Saudi Arabia chosen to head human rights panel whilst sentencing citizen to crucifixion

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I have just received this from CAAT, please feel free to add your name to the petition.

Yesterday, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt argued that stopping arms sales to Saudi Arabia would be "morally bankrupt" as it would mean a loss of UK influence. In fact, the Royal Saudi Air Force could not operate without UK and US support. Please share the petition to stop the arms sales at caat.org.uk/stop-arming-saudi-petition

Yesterday the Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt claimed that ending the UK's arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE would be "morally bankrupt."

Yes, that’s right… Ending the arms sales would be "morally bankrupt."

Jeremy Hunt was writing to mark "four devastating years of conflict in Yemen."

That is four years since the Saudi-led coalition launched its first airstrikes in Yemen. Four devastating years in which 60,000 have been people killed by the conflict, and many more have died as a result of the humanitarian catastrophe that has ensued.

Attacks have hit schools, hospitals, weddings, funerals, food supplies and a bus full of school children.

But this war couldn't have happened without the support of arms suppliers such as the UK.

The coalition is deploying UK made aircraft in combat missions, dropping UK-made bombs and firing UK-made missiles. A recent report by Yemeni research group Mwatana for Human Rights documented the likely use of UK-made munitions in five attacks on civilian facilities.

The UK government has enabled the war with more than £5 billion of arms sales, military support and training.

If the government stopped the arms sales, it could help stop the war – and it must do so.

Thousands of you have signed our petition to Jeremy Hunt telling him exactly this. Thank you!

Now can you share it and ask your friends to add their voice?

caat.org.uk/stop-arming-saudi-petition

Next month CAAT's legal challenge to the arms sales continues in the Court of Appeal, but Yemen can't wait: we need to keep the pressure on now.

Thank you for your support.


Sarah
Campaign Against Arms Trade

P.S. There was some good news yesterday too, when five opposition parties also called on the Foreign Secretary to Stop Arming Saudi Arabia. Don’t forget to share the petition at caat.org.uk/stop-arming-saudi-petition

 

[teqniq]

Well there's a thing.

Leaked reports reveal severe abuse of Saudi political prisoners

 

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Whatever; we just want to sell them tanks n bombs n planes so they can bomb the shit out of whoever they choose and of course torture anyone who voices dissent Yahoo is now part of Oath

Sorry, I know it is slightly out of context but hey

 

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BTW

 

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Not much to go on yet is this as yet little reported story. Just 37 exectuted/murdered last week then
Saudi Arabia executes 37 citizens in connection with ‘terrorism’

 

[tim]

The executions were for:

attacking security installations with explosives, killing a number of security officers, and cooperating with "enemy organisations" against the interests of the country, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia executes 37 in connection with terrorism

So clearly not all for actual violence, as some executions were in the Eastern Province, I assume they took it as an opportunity to send a message to Shia opponents of the regime.

 

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Al Jazeera wont be in the least bit biased of course!

 

[tim]

According to Madawi Al Rasheed, a Saudi Academic based in London 32 out of the 37 were Shia.

• 
  Madawi Al-Rasheed
  @MadawiDr

Saudi executions today target 32 Shia out of the 37 executed, according to activist and colleague Dr Fuad Ibrahim
Quote Tweet

فؤاد ابراهيم

@fuadibrahim2008 · 1h
الاصل في اعدامات اليوم هي استهداف الطائفة الشيعية (32 من أصل 37) واذا وصعت في سياق الازمة بين اميركا وايران، فان الهدف منها حملة ترويع استباقية في حال وقوع حرب وهي رسالة سياسية لايران بان النظام السعودي مستعد للسير حتى نهاية التصعيد
3:55 PM · Apr 23, 2019 · Twitter Web App

Madawi Al-Rasheed (@MadawiDr) on Twitter

 

[tim]

Al Jazeera wont be in the least bit biased of course!

Saudi Gazzete link in the interests of infuckingpartiality!


Saudi Gazette
@Saudi_Gazette
·
1h

#SaudiArabia executed 37 citizens for adopting #terrorist and extremist ideology and for forming terrorist cells to corrupt and destabilize security as well as spread chaos and provoke sectarian strife.
@MOISaudiArabia

37 Saudis executed for terrorism
saudigazette.com.sa

I'm not sure where bias comes into it as they've killed 37 people and we know the regime itself is murderous and corrupt. I suggest you join me and make some pertinent comments on the Saudi Gazette Twitter feed.

 

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Al Jazeera are claiming some were executed for blowing places up and killing people. Is that true and verified?

 

[tim]

Al Jazeera are claiming some were executed for blowing places up and killing people. Is that true and verified?

I'm sure it's true that some of those executed were convicted of those crimes. Given the Saudi penal system it's unlikely that they had a fair trial.

