubic prosecution is calling for the death penalty against him. Hasan was derided from the right of delivering counterclaim / defence to the judge despite facing death penalty. On 8 March 2020, Hasan attended trial session in which he was allowed for the first time to deliver his defence statement. The next session is scheduled to be on 5 April 2020.

Previous arrests:

Human Rights Violations

Violations: Arbitrary arrest/ detention , Denied access to a lawyer , Observers denied access to court hearings

Violation details: Almalki’s trial was scheduled to take place on 16 October 2019, 16 December 2019 and 3 February 2019, but was postponed each time. On 3 February 2020, Almalki was informed that his session was postponed until 8 March 2020. The public prosecution is calling for the death penalty against him. Hasan was derided from the right of delivering counterclaim / defence to the judge despite facing death penalty. On 8 March 2020, Hasan attended trial session in which he was allowed for the first time to deliver his defence statement. The next session is scheduled to be on 5 April 2020.

References

Reference 1: https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/23/saudi-arabia-religious-thinker-trial-his-life

Reference 2: https://menarights.org/en/caseprofile/saudi-islamic-scholar-dr-al-malki-risk-execution

Reference 3: https://alqst.org/en/prisonersofconscience/hassan-al-maliki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTibdVRmgcA https://www.aljazeera.net/news/humanrights/2019/6/23/%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%86-%D9%81%D8%B1%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%88%D9%82

Reference 4: None