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Saudi lawyer and Human rights activist Waleed Abulkhair, awarded the prestigious Ludovic Trarieux Prize for his work on defending human rights in the kingdom.
The prize’s founder Bertrand Favreau said from Amsterdam that The annual legal award is one of the world’s oldest awards presented to lawyers who “through their work, activities or suffering defend the respect for human rights”. the first prize won by Nelson Mandela in 1985,while he was in detention in apartheid South Africa
The activist Waleed Abulkhair is the founder of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA). He was sentenced a 15-year in jail on six charges by a specialized court for his work in Human rights. The charges including “publicly slandering the judiciary, distorting the king’s reputation, making international organizations hostile to the kingdom and issuing unverified statements that harm the kingdom’s reputation.”
Abulkhair is also the brother-in-law and the lawyer of activist Raif Badawi, who recently has been handed a 10 years sentence and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam.
This is not the first prize Waleed receive. Previously, he awarded the Swedish Olof Palme Prize for defending human rights in Saudi Arabia.
the Ludovic Trarieux Prize, is an annual legal award named after the French lawyer and the a human rights law pioneer Ludovic Trarieux, who was a staunch defender of Alfred Dreyfus, who was falsely accused of treason in France.
The prize have been awarded 20 times over the last three decades . and it is judged by defense lawyers representing human rights bodies at several major European bars. It also consults NGOs and humanitarian organizations globally to nominate candidates.
The organizers said that prize will be handed over to the activist representative at a ceremony in Geneva in November.
