Saudi Arabia Sentences Peaceful Protesters To Death By Beheading

Lianne Hikind | August 4, 2017
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Saudia Arabia, a country already rife with human rights violations, is about to behead a young man for protesting. 

In 2012, Mujtaba’a al-Sweikat was arrested by Saudi police just as he was about to depart Saudi Arabia to study finance at the University of Michigan. His crime? Peacefully protesting against the government.

According to NBC Chicago and the American Federation of Teachers: 

“Yesterday, the AFT and AFT Michigan learned that Mujtaba’a al-Sweikat, who was detained at King Fahd Airport in 2012 on his way to the United States to attend college, was moved from detention in Dammam to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where executions by beheading customarily take place,” Randi Weingarten and David Hecker, of the AFT, said in a joint statement. “Mujtaba’a and others were arrested for attending a peaceful, anti-government protest, for which they were sentenced to death, a despicable violation of international law and basic humanity.”

NBC Chicago is reporting that the AFT has called on President Donald Trump to use his influence with the Saudis to stop al-Sweikat's execution, along with 13 others. According to human rights groups, those slated to be executed include a disabled person and others who were children when their "offenses" were committed.

Officials at the University of Michigan say that they initially had no idea that al-Sweikat had been arrested: 

"Cheryl Roland, the executive director of university relations at Western Michigan, said in an email that it’s not unusual for an admitted student to opt out of enrolling at the last minute, so the university had no idea there was “such a troubling reason” behind al-Sweikat’s failure to appear on campus."

Saudi Arabia has a well-known history of human rights violations. Freedom House gives the Gulf nation a freedom score of only 10/100, with 100 being "most free." Human Rights Watch wrote in their 2016 annual report that plenty of other Saudi citizens that have been sentenced to heinous punishment by their government for dissidence.  

"Detainees, including children, commonly face systematic violations of due process and fair trial rights, including arbitrary arrest. Judges routinely sentence defendants to floggings of hundreds of lashes"

"Saudi authorities publicly lashed prominent blogger Raif Badawi 50 times on January 9, 2015, as part of his 2014 sentence for setting up a liberal website and allegedly insulting religious authorities. On June 7, Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court upheld Badawi’s sentence of 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes." 

Anyone who cares about freedom and human rights should be horrified.

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