Judicial authorities in Saudi Arabia should take urgent steps to end the indefinite detention of a man who can’t raise the money to compensate an attack victim. In addition to the criminal sentence, he also faced a Qisas, or “equal retaliation” judgment, which under Saudi law stipulates a direct “eye-for-an-eye” physical punishment or payment of compensation to the victim.

The harsh sentences against leading Saudi rights advocates and an order to shutter a civil and political rights group are major setbacks for rights in Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities should release and drop charges against the two leading human rights activists sentenced to long prison terms after a Specialized Criminal Court convicted them on politically-motivated charges on Saturday.

We write to request information on the whereabouts and condition of Khaled al-Natour, 27, a Jordanian citizen whom Saudi authorities detained at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh on January 6, 2013. According to information we have received, he has been held incommunicado since that date and authorities have not released any information regarding the reasons for his arrest or his whereabouts. We call on you to release him without delay or for the appropriate authorities to charge him before a court of law if there is evidence that he is responsible for any criminal offense.

Saudi authorities should immediately release and drop all charges against Sulaiman al-Rashoodi, a 76-year-old former judge and president of the Saudi Association of Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA). He is one of 16 people detained in 2007 and convicted in 2011 for peacefully trying to establish a human rights organization in Jeddah. Four others also have been sentenced to long prison terms.