Project Description
Name: Natheer al-Majed
Natheer al-Majed
Prisoner Status: In Prison
Primary Group: Journalist
Arrest Date: 13 April 2011
Personal information
Name: Natheer al-Majed
Name in Arabic: نذير الماجد
Date of Birth: Unknown
Gender: Male
Marital status: --
Profession: Writer and Human rights activist
Place of residence: Al-Qatif
Arrest and jail information
Date of arrest:13 April 2011
Manner of arrest: Arrested from the court after the judge read the verdict
Where held: Al-Mabaheth (General Investigations Directorate), Dammam
Trial information
Alleged crimes: Nadhir al-Majid is serving a seven-year sentence in relation to an opinion article penned for an Arabic-language magazine defending protests in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province city of al-Qatif. He was detained in 2017 on the same day he was convicted.
Victim's charges: On January 18, 2017, a Riyadh court convicted al-Majid of "slandering the ruler and breaking allegiance with him," and "sending a group of electronic messages to a number of media outlets and satellite TV channels and human rights organizations," according to news reports.
Court: --
Verdict: Sentenced to seven years in prison
Date of verdict: Sentenced to seven years in prison
Updates on trial: The court sentenced the columnist to seven years in prison, a subsequent seven-year travel ban, and a fine of 100,000 Saudi riyals (US$26,662), according to news reports.
Previous arrests: The journalist had been imprisoned before. Security forces arrested al-Majid on April 13, 2011, at the school where he worked in Al-Khobar, according to news reports. Agents from Saudi Arabia’s General Investigations Department raided his house the same day, and confiscated his laptop and other belongings, according to reports. Authorities kept al-Majid in detention for the next 15 months, five of which he spent in solitary confinement, according to the news reports and the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, a Cairo-based human rights organization. On July 26, 2012, a court ordered his release, pending trial, according to news reports.
Human Rights Violations
Violations: Arbitrary arrest/ detention, Solitary confinement
Violation details: The Geneva Council for Rights and Liberties, a Gulf-focused human rights group, reported on August 16, 2019, that al-Majid’s health had deteriorated in prison due to the effects of physical and psychological abuse and solitary confinement.
References
Reference 1: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/natheer-al-majed-sentenced-seven-years-prison-and-subsequent-seven-year-travel-ban
Reference 2: https://cpj.org/data/people/nadhir-al-majid/
Reference 3: https://alqst.org/prisonersofconscience/nadhir-al-majed
Reference 4: None
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