Rights lawyer nabbed in Saudi Arabia, his wife says

Saudi Arabia has ordered the arrest of a prominent lawyer and human rights activist on charges of insulting the authorities of the kingdom, his wife says.

Samar Badawi was told on Wednesday that her husband, Waleed Abulkhair, had been imprisoned.
Abulkhair was already on bail for holding unauthorized meetings for activists when he went to his fifth hearing at a court in the capital Riyadh on Tuesday.
His wife said she had not heard of him since he told her he was switching off his phone to attend the closed-hearing.

    “I found out today from the court that the judge has ordered his arrest and he has been sent to Hair prison,” Badawi said.

Badawi tried to visit her husband at the prison where she was told that he was not allowed to have any visitors.
“I went to the Interior Ministry and they told me to return in two weeks to get a permit,” she said.
The rights lawyer said on his Twitter prior to Tuesday’s hearing that he was on trial for “defying the ruler, insulting authorities, forming two organizations, and incitation.”
In October 2013, Abulkhair received a three-month jail term for “insulting judiciary” and a petition he had signed two years earlier criticizing the Saudi authorities.
Protests against the Al Saud family have intensified since November 2011, when security forces opened fire on protesters in Qatif in Eastern Province, killing five people and leaving scores more injured.
Activists say there are over 30,000 political prisoners in Saudi Arabia.
Last October, rights group Amnesty International censured Saudi authorities for not addressing the “dire human rights situation” in the kingdom.
The group also handed in a paper to the United Nations, which included information regarding a “new wave of repression against civil society, which has taken place over the last two years.”