Saudi dissident freed after nearly 5 years' detention

Saudi dissident Abd al-Rahman al-Khalidi was released in Bulgaria on Friday after nearly five years in detention, his lawyer Diana Radoslavova told AFP.

Khalidi still faces a deportation order and must report to a local police station once a week, Radoslavova said. He was detained after entering Bulgaria from Turkey in 2021 to seek asylum, while Bulgarian authorities pursued his removal to Saudi Arabia.

The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee said Khalidi's detention was among the longest faced by an asylum seeker in Bulgaria. The group represents him before the European Court of Human Rights in a pending case challenging the length of his detention.

International human rights organisations have repeatedly urged Bulgaria not to deport Khalidi to Saudi Arabia, warning that he could face persecution because of his activism. In 2011, Khalidi was active during rare demonstrations in eastern Saudi Arabia, where the country's Shia minority is concentrated, after the Arab Spring uprisings.