KEY POINTS
  • Saudi Arabia will suspend new trade and investment with Canada after the North American country's foreign ministry urged Riyadh to release arrested civil rights activists.
  • The Saudi ministry had been briefed that the Canadian foreign ministry and the Canadian embassy urged the Saudi authorities to "immediately release" civil rights activists.
  • Last Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said Saudi Arabia had arrested women's rights activists Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah in a government crackdown on activists, clerics and journalists.
Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks during a press conference.

Saudi Arabia will suspend new trade and investment with Canada after the North American country's foreign ministry urged Riyadh to release arrested civil rights activists, it said in a statement released to the official Saudi Press Agency on Sunday.

It also gave the Canadian ambassador 24 hours to leave the country and recalled its own ambassador to Canada, the statement by the Saudi foreign ministry said, adding it retained "its rights to take further action."