Hamad Kassawy © Amnesty International

“There is no repression in Saudi Arabia.” – H.E. Abdallah Y. Al-Mouallimi, ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabian national Hamza Kashgari and Amnesty International beg to differ.

In a recent talk with the Saudi ambassador at New York University, he claimed that Saudi Arabia is a “land of opportunity” where there was no oppression of dissidents. “We don’t have a Guantanamo. We don’t have an Abu Ghraib,” he pointed out.

Saudi Arabia may not have a ‘Guantanamo’ or an ‘Abu Ghraib,’ but it has the notorious Al-Ha’ir prison and ‘Ulaysha Prison, and, according to Amnesty International’s report Saudi Arabia: Repression in the Name of Security, a new wave of repression that began in March 2011. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST