In 2007 Waleed Abulkhair began his career in the legal profession, where he joined lawyer Essam Basrawi and worked in his office. In the same year, Waleed—along with several other activists—launched a statement entitled Features of a Constitutional Monarchy, which explicitly demanded the ruling family of Saudi Arabia change the current regime of absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. This led the Saudi Authorities to stop funding his Graduate studies for master's degree, so he studied and finished his master's degree on his own expenses. Waleed Abulkhair defended a number of clients in the case of Jeddah reformers, including Dr.
Mossa bin Mohammed Al-Qarni,
Dr. Saud al-Hashimi and Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Shumaimri, who were arrested in February 2007. He filed a lawsuit on June 22, 2009 against the Interior Ministry over the detention of his clients without charge. He was also hired by the British Embassy in Saudi Arabia to defend one of its nationals detained by Saudi authorities. Abulkhair was one of those who signed a famous petition called “Toward a State of Rights and Institutions”. Demanding the release of detainees who he considered to be political prisoners, Waleed organized what he called "the first hunger strike campaign in Saudi Arabia for human rights", lasting for 48 hours. Due to this, he was invited in Mexico City to a summit named the “Alliance of Youth Movement”. He signed other two more petitions in 2011, "Towards a State of Rights and Institutions", the "National Declaration for Reform", which called for radical reforms in the political system, and coincided with
waves of protests against Arab regimes. In March 2012, Abulkhair was nominated by the US State Department to attend an extensive course for six-week titled "Democratic leaders" at Syracuse University in New York sponsored by the US State Department, but the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution in Jeddah summoned him and told him that he was banned from traveling.
Smood, the weekly salon As a reaction to the Saudi authorities decision to shut down Bridges Café in Jeddah, which was a meeting point for Saudi youth to talk and discuss several topics, in 2013 Abu al-Khair started a weekly gathering in his living room, hosting a few dozen of people, most of them politically engaged Saudi youth from different backgrounds. Topics focused on political, religious and human rights issues, in addition to cultural and intellectual subjects. The
salon is named “
Smood” (صمود), an Arabic word that can be translated as "resistance" or "steadfastness". Smood was attacked heavily by many conservatives in social media and on TV. It has been claimed that the salon encouraged atheism and skepticism, especially after
Hamza Kashgari’s case, knowing that he was a personal friend of Abu al-Khair and many other regular visitors to the meetings. One day, few conservatives visited Smood and secretly recorded the discussion without the attendees' permission; on the next day, they tweeted negatively about the topics discussed and the type of people attending Smood. Moreover, they contacted a TV show and requested from the government and the
Hai'ia to take serious action against such meetings. Abulkhair defended his salon by saying that he is offering the freedom of speech, the freedom of belief and the freedom of expression, things that cannot be provided outside the door of his house. Abulkhair mentioned his salon in an article that he posted in the
Washington Post titled "Steadfast in pursuing a freer Saudi Arabia".
Samar Badawi and Raif Badawi cases Abulkhair was the lawyer of both
Samar Badawi, and her brother Raif Badawi. Samar Badawi is a Saudi woman who was detained in jail for seven months because of accusations ofdisobeying her father. Abulkhair took up her case and defended her in Saudi courts. He also launched a campaign to demand her release by using various social media such as
Twitter and
Facebook. In addition, he created a special blog to publish all updates and documents related to the case. After three weeks, the campaign had achieved its goals and Badawi was released from prison. Abulkhair represented
Raif Badawi, founder of the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group, after he was arrested for establishing the network and charged with "committing violations of legitimacy" and "insulting the Divine self". Abulkhair represented Raif before detention when he was sentenced to death for insulting religion but he dropped the case and then directly he was detained, and Raif was sentenced to jail.
Media presence Abulkhair conducted interviews with international media, including those with Kevin Sliven of the
Washington Post, Jacob Timblin of
Time magazine, and Pierre Pray of
Le Figaro newspaper, as well as
Frank Gardner of the
BBC. Abulkhair also wrote several articles for non-Saudi newspapers, including two essays for
The Washington Post first titled "Steadfast in pursuing a freer Saudi Arabia". and the other entitled "prison sentence for peaceful activity in Saudi Arabia". He also wrote an article entitled "Obstacle in Front of Saudis and Fear" published by the
Institute for War and Peace Reporting, and wrote an article published on
MSNBC entitled "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and stifle dissent in the name of combating terrorism". Abulkhair also wrote more than 300 articles in local newspapers in Arabic in which he addressed various legal and human rights issues.
Amnesty International published the last article written by Waleed Abulkhair before his imprisonment, entitled "Even from prison, you can still light a candle", after his imprisonment. The last meeting with him before his arrest was with Alasr magazine, in which he stated that "the ACPRA association is no longer an association only, but is an idea, and the idea is bulletproof, and resist arrests and repression. It is an excuse to God and to the people. ACPRA is a historical case in this spot of world to improve that people have not liked all this injustice and stood bravely against it". He added a sort of speech saying: "We sacrifice for so long dear Friends, it is a difficult time in which our sincerity and loyalty to our principles and colleagues are tested. This time we will not realize the value of our actions, but after a while, as we do not realize the value of love until we give it, then we can reach the noble goals and surrender to the pain. Blessed are those who meet our free colleagues. To my mother and my father and the rest of my family: I do not know if I’m going to be released after 3 months or stay longer, but what I'm doing is the right thing, I did not let down freedom on which I was raised. So be proud, make sure that your son did not steal, loot or hypocrite, your son told the oppressor this is unfair..." On 26 August 2014, the
Washington Post published an article entitled "Saudi Arabia Continues its Outrageous Repression on Human Rights Activists" in which it wrote about the judgment against Abulkhair, describing it as "the latest in a long and sorrowful series of persecutions of those who stand for human rights and dignity in the kingdom". In the video, Abulkhair says: The second video, published on 4 August 2014, was entitled
Why did I deny the legitimacy of the Specialized Criminal Court?, in which Abulkhair strongly criticized the court hearing his case because it was "not independent" and strongly tied to the executive bodies. == Detention and trial ==