Dan Arshack is an ISLP volunteer who represented Waleed Abu al-Khair, a Saudi Arabian human rights defender and lawyer. Al-Khair defended many activists and victims prior to his own conviction under Saudi Arabia’s counter-terrorism law. In 2014, Al-Khair was sentenced to 15 years in prison, where he has since suffered beatings and other ill treatment.
On November 27, Mr. Arshack accepted Europe’s most prestigious human rights award, the Ludovic-Trarieux Human Rights award, on behalf of Waleed Abu Al-Khair in Geneva. Recently, a UN Working Group concluded that Saudi Arabian authorities blatantly violated international law when they arbitrarily detained and deprived nine peaceful protestors of liberty, among them Al-Khair.