One of the longest documented administrative detentions in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, with no published case of longer duration known.
Case record, ECHR HUDOC: Al-Khalidi v. Bulgaria, App. No. 26364/24
Saudi journalist and human rights defender Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi remains in prolonged administrative detention in Bulgaria.
During the 58th Session of the Human Rights Council, Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, called on Bulgaria to ensure proper protection for Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi and not to send him to Saudi Arabia, where he faces serious risks because of his human rights work.
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Al Khalidi at Risk of Torture, Unfair Trial if Forcibly Returned
Human Rights Watch urged Bulgarian authorities to suspend any plans to deport Saudi human rights activist Abdulrahman al-Khalidi, warning that he would face a serious risk of arbitrary detention, torture, and an unfair trial if forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia.
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05Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi is a Saudi Arabian journalist, political analyst, and human rights defender. He was an active member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) and later joined journalist Jamal Khashoggi's Electronic Bees Army — an anti-disinformation initiative run alongside fellow dissident Omar Abdulaziz.
He fled Saudi Arabia in 2013 following state crackdowns on human rights defenders. After years in exile across Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, he sought refuge in the European Union by crossing the Turkish-Bulgarian border in October 2021.
He has remained in administrative detention ever since — for over 1,680 days — at the Busmantsi and Lyubimets detention centres without criminal charge, without conviction, and in direct defiance of multiple court orders demanding his release.
The UN Refugee Agency has confirmed that the principle of non-refoulement applies to his case. Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court has ruled in his favour three times. Yet the Bulgarian state continues to hold him, citing unsubstantiated national security classifications issued by DANS — a pattern that international organizations have characterised as transnational repression facilitated by an EU member state.
Every release order has been ignored. The only force that has ever moved this case is public and political pressure: letters from Members of the European Parliament, reporting in the press, and people who refuse to look away. On 28 March 2026, his detention was extended by another five months.
Silence extends it further. Pressure is what brings him home.
In 2024, Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi lodged an application against Bulgaria before the European Court of Human Rights. The case concerns the risk of refoulement to Saudi Arabia and prolonged administrative detention without criminal charge.
ECHR proceedings are important, but they may take years before a final judgment is delivered, making immediate legal and political pressure essential.
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