Concern is mounting for two lawyers, including the winner of the 2012 Olof Palme Prize for human rights, who have been targeted by the Saudi Arabian security forces.

Human rights lawyer and former judge Sheikh Sulaiman Al-Rashudi, who is president of Saudi Arabia’s Civil and Political Rights Association, was held incommunicado in prison for 66 days before his family was allowed to visit him last month.

He was arrested hours after the publication of a lecture he had given about ‘the role of demonstrations and sit-ins in Islamic law’.

Meanwhile, Olof Palme Prize winner Walid Abu Al-Khair first appeared in court on 4 June last year when, among other charges, he was accused of contempt of the judiciary and attempting to discredit the kingdom by giving misleading information to foreign human rights organisations.

He is due to appear again next week.

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