Salman al-Ouda

Extra Bio Info:

Sheikh Salman al-Ouda is detained for supporting greater religious coexistence and criticizing the government.

In September 2017, police arrested al-Ouda, an Islamic scholar, from his home amid a state-wide wave of arrests of scholars, intellectuals, and activists. According to Amnesty International, al-Ouda was held incommunicado and in solitary confinement for the first five months of his detention, with no access to a lawyer or his family. He was also held in pre-trial detention without being charged for a year.

In January 2018, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights demanded al-Ouda's release, citing him as “an influential religious figure who has urged greater respect for human rights within [Islamic Law].”

In September 2018, al-Ouda appeared before the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh for his first hearing.  There, it was revealed that prosecutors had charged him with 37 crimes, including “affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood” and “corrupting the country by repeatedly endeavouring to shake the structure of the nation and bring about civil strife; inflaming society against the rulers and stirring up unrest,” and were seeking the death penalty against him. According to Democracy for the Arab World Now, prosecutors presented hundreds of tweets in which al-Ouda "criticized government projects, called for reforms, and demanded the release of prisoners."

Since that first hearing, al-Ouda's trial has been postponed multiple times and/or held in closed-door sessions.

In April 2025, it was reported that Saudi authorities have continued to suspend action on al-Ouda's case and that he remains in solitary confinement.