March 10, 2025
Law and Democracy Support Foundation and 19 organisations call on Bulgarian authorities to immediately grant asylum to Saudi human rights defender Abdulrahman al-Khalidi.
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This protection also applies under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and under customary international law.
Al-Khalidi’s deportation could also violate article 33 of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees that prohibits “return of a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers or territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”
“Bulgaria’s potential violation of European and international law is deeply concerning, especially when it could expose al-Khalidi to torture and other serious abuses in Saudi Arabia,” Abdullah Alaoudh, countering authoritarianism senior director from Middle East Democracy Center. “Bulgaria’s State Agency for Refugees was wrong to conclude the ‘measures’ Saudi Arabia had taken ‘to democratize society’ were sufficient to disqualify al-Khalidi’s asylum claim, given the state’s continuing record of persecuting political dissidents like him.”
Signatories:
- ALQST for Human Rights
- Bayerischer Flüchtlingsrat – Bavarian Refugee Council
- Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria
- Collettivo Rotte Balcaniche
- European Saudi Organization for Human Rights
- Feminist mobilisations (Bulgaria)
- Front Line Defenders
- Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
- Human Rights Watch
- HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement
- International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- Law and Democracy Support Foundation – LDSF
- Medical Volunteers International (BG: Medical Solidarity International)
- MENA Rights Group
- Middle East Democracy Center (MEDC)
- Migrant Solidarity Bulgaria
- Munich Refugee Council – Münchner Flüchtlingsrat
- No Name Kitchen
- Scalabrinian Agency for Development Cooperation (ASCS)
- World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
