Hamas renewed its appeal to the Saudi leadership to take an immediate decision to end the detention of all the Palestinian prisoners.

“The exposure of al-Khoudary, along with other detained Palestinians and their families, to injustice and severe suffering, contradicts the Kingdom’s historical positions in support of the Palestinian people and the Saudi people’s solidarity with the Palestinian cause,” Hamas said.

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is a body of independent human rights experts that investigates cases of arbitrary arrest and detention. It is a subsidiary body of the UN and its Human Rights Council.

In its recent report, WGAD called on the Saudi authorities to immediately release former Hamas representative in Saudi Arabia Mohammed al-Khoudary and his son, who have been arbitrarily detained in the kingdom for two and a half years.

It stated that the father and son, who suffer from health problems, are being arbitrarily detained and that their fundamental human rights were violated.

According to its report, the Saudi authorities failed to establish a legal basis for the detention of the two men and violated their right to a fair trial.

The UN Group also said the circumstances of the two men's detention asserted that they were "targeted on the basis of their status as Palestinian nationals resident in Saudi Arabia" and that they were "deprived of their liberty" because they are Palestinians.

"Under certain circumstances, widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty in violation of the rules of international law may constitute crimes against humanity," the group underscored. (ILKHA)