"Saudi Arabia: At least six men held for a year for intending to protest"

"A year after the planned "Day of Rage" demonstration in Riyadh, at least six men are languishing in jail for their involvement in the event, Amnesty International said today in a new briefing paper. In Saudi Arabia’s ‘Day of Rage’: One year on the organization says that it has recently learnt that in addition to Khaled al-Johani, who had been thought to be the sole protester on 11 March 2011, four other men were detained on that day and remain in detention. A sixth had already been arrested on 4 March 2011.  Amnesty International said that it believed that five of the men had not been charged or tried in the year since their arrests. "Holding people for a year merely for intending to protest is completely unconscionable. But that is what it seems the Saudi authorities have been doing in the name of security," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s interim Director for the Middle East and North Africa."