Launched by Amnesty International New campaign She said that she aims to release those imprisoned or sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia because of freedom of expression, and this campaign coincided with a report The organization referred to a “leaked draft” of a draft sanctions regime that is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia.
Dana Ahmed, the organization’s Middle East researcher, explained to Al-Hurra the details contained in the project and the goals of the new campaign, while the Saudi academic and political analyst, Abdullah Al-Rifai, directed great criticism of the organization and accused it of “politicization.”
The organization said Leaked project (In July 2022) for the first written penal code in Saudi Arabia “has many deficiencies in meeting international human rights standards,” and in its campaign under the title “Confronting the Saudi Kingdom of Oppression,” the organization said that the Saudi authorities “imprison people, and even sentence people to death.” Because of critical comments on social media.”
The campaign addressed “discrimination against women, exploitation of foreign workers, and buying the world’s silence with a campaign to polish the image and legalize oppression through the draft penal system.”
She said that the Saudi Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, “sought from the beginning to portray himself as a progressive reformer, in accordance with his project ‘Vision 2030’ to transform the Kingdom into a prosperous country in which all citizens realize their dreams, hopes, and ambitions,” and “now threatens the regime.” “Sanctions are expected to further consolidate these horrific violations.”
Since the Crown Prince took power, the campaign said, “The human rights situation has witnessed a rapid deterioration, and the authorities, led by Mohammed bin Salman, are spending billions of dollars on an image restoration campaign in order to burnish Saudi Arabia’s reputation on the world stage.”
The Saudi analyst, who was briefed on the campaign, said, “The organization is politicized, and it is enough to look at the title of the campaign to make it clear that it is far from objectivity and integrity. It completely ignores the reforms that took place in the Kingdom, relies on undocumented statements, and judges regimes based on leaks.”
Ahmed explains in her statements to the Al-Hurra website that the Saudi Human Rights Commission was contacted about a month ago and the response was that there is some penal law, without confirming that the law analyzed in the report is the latest draft, but it was said that there is a draft under Sharia review, which is This called on Amnesty to “work to influence the content of the law and influence the provisions related to freedom of expression, freedom of belief, and personal freedoms, in the hope that this will prompt the authorities to communicate with Saudi civil society and academics to consult them regarding the new penal system.”
The organization says that its analysis of the leaked draft concluded that the draft would allow “the codification of existing repressive practices that allowed the imprisonment of opponents, and the perpetuation of inhumane practices such as the death penalty.” The draft penal system criminalizes acts of expression of opinion protected under international law, illicit consensual sexual relations, and homosexuality. abortion, and fails to protect women and girls from all forms of gender-based violence.”
In response to a question about the credibility of this draft, she said that it was shared by Saudi lawyers, and there are Saudi newspapers that commented on some of the articles on this system, which created sufficient reasons for the organization to be convinced that it is true.
She adds, “It is the responsibility of the authorities to say that it is a draft and share it. They did not share the draft with us, nor did they share it with independent lawyers or academics.”
The report indicates a case Salma Al-ShehabShe is a doctoral student and mother of two children who was arrested during her visit to Saudi Arabia from the United Kingdom, and is subject to a 27-year prison sentence simply for tweeting in support of women’s rights.
Muhammad Al-Ghamdi was sentenced to death in July 2023 because he criticized the authorities on the “X” platform, knowing that the total number of followers of his account was only 10 people, and because he followed accounts critical of the government on YouTube, according to the organization.
“He was venting for himself.” Who is Muhammad Al-Ghamdi, whom Saudi Arabia issued a death sentence for?
Shortly before his arrest, by the Saudi authorities, in February 2022, Muhammad Al-Ghamdi (55 years old) bought a new phone and number, and created an account on the “X” website, which was previously known as “Twitter,” under a fictitious name, “suspecting he They will not reach him,” according to his brother Saeed, in his interview with the “Al-Hurra” website.
She refers to Manahil Al-Otaibi, a fitness trainer and women’s rights activist who “was forcibly disappeared after her detention because she tweeted in support of women’s rights and published pictures of herself without wearing an abaya.”
