Amnesty urges Saudi Arabia to reveal whereabouts of disappeared 70-year-old Qatari man and teenage son

Amnesty urges Saudi Arabia to reveal whereabouts of disappeared 70-year-old Qatari man and teenage son
A father and son went missing when they visited family in Saudi Arabia last month.
1 min read
04 September, 2019
At least three Qataris have been disappeared in Saudi Arabia [Getty]
Saudi Arabia should reveal the whereabouts of a Qatari man and his son who disappeared during a visit to the kingdom last month.

Seventy-year-old Qatari national Ali Nasser Ali Jarallah and his son 17-year-old son Abdulhadi Ali Nasser Ali went missing when they visited Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province in August.

Qatar's National Human Rights Committee said that the two were "forcibly disappeared" when they went to visit family in Dammam on 19 August. They have not been heard of or seen since.

Amnesty International wrote a letter to Saudi King Salman requesting that Riyadh release them unless "they are promptly charged with a recognisable criminal offence".

The rights group said Jarallah is suffering from diabetes, heart and kidney-related conditions and urged Riyadh to grant him necessary medical care.

Riyadh barred Qataris from entering Saudi Arabia, except in exceptional circumstances, such as family visits.

This followed a blockade on the Doha by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt in June 2017. 

Riyadh disappeared another Qatari national, Abdulaziz Saeed Abdullah, last July.

Saudi activists, journalists and clerics have also been detained or killed by the regime since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rose to power in 2015.