IUMS call on Saudi Arabia, UAE to release detained Muslim clerics

The International Union of Muslim clerics (IUMS) called on Wednesday for the release of all Muslim clerics arrested in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates .

The call came in a statement issued after the son of the Saudi cleric Salman al-Awda announced on Tuesday that his father had been transferred to hospital after four months in detention.

The Union said it is following up on the situation of a group of senior preachers and clerics held in Saudi and Emirati prisons who are imprisoned without committing any crimes, but only for expressing their opinions.

The statement commented on the transfer of the Saudi cleric to hospital, saying clerics should be honored, not imprisoned or harmed.

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“The Union calls on Saudi Arabia and the UAE to release all clerics and preachers imprisoned for expressing their opinions and attitudes which did not hurt their country” the  statement added.

Abdullah al-Awda, a resident of the US, said via his Twitter account “despite the deliberate blackout and poor communication, I received confirmed news of seeing my father in hospital”.

Sheikh Salman al-Awda was arrested on 10 September, 2017, as part of a campaign of arrests involving a number of clerics and writers in Saudi Arabia.