human rights defender
Mohammed Al-Rabiah
Actions and Campaigns
Urgent support needed
Al-Rabiah suffers from herniated disc, diabetes, and asthma.
HRD's Gender
Man
HRD's thematic area of engagement
- Civil and political rights
- Women's rights
Current Status
Released
HRD's bio and work
Mohammed Al-Rabiah is a human rights defender in Saudi Arabia. He had actively campaigned against the male guardianship system and for women in Saudi Arabia to be allowed to drive. Al-Rabiah was arrested along with more than a dozen women’s rights activists. His Twitter account has a pinned tweet saying, “Palestine is a centre around which your options in the region and the world are shaped, without its support, it is not possible to build an independent national security strategy, for example.” The day before his arrest, he tweeted,“They hate the victim, and exonerate the perpetrator, just because the victim’s death is annoying and makes a fuss!”
Detained since
May 15, 2018
Charge(s)
- Creating disturbances
Sentence
17 YEARS
Latitude: 21.85332
Longitude: 39.13319
Geolocation of detention
Country or area of detention
Region of detention
- Asia: Western Asia
Location of detention - City/Town
Jeddah
Location of detention - Facility
Dhahban Prison
Allegations / reports of ill-treatment
After his arrest, Al-Rabiah was subjected to brutal torture in detention. He was tortured by electric shocks and waterboarding; held in a small wardrobe for several days, unable to sit or sleep; hung upside down by his feet; and beaten until unconscious. He was also starved during his first year of detention and was taunted by being offered empty food trays. He was only able to eat snacks during family visits, which were permitted just once a month. Al-Rabiah went on a hunger strike in protest of his imprisonment.
Recent case update / evolution
On 21 March 2021, Al-Rabiah's case was transferred to the Specialized Criminal Court, which sentenced him on 20 April 2021 to six years in prison and to a travel ban for a similar period after the completion of his sentence. This was followed by the Court of Appeal reducing the sentence to four and a half years and suspending the execution of the remainder of the initial sentence, which is a year and a half. However, the Supreme Court overturned this sentence in its entirety, and approved the Public Prosecution’s request to retry him, eventually sentencing him to 17 years in prison in December 2022.
He was released in May 2025.
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