Saudi government does not let establishment of any human rights organizations that would increase people’s information about their rights or make them aware of regime’s human rights violations, ANHRI posted on its website.

According to the Amnesty International, four founding members of a human rights group in Saudi Arabia have been interrogated and intimidated in their attempt to get their organization off the ground.

In recent days, the four men, who founded the independent Union for Human Rights in late March, have been called in for questioning by the Saudi authorities and threatened with further interrogation. They remain at risk of being detained at any time.

Abdullah Modhi al-Attawi, Mohammad Aeid al-Otaibi, Abdullah Faisal al-Harbi and Mohammad Abdullah al-Otaibi have been charged with founding and publicizing an unlicensed organization as well as launching websites without authorization.

On April 1, the four men formally informed the Saudi authorities about the newly formed Union for Human Rights and requested a license. They did not hear back until they were each contacted separately and ordered to report for questioning at the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution on April 28-30.

“None of the charges against these four men relates to an internationally recognizable crime, and the irony is that it was precisely because of their attempt to formally register the organization that the authorities clamped down on them,” said Philip Luther, the Middle East and North Africa director at Amnesty International.

“The Saudi Arabian authorities must stop this repression, remove any arbitrary barriers to the organization’s registration and allow the activists to continue with their legitimate human rights work.”

Saudi Arabia lacks clear laws about how to establish a non-governmental organization (NGO).