Rights group: Saudi arrests 'disturbing'

NEW YORK, July 24 (UPI) -- The Saudi government has arrested two prominent reformers and five women who engaged in peaceful protest, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

Rima al-Juraish was arrested at her home for her part in a protest outside a prison run by the intelligence services where her husband, Muhammad al-Hamili, has been held for more than two years. The intelligence service also detained the other women, who demanded that relatives be tried or freed.

Abdullah al-Hamid, an attorney representing al-Hamili, was arrested along with his brother, Isa al-Hamid, on the same day he demanded to see an arrest warrant for al-Juraish.

"It's deeply disturbing that Saudi intelligence forces feel free to arrest a lawyer for defending his client's rights," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch's Middle East director. "The security forces should be protecting people's rights to peaceful protest, not whisking them off to jail."