Saudi activist on hunger strike after arrest
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—A leading Saudi human rights activist has been on a hunger strike since being arrested last week and his health is deteriorating, his wife said Sunday.
Matrook al-Faleh was arrested last Monday at King Saud University in the Saudi capital Riyadh, where he teaches political science, New York-based Human Rights Watch said on its Web site.
Saudi officials have not commented on the arrest. The rights group said it came after al-Faleh publicly criticized conditions in a prison where two other human rights activists are serving jail terms.
Al-Faleh's wife, Jamila, visited her husband Sunday at the state security investigation compound where he is being held and said his health was getting worse.
She told The Associated Press in a phone interview that he had lost about 22 pounds in one week and that he was given intravenous fluids when he fainted.
"We were overwhelmed with tears and emotion after seeing him this way," said Jamila, who visited her husband with her son and grandson.
She said the government has not yet charged her husband and will not allow him legal representation.
"He is refusing to talk (to interrogators) because he wants the case to be processed through legal channels and take place in a courthouse in the presence of his lawyer," she said.
Human Rights Watch called for al-Faleh's release and said his arrest proved human rights activism in Saudi Arabia "remains a risky business."
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Associated Press writer Omar Sinan contributed to this report from Cairo, Egypt.
