While Saudi Arabia, and in particular Bin Salman himself, has spent a great deal of money to improve his image in the world, their new crimes of mass executions proved that the criminal nature of Al-Saud is unchangeable.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency International Group, One of the most important issues in the world today, which is the concern of human society in the first decade of the 21st century, is the widespread violation of human rights by various governments around the world, against their own citizens or other nations and minorities. In the meantime, whenever there is talk of human rights violations in the international community, the name of Saudi Arabia comes to the fore.
Al-Saud’s record in the field of human rights
As mentioned, Saudi Arabia did not have a brilliant record in the field of human rights from the beginning, but since the inauguration of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, this record has become much darker. During bin Salman’s four years as Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia has always been the scene of arrests and repression against opponents of the Saudi regime.
In mid-2017, at the same time as Muhammad bin Salman came to power, Saudi officials quietly reorganized the Saudi public prosecutor’s office and security services, the main tools of repression of the Saudis, and placed them directly under the royal court.
The arrest campaign was then launched by Saudi authorities, targeting prominent clerics, intellectuals, academics and human rights activists in September 2017, followed by prominent businessmen and members of the royal family in November 2017 accused of corruption. The wave of arrests of dissidents was often accompanied by defamation and accusations against detainees in pro-government media.
These arrests mainly included cultural figures, intellectuals, educated people, clerics and human rights activists, etc., who protested against the policies of the Saudi regime in various fields, especially after the coming to power of Muhammad bin Salman. It should be noted that women also included a large group of these detainees. Most of these arrests were made arbitrarily and without legal authorization.
Systematic violation of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia
Despite the Saudi government’s widespread propaganda about lifting the ban on women driving and granting them various freedoms, women’s rights in Saudi Arabia continue to face unprecedented deterioration. For the past few years, the Saudi Security Directorate has taken sudden repressive measures against women activists, and in May 2018, a number of them, including Lajin al-Hazloul, Aziza al-Yusuf, Iman al-Nafjan, Nawf bint Abdul Aziz, Mia al-Zahrani, Samar Badawi, Nasima al-Sada. All this is in line with the laws that still discriminate against women in Saudi society.
Following US President Joe Biden’s inauguration at the White House and the new administration’s apparent pressure on Saudi Arabia, the Al Saud regime was forced to release a number of activists in February 2021, including Legin al-Hazloul, but is still under surveillance and repression after their release and is banned from traveling.
Amnesty International reports that women rights activists in Saudi Arabia are being raped, electrocuted, and flogged beyond their control.
Saudi activist Sahar al-Fifi also said: Detained women in Saudi Arabia are sexually harassed while in chains. Prison authorities force women to confess by filming them. One of the detained women was even forcibly stripped naked, and a photo and video of her were taken and placed on the interrogation table in front of her eyes to force her to answer.
Of course, most cases of arbitrary detention and human rights abuses in Saudi prisons are secret and often closed without trial.
The open war of the Saudi regime against the Shiites
As mentioned, Saudi Arabia’s inhumane approach and systemic crimes target all components of the country from all walks of life; but in the meantime, the Shiites are in a much worse position due to the authoritarian and discriminatory policies of Al-Saud.
Given the dominance of Wahhabism over the ruling Al-Saud dynasty and the dynasty’s attempt to impose this view on Saudi Arabia, the Saudis do not legally recognize Shiites and do not consider them legal and official citizens. Also, despite their scientific and professional merits, the Shiites were never allowed to grow and gain a foothold in the governing structure during the eighty years of Al-Saud rule. The government of Al-Saud treats even the Shiites who do not have religious inclinations and behavior, just because they were born from a Shiite family and a Shiite neighborhood.
At the same time as the Arab world began to change in 2011, Saudi Shiites also staged peaceful protests, but the protests were suppressed by Al Saud to prevent the movement from spreading to other parts of Saudi Arabia. During the protests, the Saudi regime’s security services arrested and executed many Shiites, including children and teenagers, on trumped-up charges.
Human rights organizations react to the execution of 81 people in Saudi Arabia
Also, from May 10, 2017, with the demolition of Shiite homes and their killing under the pretext of renovating dilapidated buildings, fighting terrorism and other issues raised by Al Saud, the repression of the Saudi Shiite minority took on a new form and Saudi crimes became more widespread.
