In April 2016, preacher Sulaiman al-Dowaish was arrested and tortured by the Saudi authorities after posting a series of tweets critical of the Saudi government. Through direct contact with Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, the family discovered that their father had been arrested by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ‘Tiger Squad’ – known to be the same one that carried out the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. After this initial information, however, they could no longer find out where he was. Since his arrest, al-Dowaish has been a victim of enforced disappearance.
His three sons, Malik, Abdulwahhab and Abdulrahman al-Dowaish, have used every means to bring to light the treatment their father received and find out where he was being held. Their intent was also to try to hold the Saudi government accountable for what happened to him. As a consequence of their actions, the three brothers became themselves victims of reprisal by the authorities. This demonstrates how the repression of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia extends to the entire family unit of those affected.
All three brothers have been arrested as a consequence of their activism and efforts to obtain information about their father, receiving treatment that demonstrates the brutality of Saudi repression. Abdulwahhab al-Dowaish was arrested in 2017 after an argument he had with an official at the Ministry of Interior, whom he had asked for information about his father. Following the arrest, the family only received his information after three months and discovered that Abdulwahhab had been tortured during that time. The sentence against him, handed down in September 2020, amounted to three and a half years of imprisonment with an eighteen-month suspension, followed by a travel ban. In August 2021, Abdulwahhab was called to the Naif College for National Security in Riyadh to, supposedly, remove an electronic ankle tag. Arriving there, however, he discovered that he would have to serve the last eight months of his sentence in prison. According to the latest reports, Abdulwahhab was arrested a third time earlier this month.
Abdulrahman al-Dowaish, on the other hand, was arrested in October 2021 for directly contacting the Public Prosecutor’s Office, asking for information about his father. His trial was held without the family knowing and without Abdulrahman having the possibility to talk with a lawyer. During this time, he was also forced to sign documents where he confessed to offences under the Saudi Anti-Cybercrime Law. His sentence was due to end in September 2023. Despite this, he continues to be imprisoned in incommunicado detention.
In July 2022, Malik al-Douwish was also arrested and sentenced to a term of 27 years in prison. In March 2024, his sentence was revised and decreased to 15 years. Despite the noteworthy decrease, the fact remains that Malik’s imprisonment is arbitrary. Indeed, it is nothing more than a continuation of the repression that the family of Sulaiman al-Dowaish has been facing since his disappearance.
The case of the al-Douwaish brothers is not the only one in which family members of a political prisoner have been victims of reprisals by the Saudi authorities. For example, the activist Loujain al-Hathloul’s family was subjected to a travel ban without any explanation being given to them about the imposition of this measure. Another example is what happened to the brothers of Dr. Saeeh al-Ghamdi, a critic of the Saudi regime in exile. His brother, Mohammed al-Ghamdi, was arrested and sentenced to death in July 2023 for a series of comments he had made online. On the other hand, Asaad al-Ghamdi was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the same activities as his brother. However, the real reasons behind these arrests probably relate to their exiled brother’s activism.
Saudi Arabia is carrying out a fierce repression of the right to freedom of expression, and anyone who criticises the government is systematically arrested and deprived of their fundamental rights. As if this were not enough, the families of these people are also affected by the government’s intense repression. Arrests, prolonged detention and enforced disappearances are just some of the brutalities they have to endure. All this for merely wanting to know where their loved ones are or for supporting their positions. The repression that we are seeing in Saudi Arabia is brutal, as it targets entire families arbitrarily, bringing fear among them. A situation like this is unacceptable, and the Saudi government must be held accountable for what it is doing.