Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani

Mohammad Fahad Muflih al-Qahtani (محمد فهد مفلح القحطاني, born 1965) is a human rights activist, economics professor and political prisoner who was imprisoned at Al-Ha’ir Prison in Riyadh. Prior to his arbitrary 2012 arrest, he co-founded and later led the Saudi Arabia human rights organisation Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association. Alkarama described al-Qahtani as "one of [the Saudi Arabian judiciary's] most eloquent and fervent critics". On 9 March 2013, al-Qahtani was sentenced to ten years in prison followed by a ten-year travel ban, ostensibly for "co-founding an unlicensed civil association". He carried out several hunger strikes to protest Saudi prison conditions endured during his politically motivated incarceration. Al-Qahtani remained in prison in 2022 and had been intermittently kept in solitary confinement since 2018.

In 2018, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, together with other jailed activists Abdullah al-Hamid and Waleed Abulkhair for "their visionary and courageous efforts, guided by universal human rights principles, to reform the totalitarian political system in Saudi Arabia." Their awards were received on their behalf by his son Omar al-Qahtani and Yahya Assiri.

Al-Qahtani was released from prison on 7 January 2025.