As Al Jazeera is owned by the Qatari government and both that government and the station are hated by the MBS and family, they probably are biased against the Saudis, but which broadcaster isn't biased. Nobody is questioning that these executions happened or the justifications given

I don't really understand why you are being querulous!

 

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I refuse to believe anything the Saudi's say. I suspect they were trying to dress things up a bit to make them more palatable to the more sensitive of us. That not withstanding, to me capital punishment is wrong.
I see, for good measure, they threw in a crucifixion Saudi Arabia executes 37 for terrorism

 

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Over sensitive? Jumping to conclusions? The reports are creeping out....
"Saudi Arabia Executes 37 Citizens For "Terrorism, Extremist Thinking"

Saudi Arabia Executes 37 Citizens For "Terrorism, Extremist Thinking"

 

[tim]

I refuse to believe anything the Saudi's say. I suspect they were trying to dress things up a bit to make them more palatable to the more sensitive of us. That not withstanding, to me capital punishment is wrong.
I see, for good measure, they threw in a crucifixion Saudi Arabia executes 37 for terrorism

If they say they've beheaded and crucified 37 people, I think you can believe them.

 

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Only one crucified.
i don't believe the trumped up charges.
Which ever way you look at Saudi, it's rulers are barbaric.

 

[tim]

Only one crucified.
i don't believe the trumped up charges.
Which ever way you look at Saudi, it's rulers are barbaric.

I don't suppose anyone posting here believes them. I just done get the bizarre way you seem to be insinuating that I'm a Saudi appologist.

 

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I do not like regimes like Saudi and nor do I agree with the death penalty and was being pedantic because I believe it is important to register the fact that I doubt that
any of them killed a member of the "security forces" and Saudi was trying to make their crimes look worse than they actually were. It goes without saying that they probably did
not get a fair trial and that their confessions were extracted as a result of torture. As for acts of terror, Saudi would probably label anyone who had spoken out against the
state as a terrorist. That said, i know people who support the death penalty for things like spying, yet alone an act of terrorism. Indeed, sadly, there are many on these boards who support the
death penalty in certain circumstances.

 

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This just hit my email; a little more info....Saudi Arabia executes 37 people in a single day – including three juveniles - Reprieve

 

[likesfish]

a couple might even have been violent terrorists but Saudi labels atheists terrorists not even Blunkett went that far in defining terrorism Saudis got the best tech money can buy but making no headway in Yemen because they are about as much use in war as a choccy fireguard.
even with UK mercenaries fueling arming and fixing their planes they are still useless.

 

[teqniq]

The guy who has been warned did say if they were not properly held to account over the Khashoggi murder, this is the sort of thing that would be likely to be next and so....

CIA warns Arab activist of potential threat from Saudi Arabia

 

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No one escapes the Saudi inquisition

 

[tim]

8 members of a "suspected terrorist cell" killed by Saudi forces in Qatif. Qatif is a city in the oil-producing Eastern Province. It is a Shia town where there was a brutally repressed uprising in 1979. As has been mentioned above the vast majority of those executed a few weeks ago were also Shia.

Saudi forces kill wanted fugitives in security operation in Qatif

Here's an article from 2014 about the situation in Qatif.

Saudi Arabia's hidden uprising

I've taught quite a few people from in and around Qatif and have been there a few times. The situation was never good but it's getting worse.

 

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"wanted fugitives"

 

[tim]

An article from Al Jazeera on Qatif and the wayin which Shia are seen as Iranian proxies by the regime

The Saudi Shia: Between an Iranian rock and a Saudi hard place

 

[teqniq]

EXCLUSIVE: Saudi Arabia to execute three prominent moderate scholars after Ramadan

Three prominent moderate Saudi Sunni scholars held on multiple charges of “terrorism” will be sentenced to death and executed shortly after Ramadan, two government sources and one of the men’s relatives have told Middle East Eye.

The most prominent of these is Sheikh Salman al-Odah, an internationally renowned scholar known for his comparatively progressive views in the Islamic world on Sharia and homosexuality.

Odah was arrested in September 2017 shortly after tweeting a prayer for reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbour Qatar, three months after Riyadh launched a blockade on the emirate.

The other two slated for execution are Awad al-Qarni, a Sunni preacher, academic and author, and Ali al-Omari, a popular broadcaster. They too were arrested in September 2017....

 

[Pickman's model]

EXCLUSIVE: Saudi Arabia to execute three prominent moderate scholars after Ramadan

They're fucking nuts

 

[teqniq]

Nuts they may very well be but it appears very calculated if you read on from the clip I quoted.

 

[Pickman's model]

Nuts they may very well be but it appears very calculated if you read on from the clip I quoted.

Yeh, you're right.

 

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Planning to execute the three men who are currently awaiting trial....

 

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We will execute them, then we will see what they have to say for themselves