Riyadh urged to free Ahmadiyyas held for apostasy

Dubai: Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged Saudi Arabia to free two citizens held without trial for two years after converting to an offshoot of Islam banned in the kingdom.

Sultan Al Anzi, aged 33, and Saud Al Anzi, 35, were arrested and jailed in May 2012, three months after joining the Ahmadiyya group and refusing to abandon their belief, New York-based HRW said.

The group said it urged Saudi King Abdullah back in August 2012 to release the pair, but never received a response.

“Saudi Arabia needs to stop policing people’s personal beliefs,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s Middle East director.

Under Saudi Arabia’s legal system, the penalty for apostasy is death.

HRW said Ahmadiyya activists told it they have had no contact with the two men since their arrest, and do not know their whereabouts or condition.

According to information on the interior ministry’s online prisoner database, both men are in detention but have not been formally charged.

The Ahmadiyya community was founded in British India in the 19th century.

Its adherents follow the teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, an Indian Muslim.