Political prisoners in Saudi Arabia

Dissidents have been detained as political prisoners in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Protests and sit-ins calling for political prisoners to be released took place during the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests in many cities throughout Saudi Arabia, with security forces firing live bullets in the air on 19 August 2012 at a protest at al-Ha'ir Prison. As of 2012^[update], recent estimates of the number of political prisoners in Mabahith prisons range from a denial of any political prisoners at all by the Ministry of Interior, to 30,000 by the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission and the BBC.

The UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission claims that political prisoners in Saudi Arabia are usually arbitrarily detained without charge or trial. The Commission describes Saudi Arabian political imprisonment as "an epidemic" that includes "reformists, human rights activists, lawyers, political parties, religious scholars, bloggers, individual protestors, as well as long-standing government supporters who merely voiced mild and partial criticism of government policy."

Following the 1990–91 Gulf War, a range of Saudi Arabian intelligentsia ranging from academics to religious scholars, signed public declarations calling for political reform, and in 1993 created the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights (CDLR), whose spokesperson was Mohammad al-Massari. A "comprehensive campaign of mass arrests" was used in response. Detainees included al-Massari and other CDLR members, lawyer Suliman al-Reshoudi and surgeon Sa'ad Al-Faqih. The 1990s political prisoners were released under various conditions including travel and employment restrictions and house arrest.

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