“Amnesty International fears that most prisoners of conscience will likely be excluded from the royal pardon announced by King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud on 29 January, according to the Ministry of Interior’s pardon conditions,” the statement issued on Friday read.
Following the announcement, Saudi Arabian media reported hundreds of convicts and prisoners have already been pardoned and released, however Amnesty International noted that those pardoned so far had been convicted of common criminal rather than political charges.
The human rights watchdog explained in the statement that the conditions of the pardon, stipulated in Saudi Ministry of Interior’s documents, excludes from the pardon “crimes related to state security,” and those refer to “vaguely worded list of charges commonly faced by human rights activists and prisoners of conscience.”
Amnesty International urged Saudi Arabia to release all prisoners of conscience “immediately and unconditionally irrespective of royal pardon conditions,” according to the statement.
Human rights violations in Saudi Arabia is a frequent concern of the media and human rights activists. In January the founder of the Monitor of Human Rights group Abu al-Khair received a five-year extension to his ten-year prison sentence for insulting the Saudi judicial system and harming the kingdom’s reputation. His brother-in-law Raif Bawadi, a Saudi atheist and rights blogger, has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes for cybercrime.
