Amnesty urges Saudi king to provide Palestinian prisoners with medical care

Amnesty International has called on Saudi King Salman Bin Abul Aziz Al Saud to take urgent action to save the life of Palestinian detainee Dr Mohammed Al-Khodari.

The rights group has urged supports to contact the king’s office by fax or on Twitter to highlight that “Dr. Mohammed al-Khudari, an 83-old Palestinian national, is in need of urgent medical care as his health is steadily deteriorating in the prison of  Abha,  Saudi  Arabia.  When he was arrested on  4  April  2019,  he was undergoing cancer treatment, and concerns for his health have increased with the COVID-19  pandemic and risks for an older person with underlying medical conditions. Earlier this year, Dr. Mohammed al-Khudari lost partial function of his right hand and lost some of his teeth. He is currently dependent on his son, detained with him, to feed him and help him around the prison.”

It added that the prison lacks the medical specialists Al-Khodari requries and stressed that the Palestinian detainee has been “denied consultation with specialist doctors to conduct check-ups and assess tumour size”.

Calling on King Salman to ensure the charges against Al-Khodari and his son are dropped, Amnesty said until such time as this happens, the 83-year-old should be transferred “to a hospital where he is able to receive the urgent specialized medical care he needs”, the letter urged.

Al-Khodari has been living in Jeddah for nearly three decades, and was responsible for managing of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas’ relationship with the kingdom for two decades. He was arrested in early 2019.

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