Saudi Arabia: Ten Egyptian Nubian citizens receive arbitrary prison sentences of up to 18 years

Heavy jail terms handed down for organizers of a public symposium in Riyadh.

This statement was originally published on gc4hr.org on 11 October 2022.

After an unfair trial that lacked minimum international standards of fair trial and due process, heavy prison sentences were handed down to ten Egyptian Nubian citizens who have been detained since their arrest in July 2020 after they tried to organise a symposium in Saudi Arabia.

On 10 October 2022, the Specialised Criminal Court held its last hearing to declare the verdict in the trial of ten Egyptian Nubian citizens. The sentences issued were as shown below:

1. Mohammed Fathallah Jumaa Shater, 37 years, member of the Dahmit Nubian Village Association in Riyadh. He is an IT engineer. Sentenced to 18 years in prison.
2. Dr. Farajallah Ahmed Yousif, 64 years, former head of the Nubian community in Riyadh. Sentenced to 16 years in prison.
3. Hashim Shater, member of the Dahmit Nubian Village Association in Riyadh. Sentenced to 16 years in prison.
4. Adel Sayed Ibrahim Fakir, 65 years, current head of the Nubian community in Riyadh, who is from the village of Ballana in southern Egypt. He is an accountant. Sentenced to 14 years in prison.

As for the remaining six citizens whose names are listed below, they were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 to 12 years:

1. Jamal Abdullah Masri, head of the Dahmit Nubian Village Association in Riyadh.
2. Ali Jumaa Ali Bahr, 37 years, member of the Dahmit Nubian Village Association in Riyadh.
3. Saleh Jumaa Ahmed, member of the Dahmit Nubian Village Association in Riyadh.
4. Abdulsalam Juma Ali, member of the Dahmit Nubian Village Association in Riyadh.
5. Abdullah Jumaa Ali Bahr, 43 years, President of the Dahmit Nubian Village Association in Riyadh.
6. Wael Ahmed Hassan, 54 years, head of the Thomas Nubian Village Association in Riyadh.

They were arrested after attempting to organise a public symposium in October 2019 and held for two months before being freed, and then arrested again on 14 July 2020. The Egyptian government supported the actions of the Saudi authorities. The charges brought against them include the following: supporting a banned political group (the Muslim Brotherhood), spreading false and malicious rumours on social media, especially Facebook, violating the law by establishing an unlicensed association, and initiating an assembly without a license.

For more information on their case, see: https://www.gc4hr.org/news/view/3102

Recommendations

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the arbitrary and excessive sentences issued against the ten innocent Egyptian citizens, in violation of their right to freedom of assembly and association. GCHR calls on the Saudi government to immediately and unconditionally release the 10 Nubian citizens and cancel all sentences, as well as drop all trumped-up charges against them.