Saudi political analyst, Abdullah Al-Rifai, believes that there is “a major problem associated with this organization, which is its disregard for the values and right of other countries and societies to determine their own judicial systems and value system.”
Al-Rifai accuses the organization of “ignoring the facts on the ground and the presence of a strong civil society in the Kingdom, a human rights association other than the National Commission for Human Rights, and other sub-associations concerned with aspects of human rights.”
Ahmed denies the politicization of the organization’s work and confirms that it is only calling on Saudi Arabia to fulfill its obligations that it signed related to human rights. She points out, for example, that the Kingdom “itself repeatedly promised that it would reduce the death penalty in cases of minors and drugs, but these were just promises.”
The Saudi academic also accuses the organization of “personalizing” the campaign by directing accusations against the Crown Prince, which calls into question its objectivity because “these issues should not be linked to individuals.”
He also says that “the language in which the campaign was written gives the impression that it was written by the so-called Saudi opposition.”
The analyst believes that the issue of freedom of expression is “an issue of controversy because it relates to beliefs in societies,” and “we are in favor of freedom of expression that is governed by legal controls and does not represent a threat to security or societal stability.”
He adds, “The rulings in the Kingdom are based on the fact that protecting society takes precedence over protecting the rights of individuals. There are many freedom advocates who are tools of other countries whose goal is to achieve political gains or destabilize security and stability. Islamic law has established deterrent penalties that we believe in and are committed to, and others must respect them.”
At a session of the Human Rights Council Last January, the head of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, Hala Al-Tuwaijri, said that the Kingdom had achieved “historic and qualitative reforms and developments in various areas of human rights within the framework of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030,” noting that more than 100 reforms had been achieved in general, and these reforms “ It did not stop even in the most severe circumstances that occupied the world, such as the Corona pandemic.”
The Saudi delegation explained that the Kingdom abolished flogging as a punishment, abolished the execution of minors, affirmed the independence of the judiciary, and said that migrant workers now enjoy better protection under the law.
Stories of Saudi women abroad who were victims of “double targeting”
A recent report by Human Rights Watch put the repression against Saudi women abroad “under the microscope,” revealing that girls and women who fled persecution to other countries are being “targeted” by their families, and are being pursued in order to forcibly return them to the country, with “ Support from the authorities.”
But Saudi Arabia is repeatedly criticized for its excessive use of the death penalty, and in 2022, it ranked third on the list of countries that most carry out death sentences in the world, according to Amnesty International.
In that year, Saudi Arabia executed 147 people, including 81 in one day, noting that it recorded the largest number of executions in 2019 when it executed 187 people.
Last month, the authorities carried out the death sentence against 7 people convicted of “creating and financing terrorist organizations,” in the largest execution in one day since the execution of 81 people in March 2022. These executions were met with human rights criticism.
The new Amnesty International report stated that the human rights situation in the Kingdom “is witnessing a rapid deterioration. In addition to the Saudi authorities’ zero-tolerance policy towards criticism, in 2022 the authorities executed 196 people and at least 172 people in 2023, despite promises.” Which she launched by limiting the use of the death penalty.
She added, “There are at least seven young men who are at imminent risk of execution and have been sentenced to death for alleged crimes committed when they were children. One of them was only 12 years old at the time of his alleged crime.”
Al-Rifai asserts in his defense of the Saudi judicial system that the merits of the rulings are often not “informed, as many cases have different backgrounds and extensions, such as intelligence or cooperation with organizations and countries targeting the security of the Kingdom.”
He believes that Saudi Arabia enjoys a strict review of cases that go through four stages of ruling: initial, appeal, and approval by the Supreme Judicial Council, even if the convict does not request an appeal or return to higher levels. In the final stage, the ruling reaches the king, and he has an advisory body that reviews it, and after reassurance, the ruling is implemented.
He describes these degrees of litigation as reaching a “high degree of transparency that saves people’s lives.”
