Two Saudi teens have been sentenced to death for attending a protest when they were just 17 years old.
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Now Saudi authorities plan to soon behead the young man and display his remains in public. Worldwide outrage has done little to deter Saudi Arabian officials from reconsidering the brutal punishment of the teens.
“With legal avenues exhausted, both juveniles could now be executed at any time, without prior notification to their families…The executions are expected to go ahead despite concerns about the fairness of both trials”, the rights group said.
The kingdom’s criminal justice system has come under fire by United Nations and independent rights advocates for failing to abide by global law and treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child that prohibits death sentences or life without parole for those accused of crimes committed while they were younger than 18.
Despite the “outrage” from the West, the United States and the UK continue to work with Saudi rulers. Most of those sentences have been enforced through beheadings.
The campaign group claims that al-Marhoon signed a “confession”, which was used to convict him, after he was tortured.
Yesterday, it emerged that Saudi Arabia had also threatened to execute those who “spread rumours” about the government on social media. This follows current efforts that already censor what is said on social media by Saudi citizens but provides the government extra means to press charges against social media offenders.
At the time of the youths’ arrests, Saudi Arabia’s Eastern province was rocked by protests by the Shi’ite population, a minority pushing for more rights in the Sunni-majority kingdom.
Mr Cameron said: “We have raised this as a government”.
Asked by Jon Snow whether he had interceded with the Saudis over the planned execution of the Shia activist Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, Cameron admitted he himself had not raised the issue directly but the foreign secretary and the embassy had.
“I will look to see if there is an opportunity for me to raise it as well”.
“We oppose the death penalty anywhere and everywhere in all our worldwide contacts”. The court seems to have based its decision on “confessions” which Ali al-Nimr has said were extracted under torture and other ill-treatment and has refused to look into this allegation.
“The British government must urgently change its priorities – ministers must cancel the bid, and call unequivocally on Saudi Arabia to halt the executions”. A few are questioning why UK Prime Minister David Cameron isn’t doing more about these outrageous cases.
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Mr Snow hit back: “Why did we do this deal then?”
