On 23 April 2019, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution of 37 imprisoned civilians who had been convicted, 21 on the basis of confessions allegedly obtained under coercion and torture, [1] [2] for terrorism-related allegations in six provinces in the country. [3] [4] [5] Fourteen of the people executed had been convicted in relation to their participation in the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests in Qatif, mostly on the basis of torture-induced confessions. [2] [6] The executions were carried out by beheading, [4] [7] and two of the bodies were left on public display. [8] [4] According to Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry the convicts were all Saudi nationals.[ citation needed ] Thirty-two of those executed belonged to the country's Shia minority. [9] [4]
Conflict between Saudi authorities and Qatif residents dates back to at least the 1979 Qatif Uprising. The conflict reemerged between Saudi authorities and political protestors during the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests and continued through to the 2017–19 Qatif unrest. The conflict involves peaceful protestors as well as armed confrontations between residents and Saudi authorities, siege barricades erected by the authorities in Awamiyah and attempted destruction of residential areas by the authorities. [10] The "Qatif 24 case" was a Saudi legal case concerning 24 Qatif region protestors. Fourteen of the people executed on 23 April 2019 were among the "Qatif 24", including Mujtaba al-Sweikat and Munir al-Adam. [6] Human Rights Watch stated that the most of convictions were based on confessions obtained under torture. [6]
Another eleven of the people executed had been convicted in the "Iran spy case". [6]
Both the 14 of the Qatif 24 case and 11 in the Iran spy case had been convicted by the Specialized Criminal Court, [6] which conducts trials for alleged terrorists and human rights activists. [11] [12] [13] [14]
The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) followed the cases of many of the detainees prior to their execution. Among these, none of the detainees were allowed access to lawyers during the arrest and investigation stages of their cases, and 21 of them had their confessions extracted under duress and torture. [1]
Both ESOHR and CNN obtained access to many of the court records. [1] [2] CNN stated that it had "hundreds of pages of documents from three 2016 trials involving 25" of the executees. CNN described the "Qatif 24 case" as involving charges related to the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests of the Arab Spring. It said that the fourteen executees among the "Qatif 24" were all charged with "joining a terror cell" and all denied the charge. [2] Nader al-Sweikat, father of executee Mujtaba al-Sweikat of the "Qatif 24", stated that "only few of the 24 men committed real crimes". [2] Both ESOHR and CNN concluded that the prosecution's cases were mostly based on false confessions. [1] [2]
On 23 April 2019, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry stated that Saudi men had been executed that day for the "terrorism related crimes" of "adopting terrorist and extremist thinking and [of] forming terrorist cells to corrupt and destabilize security". [8] Thirty two of those executed belonged to the country's Shia minority. [9] The executions, which were carried out by beheading, [4] [7] were conducted in the capital Riyadh, the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the central province of Al-Qassim, Shia-populated Eastern Province and the southern province of Asir. [9] The bodies of two of the executed men were publicly displayed on a pole for several hours as a warning to others. [4] [8] This was described by the Daily Times as "[sparking] controversy because of its grisly display". [8] According to Amnesty International, many of the families of Shia Muslims executed in the mass execution had not been informed in advance [15] and were shocked to learn of the news. [8] Among the executions was that of a young man who was convicted of a crime that took place while he was under the age of 18, Abdulkareem al-Hawaj, a young Shi'a man who was arrested at the age of 16 and convicted of offences related to his involvement in anti-government protests. [8] [15] According to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, "at least three of those killed were minors at the time of their sentencing", in violation of international law that prohibits the use of the death penalty against anyone under the age of 18. [16]
One of the executees, Hussein al-Humaidy, was severely pressured prior to his sentencing and execution. Al-Humaidy confirmed to the judge, as officially recorded, that "severe psychological and physical pressure" was used during interrogations. [1] Nine among the executees who provided forced confessions and/or were tortured included the following: [1] [2]
Mujtaba al-Sweikat was a minor at the time of his arrest on 12 August 2012, while trying to fly to the United States to study at Western Michigan University. [6] During his investigation, al-Sweikat was hung by his hands, beaten with wires and hoses, stubbed with cigarettes, slapped and beaten with shoes, and left with insufficient heating during the winter. He was given a choice between signing a false confession or returning to the investigation; he chose to sign the false confession to avoid further torture. [1] According to al-Sweikat's father, who defended him in court, the case against Mujtaba was intended to "create the illusion of a terror cell", which in reality did not exist. [2] Al-Sweikat's father said that his son participated in the Qatif demonstrations only twice, and for only five minutes each time. [2]
Human rights in Saudi Arabia are a topic of concern and controversy. The Saudi government, which mandates both Muslim and non-Muslim observance of Islamic law under the absolute rule of the House of Saud, has been accused of and denounced by various international organizations and governments for violating human rights within the country. The authoritarian regime ruling the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is consistently ranked among the "worst of the worst" in Freedom House's annual survey of political and civil rights.
Capital punishment exists in Saudi Arabia, with most executions in the country being carried out by decapitation (beheading) – Saudi Arabia being the only country in the world to still use the method. In 2022, recorded executions in Saudi Arabia reached 196, the highest number recorded in the country in 30 years.
Saudi Arabia's laws are an amalgam of rules from Sharia, royal decrees, royal ordinances, other royal codes and bylaws, fatwas from the Council of Senior Scholars and custom and practice.
