those arbitrarily detained, prosecuted or government or opinions contrary to those of sentenced were human rights defenders, the government about socio-economic or government critics and other political political developments in the country. The activists. Women human rights defenders SCC sentenced people to heavy prison terms were subjected to judicially imposed travel for their human rights work and expression of bans following conditional release from dissenting views, including on Twitter. It also prison. Courts resorted extensively to the imposed restrictive conditions on individuals death penalty and people were executed for released after serving their sentences, a wide range of crimes. Migrant workers including travel bans and ordering the continued to be vulnerable to abuse and closure of their social media accounts. exploitation under the country’s sponsorship In March, the SCC increased by a total of system, and tens of thousands were three years the 14-year prison sentence that arbitrarily detained and subsequently Mohammad al-Otaibi, a founding member of deported. Prison authorities violated the the Union for Human Rights, an independent right to health of human rights defenders human rights organization, was already and others imprisoned after grossly unfair serving. His sentence was based solely on his trials. human rights work, including forming a BACKGROUND human rights organization. In April, the SCC sentenced Abdulrahman In January, the foreign minister announced al-Sadhan, who works at the Saudi Arabian an end to the rift that had pitted Saudi Red Crescent Society in the capital Riyadh, to Arabia, Bahrain and other states against 20 years in prison and a subsequent travel Qatar since 2017, and that Saudi Arabia ban of equal duration. The evidence would restore diplomatic ties with Qatar. presented against him consisted of satirical In July, the European Parliament strongly and critical tweets about the government’s condemned the ongoing use of the death economic policies and form of governance, penalty in cases of child offenders and called for which he was charged with, among other for the immediate and unconditional release things, “preparing, storing and sending what of human rights defenders. On 27 would prejudice public order and religious September, Saudi Arabia and the EU had values” and “offending state institutions and their first human rights dialogue, which was officials and spreading false rumours about held in Brussels, Belgium. The EU expressed them”. its concerns about freedom of expression in HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS Saudi Arabia and raised several cases of individual Saudi human rights defenders. Human rights defenders continued to be The Saudi Arabia-led coalition in the long- detained arbitrarily, sentenced after grossly running armed conflict in Yemen continued unfair trials or silenced following conditional to be implicated in war crimes and other release. serious violations of international law (see In February, prominent women human Yemen entry). rights defender Loujain al-Hathloul was conditionally released after serving her prison FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND term.1 In June, women human rights ASSOCIATION defenders Nassima al-Sada and Samar Following a brief lull in prosecutions of Badawi were also conditionally released. The human rights defenders and dissidents conditions imposed included judicially during the G20 summit chaired by Saudi imposed bans on travel, public speaking, Arabia in November 2020, the authorities resumption of human rights work and use of resumed punitive trials, particularly before social media, which violate their rights to the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), of freedom of expression, association and anyone who expressed views critical of the Amnesty International Report 2021/22 317