Independent UN experts say radical Saudi Arabia scholar held for years should be tried or released

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A radical Sunni scholar whose criticisms of Saudi Arabia’s government and the West drew praise from the l ate al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden should be immediately tried or released from a yearslong arbitrary detention by the kingdom, independent experts working with the United Nations said Wednesday.

Safar bin Abdulrahman al-Hawali had been one of the prominent voices behind the Sahwa, or “Awakening” movement, in the kingdom, which called for strictly observing hard-line Wahhabi beliefs and criticized its royal Saud family. Al-Hawali has been held without trial since 2018 as part of a wider crackdown on all dissent under King Salman and his assertive son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Al-Hawali, now in his mid-70s, was cited specifically by bin Laden in his 1996 declaration of war on the United States as one of the clerics detained by the kingdom purportedly on the order of the Americans.