{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-menendez-senate-colleagues-make-bipartisan-call-for-saudi-government-to-release-wrongfully-detained-women-political-prisoners", "Murphy, Menendez, Senate Colleagues Make Bipartisan Call For Saudi Government To Release Wrongfully Detained Women Political PrisonersRead More", "2020-11-23", "2020", "2020-11", "Democrat", "House", "CT", "Christopher Murphy", "M001169", "www.murphy.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTONFollowing\r\nthe conclusion of the G20 Summit, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.),\r\nthe top Democrat of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near\r\nEast, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism and 8 of his senate\r\ncolleagues joined a bipartisan letter led by Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.),\r\nRanking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanding the\r\nimmediate release of women political prisoners who remain unjustly detained in\r\nSaudi Arabia. In the letter to Her Royal Highness Princess Reema bint Bandar\r\nbin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,\r\nthe Senators emphasized the heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 in\r\ndetention and echoed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet's\r\ncall for governments to release prisoners detained solely for expressing\r\ndissenting views. We call\r\nfor releasing these individuals on the merits of their cases, but today, we\r\nalso urge you to act quickly on health and humanitarian grounds, the\r\nsenators wrote. The rapid spread of COVID-19 is a threat to all people and\r\nnations, but prison populations are at a heightened risk due to the inability\r\nto practice social distancing, poor sanitation, and lack of adequate medical\r\ncare. We encourage the leaders of the Kingdom to seize this opportunity during\r\nthis global crisis by immediately releasing these individuals. In calling\r\nfor all prisoners of conscience to be released, the Senators specifically\r\nhighlighted the cases of Loujain al-Hathloul, Nouf Abdulaziz, Maya'a\r\nal-Zahrani, Samar Badawi, and Nassima al-Sada, who remain arbitrarily detained\r\nfor acts of peaceful expression and activism in advancing women's and human\r\nrights in Saudi Arabia. These\r\nwomen have been wrongly detained simply for exercising their fundamental\r\nrights, and justice demands they be released, the senators added. Joining\r\nMurphy and Menendez in sending the letter were Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.),\r\nChris Coons (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tim Kaine\r\n(D-Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Ed Markey\r\n(D-Mass.). Full text\r\nof the resolution here.\r\nFull text of the letter can be found here\r\nand below. Your Royal\r\nHighness: We write\r\nto request that you urge political leadership in Riyadh to release women\r\npolitical prisoners being unjustly detained in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.\r\nThese extraordinary women peacefully worked to advance the cause of women's and\r\nhuman rights in the Kingdom. We call\r\nfor releasing these individuals on the merits of their cases, but today, we\r\nalso urge you to act quickly on health and humanitarian grounds. The rapid\r\nspread of COVID-19 is a threat to all people and nations, but prison\r\npopulations are at a heightened risk due to the inability to practice social\r\ndistancing, poor sanitation, and lack of adequate medical care. In\r\nMarch 2020, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet,\r\ncalled upon governments to release political prisoners and others detained\r\nsimply for expressing critical or dissenting views in order to slow the spread\r\nof the virus and protect the health of both detainees and the broader\r\npopulation. We encourage the leaders of the Kingdom to seize this opportunity\r\nduring this global crisis by immediately releasing these individuals. While we\r\nare greatly concerned about all individuals detained for acts of peaceful\r\nexpression, we draw your attention to five women political prisoners in\r\nparticular, who remain in detention: In May\r\n2018, Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent women's rights activist who\r\ncampaigned against the driving ban and the male guardianship system, was\r\ndetained and held without charges or trial for ten months. She was\r\nlater charged with promoting women's rights in Saudi Arabia. Last year, the\r\nU.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that her imprisonment and\r\ndeprivation of liberty are arbitrary. She should never have been detained for\r\nexercising her right to freedom of speech, and we urge the Kingdom to release\r\nher. In a\r\ncontinued crackdown on women's rights activists, writer and activist Nouf\r\nAbdulaziz and fellow activist Maya'a al-Zahrani, were arrested and\r\ndetained in June 2018. Abdulaziz had written about women's rights and publicly\r\nexpressed solidarity with other female activists arrested in May of 2018, and\r\nal-Zahrani had supported her. Both women have been held incommunicado in\r\ndetention. Two more women human rights defenders, Samar Badawi and Nassima\r\nal-Sada, were subsequently detained in July 2018 for their peaceful\r\nactivism. These women should not have been arbitrarily imprisoned for\r\npeacefully expressing their views and supporting human rights, and we call for\r\ntheir immediate release. These\r\nwomen have been wrongly detained simply for exercising their fundamental\r\nrights, and justice demands they be released. Moreover, in the global fight\r\nagainst the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting the health and safety of all people\r\nis critical. Countries around the world have released prisoners, understanding\r\nthat these pressing times require urgent humanitarian relief. We urge the\r\nleaders of the Kingdom to do the same and release Loujain al-Hathloul, Nouf\r\nAbdulaziz, Maya'a al-Zahrani, Samar Badawi, Nassima al-Sada, and all other\r\nprisoners of conscience unjustly detained. Thank you\r\nfor your urgent attention to this matter. Sincerely, ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-menendez-senate-colleagues-make-bipartisan-call-for-saudi-government-to-release-wrongfully-detained-women-political-prisoners"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6468679532408714, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}