![]() ![]() ![]() In July, a Saudi court sentenced a Yemeni blogger to 10 months in prison, a fine of 10,000 Saudi Riyals ($2,700), and deportation to Yemen for posting a video on social media calling for equal rights, including for gay people. If individuals are engaging in such relationships online, judges and prosecutors utilize vague provisions of the country’s anti-cybercrime law that criminalize online activity impinging on “public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy.” Saudi Arabia has no written laws concerning sexual orientation or gender identity, but judges use principles of uncodified Islamic law to sanction people suspected of committing sexual relations outside marriage, including adultery, extramarital, and homosexual sex. With few exceptions, Saudi Arabia does not tolerate public worship by adherents of religions other than Islam and systematically discriminates against Muslim religious minorities, notably Twelver Shia and Ismailis, including in public education, the justice system, religious freedom, and employment. Prominent activist Waleed Abu al-Khair continued to serve a 15-year sentence that the Specialized Criminal Court imposed on him after convicting him in 2014 on charges stemming solely from his peaceful criticism in media interviews and on social media of human rights abuses. Over a dozen prominent activists convicted on charges arising from their peaceful activities were serving long prison sentences. ![]() In March, Saudi Arabia opened a mass trial of 68 Jordanians and Palestinians detained beginning in 2018 on vague allegations of links with a “terrorist organization.” Family members of defendants described a range of abuses by Saudi authorities following the arrests, including enforced disappearances, long-term solitary confinement, and torture. Their legal status remained unclear at the time of writing. By November, those on trial facing the death penalty included prominent cleric Salman al-Awda, whose charges were connected to his alleged ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and public support for imprisoned dissidents, as well as Hassan Farhan al-Maliki on vague charges relating to the expression of his peaceful religious ideas.Īuthorities detained prominent royal family members in 2020, including former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and former Saudi Red Crescent head Faisal bin Abdullah, and held them incommunicado. Prominent women’s rights activists detained in 2018 remained in detention while on trial for their women’s rights advocacy, including Loujain al-Hathloul, Mayaa al-Zahrani, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdulaziz, and Nassima al-Sadah.Ĭapital trials continued against detainees on charges that related to nothing more than peaceful activism and dissent. Saudi authorities in 2020 continued to repress dissidents, human rights activists, and independent clerics. Through 2020, the Saudi-led coalition continued a military campaign against the Houthi rebel group in Yemen that has included scores of unlawful airstrikes that have killed and wounded thousands of civilians.įreedom of Expression, Association, and Belief Saudi authorities detained two of al-Jabri’s adult children in March and held them incommunicado in an apparent effort to coerce al-Jabri to return to Saudi Arabia. In August, former Saudi intelligence official Saad al-Jabri filed a lawsuit against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a United States court alleging that the crown prince sent a hit squad to murder him in Canada in 2018. The court originally sentenced five of the eight men to death in December 2019, but the penalties were later reduced. Instead, a Saudi court sentenced eight lower level operatives found responsible for the murder to prison terms of 7-20 years in a trial that lacked transparency. Saudi Arabia held the presidency of the G20 in 2020 despite the country’s longstanding human rights abuses, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced authorities to turn G20 events, including the leaders’ summit, into virtual forums.Īuthorities failed to hold high level officials accountable for suspected involvement in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |