Recovered from FSRN’s earlier site via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Originally published May 3, 2012.
In Saudi Arabia, authorities are using a special court to bring charges against activists and to suppress dissent. The Specialized Criminal Court was created to prosecute terrorist suspects but it is increasingly being used against activists who are critical of government policies or have advocated for human rights. In April, the founder of a human rights organization who waged a hunger strike and a cleric who posted a video online that called for an end to arbitrary detentions were both sentenced to prison terms and other cases are ongoing. For more, we’re joined by Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. He’s been monitoring the courts in Saudi Arabia and joins us from Munich, Germany.
