On
the 9th of February of 2013 two separate groups of over a dozen
women and several children were arrested in the cities of Riyadh and Buraida
for protesting publicly. The women and
children were the relatives of prisoners who they claimed were being detained
without trial or who remained in jail after their sentences had been
served. The main focus of these protests is to plead
with the government to bring those behind bars to court or to release
them. It is ironic that the protests in
Riyadh took place in front of the offices of Saudi Arabia’s state-founded
National Society for Human Rights. Further protest by relatives of the arrested
women and children followed shortly after.
