Amnesty International on Tuesday launched an international campaign to demand that the Saudi authorities reveal the fate of Qatari citizen Ali Nasser Jarallah 70, and his 17-year-old son Abdulhadi, who entered Saudi Arabia under a family permit August 15.

On August 18, contact was lost with the Qatari citizen and his son while travelling through Saudi Arabia to visit relatives, the rights group said in a statement, adding, "We are concerned that they have been forcibly disappeared".

In this regard, the organisation sent a letter to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz asking to disclose their fate.

The letter said Jarallah and his son had been in contact with their family in Qatar until August 18, when they were approaching the city of Hafof in the Eastern Province and 'since then all communications were lost with them.

“Ali Jarallah has diabetes, and has heart and kidney problems, and high blood pressure, he is regularly on medication and must attend the doctor's regular appointments in Doha. According to a credible source, there are good reasons to believe that the father and son may be arbitrarily detained and held by the State Security Presidency," the letter added.

It called on King Salman to immediately disclose the whereabouts of Ali Jarallah and Abdulhadi. "We call on disclosing the reason for their arrest and to release them promptly unless they are charged with a recognisably criminal offence in accordance with the principles of due process recognised in international law, with the need to get Nasser Jarallah all the medical services required by his health."

Qatar's National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) "holds Saudi Arabia fully responsible for the life and safety of the Qatari citizens and calls upon Saudi authorities to disclose their fate and release them immediately", it said in a statement.

NHRC expressed concern about this enforced disappearance, especially as the Saudi authorities recently adopted a policy of forcibly disappearance of a number of Qatari citizens due to the political crisis.

NHRC called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Panel on Enforced Disappearances and the UN Human Rights Council to intervene immediately to stop these grave and systematic violations against Qatari citizens.

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