Nawwaf bin Talal Al Rashid (born 8 October 1989) is a dual Saudi-Qatari national, poet and a member of the Al Rashid family. He was arrested in Kuwait on 12 May 2018 and extradited to Saudi Arabia. He was detained there until 1 April 2019 when he was released.[1]
Biography
His father is Talal bin Abdulaziz who was a poet and son of Abdulaziz bin Mutaib, ruler of Ha'il at the beginning of the 1900s.[2][3] Talal bin Abdulaziz died in Algeria in 2003 when he was on a camping trip.[2][4] During the incident Nawwaf was with his father.[4] His mother is a Qatari, and following the death of his father Nawwaf settled in Doha, Qatar,[5] and gained Qatari nationality.[4] He is a distant cousin of Madawi Al Rashid, a British scholar.[2][3][4]
On 12 May 2018 during his visit to Kuwait Nawwaf, aged 29, was arrested there by National Security forces and deported to Saudi Arabia on the request of the Saudi authorities.[6][7] Nawwaf bin Talal had been invited by Kuwaiti poet Abdelkarim Al Jabari who is a member of the Shammar tribe which the Al Rashids also part of, to join an activity organized in his honour.[4]Human Rights Watch considered his arrest and deportation as another example of Saudi Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman's human rights abuses.[6] Before his deportation to Saudi Arabia Nawwaf was a student at Qatar University.[6]
In late March 2019 Nawwaf bin Talal was released by the Saudi after ten months in arbitrary detention.[7]