New Human Rights Report: Saudi Arabia Uses Families of Dissidents as Political Leverage
The SANAD Human Rights Organization has released a new report titled “Families of Activists in Saudi Arabia: Tools of Pressure and Political Blackmail,” revealing a systematic policy by Saudi authorities to target the relatives of activists and dissidents in order to silence critical voices through arrests, intimidation, and torture.
According to the report, the Saudi government has, in recent years, resorted to family blackmail as a political weapon to suppress activists abroad, after its previous attempts to deter them from continuing their advocacy and media work failed. SANAD affirmed that such practices constitute a blatant violation of international law and the principle of individual accountability, which prohibits punishing people for the actions of others.
The report documents eight verified cases involving the families of prominent dissidents, including:
Dr. Saeed bin Nasser Al-Ghamdi, whose brothers Mohammed and Asaad Al-Ghamdi were arrested;
Activist Omar Abdulaziz Alzahrani, whose brothers Ahmed and Abdulmajeed have been detained since 2018;
Activist Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, whose mother Aida and brother Adel were arrested and tortured; and
Former security official Lt. Gen. Saad Al-Jabri, whose children Omar and Sarah were arrested to pressure him into returning to Saudi Arabia.
SANAD’s report also notes that Saudi authorities have gone beyond the arrests themselves, imposing strict restrictions on the families of dissidents inside the Kingdom — including collective travel bans affecting individuals with no political or human rights activity — as part of what the organization describes as a “collective punishment policy.” This policy aims to isolate dissidents from their families, cut off communication, and create an atmosphere of fear and surveillance across Saudi society.
The organization emphasized that these cases are not isolated incidents, but part of a systematic pattern of collective punishment used by the Saudi government to intimidate society and silence opposition voices both at home and abroad.
In its conclusion, SANAD Human Rights Organization called for the immediate release of all detainees held as leverage against their relatives, and for an end to the collective punishment policy targeting the families of activists and dissidents. It also urged the international community to launch an independent investigation into these violations and hold those responsible accountable, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, through the imposition of targeted international sanctions on all those involved.
SANAD further warned that continued impunity has emboldened Saudi authorities to escalate repression, stressing that the international community bears a moral and legal responsibility to protect victims of human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia.
