human rights defender
Mohammed Al-Bajadi
Actions and Campaigns
Urgent support needed
Organization affiliation
- Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA)
HRD's year of birth
1978
HRD's Gender
Man
Type of HRD
- NGO member
HRD's thematic area of engagement
- Civil and political rights
Current Status
In prison (pre-trial)
HRD's bio and work
Mohammed Al-Bejadi is a Saudi human rights defender and founding member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association. The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) is a human rights organisation founded on October 12, 2009, which filed local lawsuits against the Ministry of Interior and reported human rights violations to the UN Human Rights Council and the Special Procedures. The organisation peacefully advocated for a constitutional monarchy, a universally elected parliament, an independent judiciary and for the protection of fair trial rights in the country. Despite the association’s efforts to register with the authorities, it was never granted an official licence to operate. ACPRA was banned by a court decision dated April 9, 2013, which ordered the organisation’s dissolution following an arbitrary process that could not be challenged. Al-Bajadi was arrested repeatedly in 2005 and 2007 to 2008 for advocacy to prevent arbitrary arrests and torture.
Detained since
May 25, 2018
Sentence
25 Years in prison
Latitude: 27.89605
Longitude: 43.79311
Geolocation of detention
Country or area of detention
Region of detention
- Asia: Western Asia
Location of detention - City/Town
Al-Qassim
Location of detention - Facility
Buraidah Central Prison
Recent case update / evolution
On March 21, 2011, Al-Bajadi was arrested, and his trial began in August 2011. In March, 2012, the Specialized Criminal Court sentenced Al-Bajadi to ten years in prison. The Court ordered him to serve the first five years of the sentence and suspended the last five years. He was found guilty of “participating in the establishment of an unlicensed organization”; “harming the image of the State through the media”; “calling on the families of political detainees to protest and hold sit-ins”; “contesting the independence of the judiciary” and “having banned books in his possession”. The Court of Appeal rejected the sentence handed down by the SCC and sent the case back to the same Court for retrial.
Al Bajadi’s second trial started on August 15, 2013. In March 2015, the SCC sentenced him to four years in prison and another four with suspension, followed by a ten-year travel ban.
He was released on April 21, 2016 and rearrested in May 2018. On October 27, 2025, he was sentenced to another 25 years in prison and remains in prison.
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