In Brief
Abdul Kareem Yousef Al-Khodr, a professor of Comparative Jurisprudence at Qassim University in Saudi Arabia, was sentenced in June 2013 to eight years in prison and given a 10-year travel ban.
Case History
In February 2013, when the first session of the trial was set to begin, Al-Khodr authorized his lawyer, Abdulaziz Al-Shubaili, to attend in his place. In spite of repeated pleas to push back the date of the trial, supported by evidence of Al-Khodr’s father’s deteriorating health conditions, the court refused. Instead, he was handed an indictment with a long set of allegations, including inciting to breach public order, create chaos, and prejudice security and public peace; insulting the judiciary; describing the regime as a police state; and participating in unauthorized associations.
Al-Khodr was able to appear in court himself during the second hearing, but many journalists and representatives of the governmental Human Rights Commission were denied entry on the grounds that the room lacked sufficient accommodations.
In October 2015 Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court sentenced Al-Khodr to nine years in prison and a fine of 50,000 Saudi Riyals (13,332 US dollars). He is currently being held in Riyadh's Malazz Prison.