Qatar calls for release of four citizens detained in Saudi Arabia

Chairman of Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Dr Ali bin Smaikh al-Marri on Saturday called on a UN special rapporteur, Fionnuala Ni Aolain, to reveal the whereabouts of the four Qatari nationals being held by Saudi authorities and urged her to work on securing their release immediately.

Dr al-Marri voiced Qatar’s request while delivering a copy of the NHRC's annual reports and a report on the one-year anniversary of the blockade on Qatar by the four-nation Arab bloc in Qatar's capital, Doha.

Defining the four Qatari citizens detained in Saudi Arabia as victims of “arbitrary arrest” and forced disappearance, he stated that the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Working Group on Enforced Disappearance needs to undertake a joint field visit to Saudi Arabia to reveal the fate of the Qatari nationals detained there.

Speaking to reporters during his visit to the United Kingdom, he also stressed that the Saudi authorities’ actions against detained Qatari nationals are shameful and inhumane, which will leave psychological effects on future generations.

Last year Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut diplomatic, transport and trade ties with Qatar, accusing it of financing terrorism, a charge Qatar denies.

Al-Marri also discussed the lists formed by the four-state blockading countries which categorizes a number of Qatari organizations, activists, individuals and media personalities as terrorists.

He said that the lists aim to tarnish Qatar's image and disrupt the humanitarian work done by Qatar by undermining the efforts of humanitarian activists and journalists who helped millions of people in need of humanitarian projects.