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The protests in Saudi Arabia were part of the Arab Spring that started with the 2011 Tunisian revolution. Protests started with a self-immolation in Samtah and Jeddah street protests in late January 2011. Protests against anti-Shia discrimination followed in February and early March in Qatif, Hofuf, al-Awamiyah, and Riyadh. A Facebook organiser of a planned 11 March "Day of Rage", Faisal Ahmed Abdul-Ahad, was allegedly killed by Saudi security forces on 2 March, with several hundred people protesting in Qatif, Hofuf and al-Amawiyah on the day itself. Khaled al-Johani demonstrated alone in Riyadh, was interviewed by BBC Arabic Television, was detained in ʽUlaysha Prison, and became known online as "the only brave man in Saudi Arabia". Many protests over human rights took place in April 2011 in front of government ministry buildings in Riyadh, Ta'if and Tabuk and in January 2012 in Riyadh. In 2011, Nimr al-Nimr encouraged his supporters in nonviolent resistance.
ʽUlaysha Prison is a prison in Riyadh run by the Saudi Arabian secret police agency Mabahith for arbitrary detention. During the 2011 Saudi Arabian protests, "the only brave man in Saudi Arabia", Khaled al-Johani, was held in ʽUlaysha Prison and it is suspected that several founding members of the Umma Islamic Party are being held there.
Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, commonly referred to as Sheikh Nimr, was a Shia sheikh from Al-Awamiyah in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province whose arrest and execution was widely condemned, including by governments and human rights organizations.
The Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) is a non-Sharia court created in Saudi Arabia in 2008 that tries suspected terrorists and human rights activists. On 26 June 2011, the court started trials of 85 people suspected of being involved in Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the 2003 Riyadh compound bombings and in September 2011 another 41 al-Qaeda suspects appeared in the court. In the same year, the court held trial sessions of human rights activists, including co-founder Mohammed Saleh al-Bejadi of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) and Mubarak Zu'air, a lawyer for long-term prisoners, and Khaled al-Johani, who spoke to BBC Arabic Television at a protest in Riyadh, thus becoming known as "the bravest man in Saudi Arabia". The court convicted 16 of the human rights activists to sentences of 5–30 years' imprisonment on 22 November 2011.
Dissidents have been detained as political prisoners in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. Protests and sit-ins calling for political prisoners to be released took place during the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests in many cities throughout Saudi Arabia, with security forces firing live bullets in the air on 19 August 2012 at a protest at al-Ha'ir Prison. As of 2012, recent estimates of the number of political prisoners in Mabahith prisons range from a denial of any political prisoners at all by the Ministry of Interior, to 30,000 by the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission and the BBC.
Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr is a Saudi Arabian former political prisoner who participated in the Saudi Arabian protests during the Arab Spring as a teenager. He was arrested in February 2012 and sentenced to death in May 2014, having previously awaited ratification of his sentence by King Salman of Saudi Arabia, which was to be carried out by beheading and crucifixion. Ali's trial was considered unfair by Professor of Human Rights Law Christof Heyns, and Amnesty International, as well as French President François Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who called for the execution to be stopped.
The following lists events that happened in 2016 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Nimr Baqir al-Nimr was a Shia cleric and critic of the government in Saudi Arabia, who was beheaded on 2 January 2016, one of 47 people executed that day for terrorism offenses. Others executed included Sunnis who had been convicted of involvement in terror attacks linked to al-Qaeda which took place in 2003. News of the killings triggered international demonstrations, and condemnation by nations, supranational organizations, and human rights groups.
Dawoud al-Marhoon is a Saudi Arabian protester who participated in the Saudi Arabian protests during the Arab Spring as a teenager. He was arrested on May 22, 2012 and was sentenced to death in September 2014, after which he was held in prison while awaiting ratification of his sentence by King Abdullah and then King Salman.
The 2017–2020 Qatif unrest was a phase of conflict in the Qatif region of Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, between Saudi security forces and the local Shia community, that arose sporadically starting in 1979, including a series of protests and repression during the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests.
The Qatif conflict is a modern phase of sectarian tensions and violence in Eastern Arabia between Arab Shia Muslims and Arab Sunni majority, which has ruled Saudi Arabia since early 20th century. The conflict encompasses civil unrest which has been sporadically happened since the 1979 uprising, pro-democracy and pro-human rights protests and occasional armed incidents, which increased in 2017 as part of the 2017–20 Qatif unrest.
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Sectarianism in Saudi Arabia refers to the Saudi government's "top-down push towards sectarian polarization" between the Sunni majority, and Shi'ite minority. This encompasses anti-Shi'ite policies by the Saudi regime, as well as tensions between the Sunni majority and the Shi'ite minority. The Saudi government is often viewed to be oppressing the Shi'ite community, who constitute up to 15% of the Saudi population. This occurs against the backdrop of the broader Iran-Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, since Iran is a Shi'ite republic.
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Hussein Abu al-Khair was a Jordanian citizen who was imprisoned and subsequently executed in Saudi Arabia after being convicted of drug smuggling using a confession allegedly obtained under torture. Al-Khair's trial and execution were criticised by human rights organisations.
According to the ESOHR's documentation, at least 21 people executed by Saudi Arabia today said in court that their statements were extracted under duress and torture, ...
The court convicted nearly all [of the Qatif24] defendants based on confessions they later repudiated in court, saying the authorities had tortured them.
