Right Wrongs!

MANAHEL AL-OTAIBI, Saudi Arabia

OQBA HASHAD, Egypt

Here are two further people that you can help with Amnesty international's Write for Rights Campaign. If you are not familiar with it, click here for an explanation in our previous post.

MANAHEL AL-OTAIBI, Saudi Arabia

In recent years, Saudi Arabia's authorities have claimed they are advancing women's rights in the Kingdom. Thirty-year-old Manahel al-Otaibi believed these promises and felt freer to express her views and wear what she liked. Now, facing over a decade behind bars, these promises are utterly hollow. Before her arrest, Manahel was a fitness instructor and a brave and outspoken advocate for women's rights, using social media to call for greater freedoms for women in her country. Manahel was arrested on16 November 2022, and charged with violating the Anti-Cyber Crime Law dueto her tweets supporting women's rights and posting to Snapchat photos of her self at a shopping mall, not wearing an abaya, a traditional loose-fitting long-sleeved robe.

Her case was referred to the country's counter-terrorism court, the Specialized Criminal Court, notorious for its grossly unfair trials and harsh sentences. On 9 January 2024, Manahel was given an 11-year prison sentence for "terrorist offences" for her online expression, in a secret hearing the
results of which were only revealed weeks later.

In November 2023, Manahel told her family she had been beaten by a fellow prisoner, and as a result she was cut off from the outside world, unable to communicate with anyone. In April 2024, Manahel was able to call her family for the first time in months, and sounding distressed, told them she was being held in solitary confinement and had again been brutally beaten, leaving her
with a broken leg and no medical treatment.

SHOW MANAHEL SHE IS NOT ALONE
Send your messages of support in a card or letter to Manahel and her family ;let them know you care.

Manahel al-Otaibi
c/o Saudi Arabia Team
Amnesty International
1 Easton Street
London
WC1X 0DW,
United Kingdom

OQBA HASHAD, Egypt

Twenty-seven-year-old Oqba Hashad was studying at university in Sadat City, north-west of Cairo, Egypt, when, on 20 May 2019, life as he knew it came to an end. In a seemingly random raid, National Security Agency agents stormed Oqba's dorm, arresting all the students present, including Oqba. After a few days, the other students were released – except Oqba.

Agents realized Oqba was the brother of Amr Hashad, a human rights activist who, after fleeing Egypt earlier that year, continued to denounce the country's human rights violations from exile.
For 77 days, Oqba's family had no idea where he was, and they feared for his safety. During this time, Oqba was tortured – including electric shocks to his genitals and to the stump of his right leg, which had been amputated following an accident when he was a child .In August 2022, the prosthetic leg Oqba needs to move freely broke. For 16 months prison authorities denied him a replacement, and Oqba has become reliant on other prisoners for everyday tasks.

On 4 January 2024, Oqba was finally given a new prosthesis; however it does not fit and causes further injury when used. Officials are also denying him the medicines needed to care for his stump, increasing the risk of infection.

On 20 February 2024, a judge ordered Oqba's release, as he had been held inpretrial detention for longer than the two years permitted by Egyptian law.To bypass this, prosecutors opened a new bogus case against him to justify hiscontinued detention.Oqba is being detained solely in retaliation for his brother's human rightswork. Denied proper medical care and even a bed to sleep in, Oqba'spsychological and physical health is gravely deteriorating.

SHOW OQBA AND HIS FAMILY THAT THEY ARE NOT ALONE
Send your support to Oqba and his family; share your messages of hope in a card or letter.

Oqba Hashad
c/o Amnesty International Tunis RegionalOffice
24 Avenue de la livre,
Les Berges du lac 2,
1053 Tunis,
Tunisia.