Amaher Nour breaks down in tears thinking of the husband she hasn’t seen for almost two years, and the impact his absence has had on her four children.
Ahmed Al-Doush, a British business analyst from Manchester, has been in jail in Saudi Arabia since August 2024, apparently over a handful of social media posts dating back several years.
The human rights group Amnesty International, which is campaigning for his release, says he was convicted in an unfair trial on charges which violate his right to freedom of expression.
Al-Doush and his family had been visiting Nour’s brother when he was arrested at Riyadh airport as he was returning home with his pregnant wife and three children.
“[Our children] ask about their dad all the time,” Nour tells me. “I tell them that he’s away working because I don’t want to say that he’s in prison, as they’re old enough to know that prison is a place where you go if you’ve done something bad. And he’s done nothing wrong.”
She says she doesn’t know exactly why the 44-year-old is being held, but she knows – from the phone calls he is allowed – that he is struggling mentally.
“His voice is often unrecognisable, he is fatigued and confused why the British government aren’t doing more to get him home safely,” she says. “He has been on multiple hunger strikes and we have often been kept in the dark about this.”
The UK Foreign Office says his case has been raised with the Saudi authorities.
Its current travel advice warns that it is illegal in Saudi Arabia to say anything publicly that the authorities “deem disruptive to public order”. And it urges visitors to avoid commenting on the royal family, the Saudi authorities, or “issues that could be perceived as political”.
“Speaking publicly about these issues can be defined by the Saudi authorities as posing a threat to national security,” the advice states.
It adds: “Statements made on social media many years ago, or those published outside Saudi Arabia, may be taken into account. Punishment can include long custodial sentences.”
Al-Doush’s legal team in the UK say that neither they, his family, nor the UK government have been allowed to see any of the legal papers related to his case, including the judgment, despite repeated requests. So they don’t fully understand the charges against him or the basis of his conviction.
But his London-based lawyer, Haydee Dijkstal, says he appears to have been questioned over several tweets posted in 2018 – and subsequently deleted – about Sudan, where he was born, and over his acquaintance with the son of a UK-based Saudi dissident.
She says Al-Doush was initially held for five months without charge, and interrogated without a lawyer before being sentenced in May 2025 to 10 years in jail by Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court, which is understood to have convicted him of using social media to spread fake news against the government. Human rights groups say the court has been used as a political tool, relying on vague counterterrorism and cybercrime laws to punish online expression.
This April, Al-Doush’s sentence was reduced on appeal to five years. But his physical and mental health are still deteriorating, according to his wife.
Amnesty International says he is being held in a cell built for six to eight people, currently housing around 16 prisoners. His phone calls home have been frequently restricted, the group says. And he’s been warned that he will be punished if he discusses his health, or his legal case.
“Ahmed Al-Doush has a family in the United Kingdom who urgently need him. He has been imprisoned for nothing more than social media posts – posts that would raise no eyebrow in any democratic country,” says Eilidh Macpherson of Amnesty International UK.
“His health is now in crisis, and every day he remains detained is another day of unconscionable injustice inflicted not just on him, but on four young children who are growing up without their father.”
“The Saudi authorities have the power to end this nightmare today,” she adds. “We call on them to act without delay: release Ahmed Al-Doush and allow him to return home.”
The group has also appealed to governments around the world to update their travel advice to ensure visitors to Saudi Arabia are aware of the risks that their past social media activity could entail, as the country gears up to host the World Cup in 2034 and other major events.
The Saudi embassy in London has not responded to a BBC request for comment on Al-Doush’s case.
But the Saudi authorities told the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) that “there was evidence proving that Mr al-Doush had committed terrorist crimes, including his support for terrorist ideology.”
UNWGAD’s independent experts concluded in March, however, that his detention was arbitrary under international law, based on a series of violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in his case. And it called for his release.
“The government has not provided detailed or substantiated information indicating why Mr al-Doush presented a violent threat to the community through his actions such that detention was strictly necessary,” they said.
In May, Al-Doush’s wife appealed directly to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, to grant him clemency on humanitarian grounds.
“Ahmed’s absence has left a void which is impossible to fill,” Nour tells me. “The children constantly ask for their father and struggle to comprehend why he isn’t home for bedtime or take them out as he used to. He was a very loving, involved father.”
She has hidden his clothes away so that the children are not constantly reminded of him.
“I am pleading for the UK government to recognise the UN’s finding on arbitrary detention and the need for his immediate release, and to support the request that he is granted clemency on humanitarian grounds given his deteriorating wellbeing and need to be reunited with his young children,” she says.
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