Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed a man from the Shiite community who was convicted on charges related to an anti-government protest when he was a teenager, in what campaigners called a “deeply flawed” trial.
Mustafa al-Darwish was executed in the eastern city of Dammam for launching an “armed revolt” against Saudi Arabia’s ruler and “destabilizing security” in the kingdom, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
Al-Darwish was arrested in May 2015 over his alleged participation in protests during the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and 2012, said campaign groups, including Amnesty International, which added that he was 17 or 18 at the time.
“By carrying out this execution the Saudi Arabian authorities have displayed a deplorable disregard for the right to life,” Amnesty said in a statement. “He is the latest victim of Saudi Arabia’s deeply flawed justice system, which regularly sees people sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials based on confessions extracted through torture.”
Britain-based campaign group Reprieve said that authorities had not informed al-Darwish’s family about his execution and they found out “by reading the news online.”
Reprieve, which said that al-Darwish was placed in solitary confinement and tortured in detention, claimed that he was 17 at the time of his alleged offense.
In April last year, the kingdom announced that it was ending the death penalty for those convicted of crimes committed while they were younger than 18.
Citing a royal decree, the kingdom’s Human Rights Commission had said that individuals convicted as minors would receive a prison sentence of no more than 10 years in a juvenile detention facility.
“Once again the Saudi authorities have shown that their claims to [have] abolished the death penalty for children are worthless,” said Ali al-Dubaisi, director of the European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights. “The cruelty of this execution, without warning, for the crime of joining protests as a teenager, is the true face of [Crown Prince] Mohammad bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia — not the endless empty promises of reform.”
Prince Mohammad, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, has sought to blunt international criticism over the kingdom’s rights record and its opaque judicial system, as he seeks to draw foreign investment and international tourists.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was