However, the Amnesty researcher told Al-Hurra website that the organization documented dozens of cases from 2013, including those related to executions before the competent criminal court, and it was found that they were “marred by defects, from arrest and interrogation without a lawyer, to the use of confessions under torture, and judges do not pay attention to these matters.” The disadvantages are that despite their knowledge that the confessions were taken under torture, the defendants are ultimately sentenced to death,” and “this is a flagrant violation of fair trial standards.”
In addition to the aforementioned Penal Code, the organization also points out that the Personal Status Law that was issued in 2022 “failed to fulfill the promise of reform,” because it “legalizes discrimination against women in most aspects of family life, including marriage, divorce, custody, and inheritance.” It perpetuates the male guardianship system.”
Ahmed tells Al-Hurra website that the law is not sufficient to guarantee women’s rights “because there are provisions that make a woman not obtain her rights unless she behaves in a certain way with her husband, and it does not guarantee equality between men and women in marriage and separation.”
The organization had issued A report Previously titled “The Personal Status Law Legalizes Discrimination Against Women,” he discussed the “defects” in this law from the organization’s point of view.
Al-Rifai believes that there is “major development and reform in the Kingdom with regard to women’s rights. They enjoy all rights and there is no systematic discrimination against them. The Kingdom is one of the few countries in which there is no salary scale for women that differs from the salary scale for men.”
He adds: “Saudi women have a legal system that protects them and guarantees their rights. There is great protection against violence against them as well as against children. There are civil society organizations that protect and monitor. These are facts that have been largely ignored.”
During the session, Al-Tuwaijri said that the field of women’s rights and empowerment received the largest share of reforms, and that the field of eliminating violence against women and girls had amended the system of protection from abuse in the Personal Status Law.
Al-Rifai accused the organization of “being based on the values of the Western liberal left, which wants to impose on the Kingdom and others its opinion regarding homosexuality and consensual relations between the sexes outside the scope of Sharia law.”
He adds: “The laws in the Kingdom are based on Sharia and societal values,” while “these reports and others are continuous attempts to impose Western cultural and moral hegemony, which constitutes a major challenge in achieving the declared goal of this organization, which is to protect and develop human rights at the international level.”
Regarding the reason for the organization’s refusal to criminalize “illegitimate” sexual relations, homosexual relations, and abortion, Ahmed told the “Al-Hurra” website that Saudi Arabia, before the draft law appeared, did not have laws that explicitly criminalized these acts, and she asked: “Why are they legalized now?”
The same applies to abortion, as there is no criminalization of abortion in Saudi Arabia, and a woman can obtain it under certain conditions, but the new system will criminalize it in all cases, and there are no exceptions, for example, related to the health of the mother and fetus.
She stresses that this criminalization “is not in line with the Kingdom’s considerations of the Convention on Women’s Rights.”
The researcher considers that the shift in Saudi Arabia to legalization “is not enough, and what must be done is that these laws be in line with the Kingdom’s obligations and not legalize practices that support violations.”
The campaign also refers to the “exploitation of foreign workers”, despite the introduction of reforms in 2021 to the labor system.
Among the aspects of “exploitation” that she referred to were workers being deceived by recruitment agencies, withholding their wages by third-party contractors, housing them in dirty and overcrowded housing, and subjecting them to verbal or physical abuse or threats, especially when they filed complaints about their living and working conditions.
The condition of African workers in the Gulf…a reality that goes beyond “abuse and exploitation”
Although they have heard from their friends about stories of their “mistreatment” in the Gulf, many East African citizens still want to work there due to the poor economic conditions in their country, with their governments supporting this trend, according to a report by The Economist magazine.
Al-Rifai says, “Workers’ rights are largely protected, and the regulations are deterrent and preserve the rights of everyone, especially workers. There are those who say that workers’ rights in Saudi Arabia are given greater importance than the rights of the employer.”
Al-Rifai called for “an international review regarding human rights and for there to be institutions that actually protect them in accordance with international consensus that takes into account the cultures and laws of countries.”
ظهرت في الأصل على www.alhurra.com