Saudi police arrest Shia cleric for participating in anti-US demo

Saudi security forces have arrested senior Shia cleric Hussein Radi in the Eastern Province as Riyadh suppression of opposition voices continues.

Sheikh Hussein Radi was arrested at his home in the eastern town of Amran on Monday night.

It was not immediately clear why the cleric was arrested, but activists say he was likely to have been detained for taking part in a protest rally against a US film insulting Islam’s Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) last week.

Sheikh Radi is one of about 70 Saudi Shia clerics who released a statement addressed to “decision-makers in the Muslim world” demanding they take a clear stance on the anti-Islam film, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, Saudi security forces have arrested dozens of protesters in Qassim, north of the capital, who were demanding the release of prisoners, who are being held without charges and trial.

Scores of Saudis, including women and children, gathered outside Tafiya prison near Qassim on Sunday to demand the release of their relatives.

Activists say police restricted the protesters to a cordoned off area and kept them there without food or water for almost 24 hours.

One of the protesters said her husband “has been detained for more than nine years without charge,” adding that she has not seen him in “eight months.”

Another said that her brother was sentenced to three years in prison and “has served his sentence but remains in jail.”

According to activists, there are over 30,000 political prisoners in Saudi Arabia. Human rights groups have accused the House of Saud of imprisoning political dissidents.

Human rights groups have accused the Saudi regime of human rights violations.