A/HRC/24/29 of violence against those targeted.18 No government response had been received as at the end of the period under review. Similar concerns were raised by a number of States during the recent universal periodic review of the Russian Federation.19 30. Similarly, in November 2012, the Committee against Torture expressed its concern about individuals, groups, human rights defenders and journalists subjected to intimidation, harassment and all types of violence related to their activities, including for communicating with or giving information to the Committee or other United Nations human rights bodies. The Committee recommended that the State party should amend the law in question, that no individual or group should be subjected to prosecution for communicating with or for providing information to United Nations human rights mechanisms, and that all allegations of intimidation, threat, attack and killing of human rights defenders be investigated promptly, thoroughly and impartially.20 31. The Committee against Torture addressed two allegations letters and made a public statement, referring to allegations that two non-governmental organizations – the AntiDiscrimination Centre Memorial in Saint Petersburg and the Public Verdict Foundation in Moscow – that provided information to the Committee in December 2012 during consideration of the fifth periodic report of the Russian Federation to the Committee had since faced reprisals. The organizations were charged by the public prosecutor with violating legislation under which non-profit organizations involved in political activity must register as “foreign agents” if they receive money from abroad. The Committee recalled that reprisals contravene article 13 of the Convention.21 9. Saudi Arabia 32. According to information received, on 9 March 2013, the Riyadh Specialized Criminal Court sentenced Abdullah Al Hamid, co-founder of the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights, which campaigns against arbitrary detention, to six years of imprisonment for, inter alia, having provided false information to external sources, including human rights mechanisms of the United Nations. Mr. Al Hamid is now serving a term of 11 years in prison, following the partial reinstatement by the court of a seven-year sentence handed down in 2005 for an offence for which Mr Al Hamid had later been pardoned by the King, with a subsequent travel ban. At the same time, the court ordered the dissolution of the Association, the confiscation of its property and the closure of its social media accounts on the grounds that it had failed to obtain an official licence to operate.22 10. Syrian Arab Republic 33. According to information received, Mazen Darwish, Director of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, based in Damascus, and Hussayn Gharir, Hani Zitani, Abdelrahman Alhamade and Mansour Al-Omari, all arrested on 16 February 2012 during a raid on the Centre, reportedly spent more than nine months in incommunicado detention at the Air Force Intelligence detention centre at Al Mazza military airport, from their arrest until 30 November 2012, when they were transferred to Damascus Central 18 19 20 21 22 10 See “Russia: increasingly hostile environment for NGOs and rights defenders is unacceptable”, OHCHR press release, 14 May 2013, available from www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13323&LangID=E. See A/HRC/24/14. CAT/C/RUS/CO/5, para. 12. See “UN rights experts seek assurances that Russian NGOs will not face reprisals, OHCHR press release, 6 June 2013, available from www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13417&LangID=E. A/HRC/24/21, communication of 27 March 2013