Saudi Arabia: Using Anti-Terror Law to Target Reformers

In the Wall Street Journal, Margaret Coker reports on Saudi Arabia’s use of anti-terror laws to persecute political reformers and human rights activists: “The government is using its security forces to silence a growing group of Saudi political activists seeking liberal reform inside the authoritarian kingdom. Saudis who simply hold political views different from those of their rulers have been arrested and detained as security suspects under the counter-terror efforts, according to human-rights advocates, family of the detained and U.S. officials.” One of the most prominent cases is that of the imprisonment of Suliman al-Reshoudi, a prominent activist and critic of the regime. Saudi officials imprisoned Reshoudi on charges that he financed terrorism and was a member of an illegal group. The Saudi activist’s case caught the attention of the U.S. State Department which cited the incident in its annual human rights report.