Saudi Arabia’s human rights record came under scrutiny again this week after seven men were publicly executed and a court sentenced two prominent civil rights activists to jail.
On Wednesday, the seven men, who had been arrested in 2005 and 2006 for armed robbery, were executed by firing squad. The executions drew criticism from a number of organizations including the European Union and the United Nations, which alleged that their confessions were coerced and that some of them men were arrested as juveniles. Amnesty International called the punishment an act of “sheer brutality.â€
“Under international safeguards,†the United Nations commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said in a statement,â€capital punishment may be imposed only for ‘the most serious crimes’ and only after the most rigorous judicial process. As I pointed out to the Government of Saudi Arabia before the men were executed, neither of those fundamental criteria appear to have been fulfilled in these cases.â€
She added: “I am also extremely concerned that the death sentences were imposed largely based on initial confessions allegedly extracted under torture, and that the allegations of torture were not investigated
In the activists’ case, a Saudi criminal court on March 9 sentenced Mohammed F. al-Qahtani to 10 years in jail and Abdullah al-Hamid to five years in jail on charges that included “destabilizing security by calling for protests,†“spreading false information to outside sources,†“undermining national unity,†and “setting up an illegal human rights organiz! ation,†a report by Human Rights Watch said this week.
The verdict touched off a wave of criticism that the country’s judicial system is politicized and that it only addresses dissenting voices by silencing them.
The Saudi criminal court also imposed a travel ban on the men after they serve their prison terms and disbanded the organization they founded, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, which had helped Saudi families of detainees who had been held without charges or trial.
“This is simply an outrageous case, which shows the extremes Saudi authorities are prepared to go to silence moderate advocates of reform and greater respect for human rights,†said Eric Goldstein, the deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division for Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International said in a statement that the imprisonment of the two men was “yet another stain†on the country’s record when it comes to attacking free expression.
“We consider that the two human rights activists have been imprisoned solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association and are therefore prisoners of conscience who should be released immediately and unconditionally,†said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa director for Amnesty International.
Some reports questioned how far Saudi Arabia’s western all! ies, Brit! ain and the United States, are prepared to go in raising such human rights issues, especially in light of several high-profile official visits to the kingdom this month.
Secretary of State John Kerry visited Saudi Arabia early last week before the verdicts of the two activists, a spokeswoman for the State Department, Victoria Nuland, said in a briefing on March 11, when asked about the sentences. She said the United States and Saudi Arabia had an “ongoing and robust dialogue†on “a wide range of political reform issues, including human rights for individuals.â€
But we are concerned that these two very prominent Saudi human rights activists have been sentenced to prison. You know that we always make strong representations for human rights activists wherever we are around the world.
Jerome Taylor wrote in the British newsaper The Independent on Wednesday that Prince Charles was expected to visit the kingdom on Friday.
For the struggling human rights activists and reformists in the kingdom, visits from the U.S. and Britain are a consistent source of disappointment. While London and Washington berate Moscow for its ongoing support of the Assad regime, they rarely if ever go public with criticisms of the Al Sauds - their closest ally in the gulf.
Last week, both the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, and the Attorney General, Eric Holder, returned from separate trips to the kingdom. Between their visits, the Saudi regime was emboldened enough to press ahead with the jailing of Mohammed Fahd al-Qahtani and Abdullah al-Hamed - two of the country’s most prominent non-violent reform advoca! tes. In t! he few days between the U.S. delegations and Prince Charles’s arrival, the king also found time to reject clemency for the Abha Seven, despite documented evidence that confessions were extracted under torture, that the men were not appointed adequate legal representation and that most of them were juveniles when they committed their alleged crimes.
Ahmed al-Omran, a Saudi blogger and journalist, mentioned the United States “concern†in an article about the arrests. On his @ahmed Twitter account, he noted that the two activists had preferred jail if the alternative meant being forced to halt their work.
Mr. Qahtani and Mr. Hamid had used Twitter and other social media forums to keep their followers informed. They posted messages on their organization’s Web site urging people to attend their trial, condemned arbitrary arrests, or tried to drum up support for hunger strikes. In a 2011 posting, the Saudi judiciary was called “one of the tools of state-sponsored terrorism.â€
Mr. Qahtani continued to post messages on his Twitter account as @MFQahtani until a day before the court verdict. In one message, he noted that he had attended a lecture seated next to a man who had been injured by the police.
Buraida has been the scene of protests against the detentions of Saudis without trial.
The verdicts also set off reaction on Twitter by Saudi writers and activists, as aprominent Saudi blogger, Eman al-Nafjan, noted in an online compilation. It linked to a recent CNN interview in which Mr. Qahtani noted that he was aware he could lose his freedom as he pursued the foundation’s goals.
Follow Christine Hauser on Twitter @christineNYT.
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