Hadi Al Mutif was arrested and convicted in Saudi Arabia in 1993 while training to become a policeman. Al Mutif has been imprisoned for half of his life after a quip he made when he was 18 years old about the prophet Mohammed. Due to an unfair trial and continuous violations of his rights,  this mentally ill prisoner has been on the receiving end of brutal treatment by the unforgiving Saudi Arabian penal system.

In 2007, denied psychiatric help and with a quickly deteriorating mental state which lead to an abortive suicide attempt, Al Mutif was sentenced to an additional 5 years after his statements to the US-funded Al-Hurra television station condemning the Saudi justice system and the monarchy. During his time as a prisoner, Hadi subjected himself to long hunger strikes in order to call attention to the injustice of his conviction, and to the larger issues of censorship and oppression. A Facebook group and numerous petitions have been set up in support of his release. 

Originally sentenced to death, Al Mutif has been imprisoned without a fixed sentence for more than 17 years. The underlying cause for his jail time, which has included solitary confinement and torture, is the political and religious persecution of Isma'ili muslims.