Lawyers for a British business analyst detained for months in Saudi Arabia said he was due to receive a verdict in April under what they understand are terrorism laws for a deleted social media post and perceived association with a Saudi dissident.
Ahmed al-Doush, 41, was contracted to Bank of America as a consultant at the time of his arrest at Riyadh’s international airport on August 31 last year. He was set to return to the UK with his wife and children after a holiday visiting extended family who are expats living in the kingdom.
The Manchester resident’s detention, which his legal team argues is unjustified, comes despite the kingdom seeking to woo tourists as part of an ambitious economic transformation plan.
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “We are supporting a British man who is detained in Saudi Arabia and are in contact with his family and the local authorities.”
Details are unclear because Doush’s UK-based legal team has not been shown any documentation relating to the trial. But his lead lawyer in the UK Haydee Dijkstal, a barrister at 33 Bedford Row Chambers, told the Financial Times it appeared that Doush had been tried under the kingdom’s severe terrorism and anti-cyber crime laws, and was expecting a judgment next month.
Doush’s lawyers, who have received updates on the case through his wife and British diplomats, understand Saudi authorities have charged him over a deleted social media post he made about Sudan, where he was born.
“Ahmed is not a political person,” Dijkstal said. Doush’s wife has given birth to their fourth child since Saudi Arabia detained him.
Djikstal said Doush’s contract with Bank of America ended while he was detained. Bank of America declined to comment.
Amnesty International this week condemned what they said was Doush’s arbitrary detention, calling for Saudi authorities to “unconditionally release” him. Jeed Basyouni of the humans rights group Reprieve, said “incidents like this suggest it is simply not safe for Britons to travel to Saudi Arabia”.
Doush’s legal team believes he may have been tried by Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court, a body which Amnesty has described as an “instrument of repression”. The court has previously sentenced people to death over social media posts.
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised Saudi Arabia’s terrorism and anti-cyber crime laws for being broad and vague, accusing the government of using them as political tools against its critics.
Doush’s lawyers also believe he is being accused of association with Saad al-Faqih, a prominent UK-based Saudi dissident. Faqih was sanctioned in 2004 by the US Treasury over alleged links to al-Qaeda, something he has denied. Doush knows Faqih’s son but says he has never met Faqih himself, according to his legal team.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has pushed through sweeping social reforms, including basic rights for women such as licenses to drive. But the changes have been accompanied by increasing authoritarianism, with zero tolerance for dissent.
Saudi Arabia has detained scores of activists, businessmen and bloggers in a ferocious persecution of critics. In 2018, Saudi agents brutally murdered veteran journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. Riyadh described it as a rogue operation.
Doush’s family went public in January after he had been detained without charges for four months. British diplomats have now been given permission to visit Doush, and he is allowed weekly phone calls to his wife, according to his lawyer.
Saudi Arabia has enjoyed warm relations with the UK as successive governments look to the oil-rich Gulf for investment and for co-operation on managing crises in the Middle East.
Dijkstal said his family had requested a meeting with the UK’s foreign secretary David Lammy and is “seeking active and continued steps from the UK Government to protect a British citizen’s rights under international law”.
Saudi Arabia’s government has not publicly commented on the case and did not respond to an FT request for comment.
Additional reporting by Ahmed Al Omran in Jeddah and Ortenca Aliaj in London
