Search Khashoggi case and detainees .. Hunt meets al-Jubair in Riyadh

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he held important talks with Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adil Al-Jubeir. The talks dealt with the human rights issue, the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, detained activists and the Custodian Law in the Kingdom.

Hunt met his Saudi counterpart, Ibrahim al-Assaf, during a tour of the region, which began on Thursday and includes the Sultanate of Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, during which he discussed the Stockholm agreement on Yemen, about ten weeks after it was concluded without any progress in its implementation.

In a related context, Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Covini said that reports of deliberate abuses and abuses in Saudi prisons against detainees and activists are worrisome.

Speaking at a parliamentary hearing on human rights abuses and crackdowns on activists in Saudi Arabia, Covini said it was unacceptable to abuse human rights defenders simply because of their demands for fundamental rights.

Human rights criticism
This comes as human rights organizations condemned on Saturday Saudi Arabia's decision to try activists, including women who were arrested almost a year ago without charge.

The Saudi prosecutor's office announced on Friday that the investigation into the cases - including women who may have been tortured and sexually harassed while in custody - was over and that they would be referred to the court without specifying their number or charges or the date of the trial.

"We have done nothing to investigate serious allegations of torture," Michael Baig, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said. "They are women's rights activists, not the torturers who are charged and tried."

A group of men and women activists were arrested in Saudi Arabia in May 2018, just before the ban on women driving the car the next month, most of them accused of treason and undermining the stability of the kingdom.

Amnesty International also described the statement by the Public Prosecutor's Office as "a shocking sign of the authorities' escalating crackdown on human rights activists."

She referred to "the risks of referring activists to trial, including women leaders in the workplace for women's rights," stressing that she called for "the immediate release of prisoners of conscience."

But the public prosecutor's announcement raised speculation that they could be released under cover of a judicial process after harsh criticism of the repressive policy of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Among those still detained are Azizia al-Yusuf, a retired professor at King Saud University in Riyadh, and Lajin al-Hathul, who was detained for more than 70 days in 2014 for trying to enter the kingdom while driving a car from the UAE.

Alhilal may be one of the victims of sexual harassment and torture during interrogation - according to her family and rights groups - but the government rejects these charges.