Saudi authorities have approved the charges against Egyptian lawyer Ahmed al-Gizawy, a Saudi newspaper said Monday.
Al-Madina newspaper quoted National Association for Human Rights representative Sami al-Honainy as saying that kingdom authorities had officially approved the counts against him.
Gizawy faces charges of smuggling drugs into Saudi Arabia. A court will set a date for the trial and appoint a judge to examine the case, the paper said.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on 3 July that no date had been set for Gizawy’s trial.
Yasser Olwany, legal adviser to the Egyptian Consulate in Jeddah, had met with Gizawy in prison for three hours. He reported that Gizawy said he was fine, and that there was no execution chamber in his ward.
Gizawy’s arrest in April sparked a spat between the kingdom and Egypt after activists protested outside the Saudi Embassy in Cairo, prompting Riyadh to withdraw its ambassador.
The ambassador returned after a Muslim Brotherhood-led parliamentary delegation visited the kingdom, but Gizawy remains in detention.
Prior to his arrest, Gizawy had filed a lawsuit against Saudi authorities over their treatment of Egyptians in the kingdom.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
