Human rights activists in Saudi Arabia have called on the Saudi government to release prisoners imprisoned for opposing Qatar sanctions.
A number of prominent Saudi human rights pages on Twitter and Facebook, including the “Mutqali al-Rai” account, have called on Saudi authorities to release prisoners held solely for opposing sanctions, now that they have reached an agreement with Qatar.
This account wrote: “Thank God, peace was established between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The question now is, where are those who called for peace from the beginning and warned of the consequences of this crisis? “They are still in prison for their position.”
The following in the tweet: “Characters such as Salman al-Awda, Sami al-Thabiti, al-Banakhi, Khalid al-Alkami, Rabi Hafez and Jamil Farsi, and others, have been arrested solely for opposing the siege of Qatar and are still in prison.”
Motaqli al-Rai added: “The cyber army and the media accused these figures of being mercenaries for Qatar and betraying them. It is now clear that the rulers arrested them on false pretenses and deprived dozens or even hundreds of thinkers and elites of their liberty.”
Abdullah al-Awda, a professor at the American University and the son of Salman al-Awda, also asked Twitter users to republish his father’s post in 2017 in opposition to the Qatar crisis, for which he is still in prison.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt signed a declaration of peace and lifting the siege of Qatar yesterday (Tuesday) during a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, after more than three and a half years.