Amnesty International (AI) has launched an international campaign urging Saudi authorities to reveal the fate of a Qatari citizen and his son, who "have been forcibly disappeared," while on a visit to Saudi Arabia last month. 

According to AI, 70-year-old, Ali Nasser Jarallah entered Saudi Arabia with his 17-year-old son Abdulhadi on August 15 on valid family visas. 

On August 18, contact was lost with the Qatari citizen and his son while traveling through Saudi Arabia to visit relatives, the rights group said in a statement.

"We are concerned that they have been forcibly disappeared," the human rights group added. 

منظمة العفو الدولية تطلق حملة دولية لمطالبة السلطات السعودية بالكشف عن مصير المواطن القطري وابنه اللذين دخلا المملكة بموجب تصريح عائلي يوم الخميس الموافق 15 أغسطس الماضي.#قنا

— وكالة الأنباء القطرية (@QatarNewsAgency) September 3, 2019

The organization sent a letter to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz asking to disclose their fate.

According to the letter, Jarallah and his son had been in contact with their family in Qatar until August 18, when they were approaching the city of Hafof in the Eastern Province and 'since then all communications were lost with them.

“Ali Jarallah has diabetes, and has heart and kidney problems, and high blood pressure, he is regularly on medication and must attend the doctor's regular appointments in Doha. According to a credible source, there are good reasons to believe that the father and son may be arbitrarily detained and held by the State Security Presidency," the letter stated further. 

It called on King Salman to immediately disclose the whereabouts of the Qatari father and son.

"We call on disclosing the reason for their arrest and to release them promptly unless they are charged with a recognizably criminal offense in accordance with the principles of due process recognized in international law, with the need to get Nasser Jarallah all the medical services required by his health," the letter demanded. 

Meanwhile, Qatar's National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) said in a statement that it "holds Saudi Arabia fully responsible for the life and safety of the Qatari citizens and calls upon Saudi authorities to disclose their fate and release them immediately."

NHRC also called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Panel on Enforced Disappearances and the UN Human Rights Council to intervene immediately to put an end to the grave and systematic violations against Qatari citizens.

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Source: QNA 

Cover Image Credit:News1st