Al-Hashimi was arrested in Jeddah in February 2007 along with eight other critics of the Saudi Arabian government (Musa al-Qirni, Suliaman al-Rashudi, Abdul Rahman Khan, Essam Basrawi, Saif al-Din al-Sharif, Fahd al-Qurshi, Abdul Rahman al-Shumayri) who planned to form a political party[2] or human rights organization.[3] The men were detained without charge until August 2010.[3]
During his pre-trial detention, al-Hashimi went on hunger strike for a week, which reportedly caused his guards to strip him down to his underwear and leave him in a cold cell for several hours.[1] He was then forced to confess to "contacting Al-Jazeera television station and to collecting money without the permission of the ruler".[4] According to the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), he was also tortured with electric shocks in November 2010.[5]
The nine were brought to trial in the Specialized Criminal Court in 2011. Their lawyers were initially denied information on the charges against the men, and the court's sessions were closed to media and observers, leading Amnesty International to criticize the proceedings as "grossly unfair".[3] Al-Hashimi found guilty by the Specialized Criminal Court on charges including "disobeying Saudi Arabia’s king, forming an organization opposing the state, questioning the independence of the judiciary, money laundering and 'supporting terrorism'", and in November was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment and a fine of 2 million riyals (US$534,000).[1]