Al-Saud breaks record in illegal executions
But in addition to repression, detention and torture, Saudi Arabia has also broken records in extrajudicial executions.
Among the most obvious crimes committed by the Saudis over the past few years are the following:
On January 2, 2016, the Al-Saud regime carried out the execution of Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al-Nimr, a prominent Shiite cleric in the country. Sheikh Nimr was first detained by Saudi security forces on his return from Bahrain in 2006 for attending an international conference on the Holy Quran. He was eventually sentenced to death for defending the legitimate and violated rights of Shiites in Saudi Arabia.
October 2018 “Jamal Khashgeji”, a critical Saudi journalist, was brutally murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on the direct orders of Muhammad bin Salman.
In April 2019, the Saudi government executed 37 of its detainees, including six teenagers who took part in peaceful protests in 2011 on charges of “terrorism.”
On September 24, 2019, 47 Saudi detainees, including 12 children, were executed.
October 12, 2019 The European Organization for Human Rights – Saudi Arabia estimates the execution of 164 people in Saudi Arabia this year.
October 12, 2019 “Hussein Abdul Aziz Al-Rabah”, a Shiite prisoner from Qatif, was martyred as a result of torture in “Mabahat” prison in western Saudi Arabia.
In late October 2020, World Human Rights Watch said in a statement: The Saudi public prosecutor called for the execution of eight Shiite teenagers. The juveniles’ only crime is participating in mass protests, but the Attorney General has charged them with crimes that do not resemble their real crimes.
The indictment alleges that the teenagers, who ranged in age from 14 to 17, committed the crime. One of the teenagers, now 18, is charged with a nonviolent crime. He was 9 years old when he was charged with this crime.
Execution of Shiite children and adolescents in Saudi Arabia
As mentioned, Shiites have been targeted more by the crimes of the ruling regime than any other component of Saudi Arabia. Shiite children and adolescents, meanwhile, are not immune to Saudi repression, with large numbers of 13- to 17-year-olds being detained during the 2011 peaceful protests in Saudi Shiite areas. Many of these children have been executed in recent years or are currently on death row. It was a few months ago that Mustafa Al-Darwish, who was only 17 years old at the time of his arrest in 2017, was beheaded by the Saudi regime.
According to the European-Saudi Human Rights Organization, the number of executions in Saudi Arabia in 2021 has increased by about 148% compared to 2020; As many as 67 people were executed this year. In 2019, 186 executions were carried out in Saudi Arabia.
The most heinous crime in the contemporary history of Saudi Arabia in the mass execution of 81 people
The Saudi regime executed 63 people in one day in 1980, a year after members of an anti-government sect seized control of the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
But the most heinous crime of Al-Saud in the illegal killing of people goes back to the inhuman act of this regime in the mass execution of 81 people that happened a few days ago. Half of the victims of the Saudi regime’s crime, 41 of those executed, were Saudi Shiites, including minors at the time of their arrest. Despite the claims of the Al-Saud regime regarding judicial reforms and the abolition of the execution of minors, the systematic violation of this law and the execution of Shiite children and adolescents in Saudi Arabia continue.
They were also executed without any formal trial and conviction. They were also denied access to a lawyer.
“Sifak Priests”, Amnesty International’s Saudi researcher on arbitrary executions in Saudi Arabia says: “The executions not only show concern about the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, but also show well that organized attacks are being carried out to deal with Saudi peaceful opponents who are protesting peacefully, especially internet activists.”
It is noteworthy that this black record of Saudi Arabia in the field of human rights is only related to the domestic arena of this country and does not include the crimes that Saudi Arabia commits abroad, especially against the defenseless nation of Yemen.
Significant silence of Western organizations in the face of Saudi crimes
But all these crimes of Al-Saud take place while the United Nations and Western organizations claiming to defend human rights remain silent, and if they do not try to justify these crimes, in most cases, they refuse to condemn them and use only expressions.
This issue proves the dual standards and behaviors of the West and the United States in the face of world developments and their self-interest.
At the present stage, Saudi Arabia, and especially Muhammad bin Salman himself, who had spent a lot of money to improve his image, especially in the West, took advantage of the world’s preoccupation with the current crisis between Ukraine and Russia to commit a new crime and the illegal execution of 81 people. To prove once again that the criminal nature of Saudi Arabia and its ruling regime is unchangeable.