The wife of a British national who has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia since 2024 for social media posts has pleaded for his release as his wellbeing declines. Ahmed al-Doush, a British citizen born in Sudan, was arrested during a family holiday while his wife, Amaher Nour, was pregnant with their fourth child. He has four children, the youngest of whom is one year old.
In November, the UN working group on arbitrary detention found al-Doush was being detained arbitrarily under international law and recommended his immediate release, along with compensation. The findings followed an eight-month inquiry. Despite this, Saudi Arabia confirmed in April that he had been found guilty and reduced his sentence to five years, maintaining that the trial and detention complied with domestic and international law.
Nour's plea, backed by Amnesty International, is a personal humanitarian appeal to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. She said: "One year and eight months have passed – long enough for us all to feel the weight of absence and the pain of separation. His return to his children has become a hope we hold on to every day."
Amnesty International reported that al-Doush's physical and mental health have sharply declined due to chronic restrictions on communication with his family. He has undertaken multiple hunger strikes in protest and his condition has deteriorated to the point where there are serious fears of self-harm. The organisation warned that without urgent intervention, the consequences could be irreversible.
The UK Foreign Office confirmed it is supporting the British man and has raised the case multiple times with Saudi counterparts. Middle East minister Hamish Falconer has been involved in these efforts. The UK has also sent military assets to Saudi Arabia to help protect the country from Iranian attacks.
According to the UN working group, al-Doush, who was based in Manchester, was sentenced in March last year to 10 years in prison by a specialised criminal court for social media posts that were more than five years old and an association with a critic of the Saudi government. The judgment has not been made available to his family. His lawyers noted that the weight of a lengthy prison sentence for social media posts has been difficult for both him and his family to grasp.
The UN working group found al-Doush's detention arbitrary because he was held incommunicado, not informed promptly of the reasons for his arrest, not brought before a judge for five months, and denied access to his family for two and a half months. He was not granted a consular visit or a call to his family until November. The group concluded that his arrest was purely due to a social media post and a perceived association with a Saudi critic in exile. Al-Doush's lawyers stated that his social media account had only 37 followers and four posts, including one about Sudan from 2018.
Saudi Arabia told the UN that al-Doush had committed terrorist crimes, including supporting terrorist ideology and using the information network to commit terrorist acts. It claimed all proper procedures were followed, including consular access and a fair public trial. However, his barrister, Haydee Dijkstal, urged the UK government to use the UN decision to help resolve what she called an "unjust nightmare."
The UN also noted that the Foreign Office refused to share information about al-Doush with his family for two and a half months, citing data protection laws, a practice that has been repeatedly criticised by families of other detainees.
