site.btaHuman Rights Watch Urges Bulgaria Not to Deport Saudi Human Rights Activist to Saudi Arabia

Human Rights Watch put out a statement Thursday urging the Bulgarian authorities to abandon any plans to deport a Saudi journalist and human rights activist, Abdulrahman al-Khalidi,  to Saudi Arabia. The organization warns that if he is sent back, he would be at serious risk of arbitrary detention, torture, and an unfair trial.

On February 12, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee sent an open letter to the same effect, addressed to Interior Minister and the chairperson of the State Agency for National Security.

Abdulrahman al-Khalidi has been a human rights activist for more than a decade, advocating for the rights of prisoners in Saudi Arabia and countering the government’s digital propaganda, HRW said. Fearing for his safety due to his activism, Al-Khalidi fled Saudi Arabia in 2013, first to Egypt, then Qatar, and finally Turkey. In exile, he continued his activism and worked as an opposition journalist for seven years, writing articles critical of the Saudi government. He was also active in an online Saudi movement established by the late journalist Jamal Khashoggi called the Bees Army, which sought to counter pro-Saudi government propaganda campaigns and online troll armies.

In the aftermath of Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, al-Khalidi feared for his safety and did not renew his identity documents, which may have required him to appear in the same consulate where Khashoggi was murdered. On October 23, 2021, he fled yet again and crossed into Bulgaria to claim asylum, where he now faces imminent deportation.

In October 2021, he crossed by foot into Bulgaria to claim asylum after living in exile for nearly a decade. On February 7, 2024, the Bulgarian National Security Agency issued al-Khalidi a deportation order. "Abdulrahman al-Khalidi has spent more than a decade defending human rights at great personal risk, but he now faces a serious threat of detention and torture if the Bulgarian authorities deport him to Saudi Arabia,” said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch. 

The organization points out that "given the rampant torture and due process violations in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system, Bulgaria would violate the principle of nonrefoulement by deporting a highly visible critic of the Saudi government at risk of being persecuted for his political opinions or being tortured".

Deporting al-Khalidi may violate Bulgaria’s international obligations, including article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which states that “no State Party shall expel, return (“refouler”) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture,” and article 33 of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which prohibits the “return of a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers or territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” Bulgaria is a signatory to both conventions.

The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee wrote in its February 12 open letter that a possible deportation of al-Khalidi "would constitute a grave violation of Bulgaria's commitments under international human rights law", "would endanger the life and security of Mr. al-Khalidi and seriously undermine our country's international reputation".

According to the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Abdulrahman al-Khalidi has been detained for two years at the Special Facility for Temporary Accommodation of Foreigners (SFTAF) in Busmantsi, Sofia.