Saudi Activists Plan Hunger Strike to Protest Jailing of Reformists

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- A group of Saudi activists is planning the country's first public hunger strike to draw attention to the detention without charge of a dozen political reformists. The participants, who include lawyers, university students and relatives of the detained, could face arrest for their protest in this authoritarian kingdom.

The 48-hour strike is planned in several Saudi cities on Thursday and Friday, a weekend here. Organizers said they are demanding that the government grant the prisoners fair and public trials or set them free.

"To the government, we want to say that you can't put prisoners of conscience in jail without facing consequences," said Walid Abu-Alkhair, a writer and lawyer in Jiddah. "And to the activists, we want to say, you are not alone. We want to show that when you put human rights activists in jail, a new wave will come and take their place."

Although the state-controlled media have not reported on the strike, it has gained attention online through bloggers and announcements posted to Facebook and Google groups.

"This act of peaceful protest is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, and I believe this is the least we can do for those people," wrote Ahmed al-Omran, who blogs as Saudi Jeans. "Please join the call and spread the word."

Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, bans demonstrations, political parties and civic organizations. The reformists were jailed for various reasons, including organizing protests.

In their online announcements, the strike organizers urged "all activists and citizens who have a conscience" to show "solidarity with all detainees, whose basic rights have been violated."

"We announced the names of 26 additional participants on Wednesday," said Fowzan al-Harbi, an engineer. "Five more have joined us, but the final list will be announced next week."

The strikers will remain at home without food or water on the designated days, organizers said.

Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Riyadh-based college professor who also hosts a television show, said he was excited about participating.

"This is the first time something like this happens in Saudi Arabia. I ask my friends to pinch me to make sure I'm not daydreaming," said Qahtani, whose wife will also join in the hunger strike. "These people are in prison for defending our rights. And now, it's time for us to defend their rights.."

The most prominent of the detained dissidents is Matrouk al-Faleh, who was arrested in May in the capital, Riyadh, for criticizing conditions in the kingdom's jails. In 2003, he was jailed for calling for a constitutional monarchy but was pardoned by King Abdullah when he took the throne in 2005.

Nine of the detainees, arrested in Jiddah in February 2007, have been accused of supporting terrorism, but human rights groups say the men were detained for calling for political reform.

"I think the hunger strike represents the failure of the Saudi judicial system to address what is clearly the arbitrary arrest of Professor Matrouk al-Faleh and the group of reformers in Jiddah," said Christoph Wilcke, who researches Saudi Arabia for the New-York based Human Rights Watch. "The Saudi government . . . still thinks it can silent dissent by locking up reformers. But this puts pressure on the Saudi government to justify why these people are behind bars."

Wajnat Meimani, a law professor at Umm Al-Qura University in Mecca and wife of one of the men detained in Jiddah, said she will participate in the strike with her two children, a high school student and a university student. Meimani said her husband was punished for urging peaceful political reform.

"We've spent two years going from prince to the king to the Interior Ministry, sending dozens of petitions and letters, and there's been no response," she said. "We have not been able to do anything for my husband or the others jailed with him, so participating in the hunger strike is the least we can do. This is our way of showing we are hurting. When someone steps on your foot, the least you can do is scream."