A protest for labour rights took place in Riyadh on 14 January[36] and a sit-in calling for the Syrian Ambassador to be expelled occurred on 5 February in Jeddah.

[38] Security forces shot dead Issam Mohamed Abu Abdallah in al-Awamiyah on 12[39] or 13 January,[40] Munir al-Midani[41] and Zuhair al-Said[42][43] on 9 and 10 February.

In the 70,000 strong funeral for Abdallah on 16 January in al-Awamiyah and the daily Qatif region protests that followed, protestors chanted slogans against the House of Saud and Minister of Interior, Nayef, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

[56] Late on 12 January[39] or at dawn on 13 January,[40] during demonstrations calling for the "release of political detainees, reform and an end to sectarian discrimination",[39] Issam Mohamed Abu Abdallah was killed by security forces in al-Awamiyah after demonstrators threw stones at them according to Al Jazeera English and BBC News.

"[58] On 14 January, protests calling for labor rights and opposing corruption took place in Riyadh in front of the ministries of health and employment.

[44] On the same day, al-Awamiyah residents started signing a petition calling for an independent investigation into the protestors' deaths,[60] gathering 760 signatures by 23 January.

[64] A protest criticising the Minister of Interior and the killings of protestors and opposing economic and religious discrimination took place in al-Awamiyah on 1 February, the Hijri anniversary (in 2012) of the death of Imam Hasan al-Askari, one of Muhammad's followers.

[46] Security forces shot dead Zuhair al-Said[42] (or Zaheer Abdullah Saeed,[67] Arabic: زهير السعيد[43]).

A police spokesperson stated, "While security men were following up on an illegal gathering in the town of al-Awamiya in Qatif on Friday [10 February] they were attacked by gunfire.

"[46] On or before 15 February, security forces arrested a Syrian doctor, Abdul Kareem al-Na'eem, in an al-Awamiyah medical centre, and a male nurse, Abdul Aziz al-Mohsen, in al-Qudaih, on the grounds that they had treated protestors injured during political protests without registering the protestors' names.

[70] On 6 March, women students at King Khalid University in Abha, 'Asir Province, protested against "allowing the campus to deteriorate [and] ongoing corruption in the country".

Security forces attacked the students "with batons, fire extinguishers, and water hoses", injuring 50[51] and leading to the death of Hajer al-Yazidi.

A King Khalid University statement described the events, stating, "The situation evolved and chaos spread along with damage to public property and the use of fire extinguishers and water hoses against the other female students.

Some lost consciousness and had to be taken away for medical assistance, and the university and the relevant authorities took the necessary security measures, until the complex was completely evacuated.

[53] The Arab Network for Human Rights Information claimed that there was a "[protest] movement [spreading] at the universities level".

[54][55] On 10 April, Mohammed Saleh al-Bejadi, co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), was sentenced to four years' imprisonment and a five-year ban on foreign travel for "unlawfully establishing a human rights organisation; distorting the state's reputation in media; impugning judicial independence; instigating relatives of political detainees to demonstrate and protest; and possessing censored books".

[76] Protests against the House of Saud and calling for prisoner release were held in towns in the Qatif region on 20[77] April.

[78] About 20 people protested in the Sahara mall in Riyadh on the evening of 6 June, calling for uncharged prisoners to be released.