The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights held the second annual conference for victims of human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, which dealt with the death penalty.
The conference, which was held in conjunction with the International Day of Human Rights, lasted for two days, on 9 and 10 December 2021, and hosted a number of organizations, human rights specialists, and activists, as well as testimonies from victims' families.
The activist and political researcher, Muhammad Al-Omari, director of the Al-Jazeera Media Center, was the presenter of the conference. In the opening of the first day, he made it clear that the Saudi regime does not abide by the agreements it signs, does not allow investigations into what is happening in prisons, conducts non-public trials, and manipulates rulings to criminalize all opponents. Al-Omari confirmed that the conference will try to address these abuses from different angles.
Deputy Director of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Adel Al-Saeed, indicated that the ESOHR has been following up since 2013 the violations of human rights in the country, especially those involving the death penalty. He considered that recent developments, including the rising numbers and the lack of justice in trials, and others, showed the importance of raising this issue. Al-Saeed explained that the second conference for victims of Saudi violations is trying, through the testimonies of victims’ families and the interventions of the organizations that documented violations and others that worked in similar cases, and specialists, to shed light on violations on one hand and ways to deal with them on the other hand, and to come up with recommendations, which contribute in reducing the suffering.
Activist Hamza al-Shakhouri, a Saudi activist and dissident who resides abroad and whose family members face the death penalty, mentioned the number of executions carried out by the Saudi government over a hundred years ago, wondering why this regime is allowed to continue with executions, torture and violations without any accountability. Al-Shakhouri pointed out that since 2011, Saudi Arabia has executed 200 people under torture, in the field, or under arbitrary sentences, from the Qatif region, stressing that one hundred of them their families do not know anything about the location of their bodies. Al-Shakhouri pointed out that the violations against his family began in 2012, and currently his young brother Muhammad al-Shakhouri and two of his cousins are at risk of execution.
Law professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris, and the International Federation’s Acting on the Death Penalty manger, Florence Beliver pointed out that even today the death penalty is not criminalized in international law, and in many cases it is considered an internal issue, however, international law gives certain tools to hold those responsible for the executions to account, for the enormous violations that this punishment may entail. Florence pointed out that international binding and voluntary laws stipulate that some practices are flagrant violations, including, for example, the execution of minors and the execution of crimes that are not considered among the most serious.
Deputy Director of ALQST, Joshua Cooper, spoke about the issue of the death of detainees in Saudi prisons as a form of extrajudicial killing. Cooper pointed out that there is a specific pattern that threatens the lives of detainees, especially prisoners of conscience. Cooper referred to a number of cases that constitute testimonies, including the case of Dr. Abdullah Al-Hamid, who died last April in prison, after Saudi Arabia refused his access to the necessary health care. Cooper stressed that this is an intentional neglect of his health, considering that this situation is similar in many cases, including the case of Sheikh Salman al-Awda, who is facing the threat of execution, considering that the neglect he is exposed to is a slow killing. Cooper numbered other cases, and considered that the main thing to do is to call for the release of all prisoners of conscience.
Zainab Abu al-Khair, sister of the Jordanian detainee in Saudi Arabia, Hussein Abu al-Khair, spoke about the violations he has been subjected to since his arrest in 2014, when drug charges were brought against him, leading to the death sentence. Abu al-Khair indicated that her brother was tortured and arbitrarily sentenced without a fair trial. Abu al-Khair indicated that there is a double suffering for his family, as his mother died while he still in detention. She stressed that the Abu al-Khair family's suffering is material and moral at all levels. Abu al-Khair indicated that the family rejoiced after the information about the halting of death sentences and the killing of drug suspects, but to this day the family does not know Hussein's fate and whether he will be released. She emphasized that families have the right to know the fate of their loved ones.
During the conference, the European Saudi Organization presented a speech from the inside, from one of the families whose members were executed. The letter referred to the suffering that began from the moment of arrest and the threat to the family. The letter referred to the psychological torture she suffered when she saw the effects of torture on the victim's body and when she knew that he might be killed at any moment, even though he did not get his right to defend himself, and despite the violations he had been subjected to. The family's letter confirmed that the family's psychological and material suffering continued from the moment of arrest and after his execution. The family confirmed that it is still suffering because it was unable to say goodbye and because it still does not know the location of his body to this day.
International lawyer specialed in international criminal law and human rights, Oliver Windelge, pointed out in his intervention to the high challenges in working on Saudi cases in light of the lack of transparency and the difficulty of accessing information. He explained that when he began working on cases in Saudi Arabia six years ago, it became clear to him that Saudi Arabia is far from human rights. Windelge noted that in recent years he has seen a change. The international lawyer described the changes, especially ending the death sentences against minors, as fragile, considering that Saudi Arabia should implement its promises.
Second Day:
The second day of the conference was opened with an intervention by Zaki Sarraf, investigator and researcher in execution cases in the Middle East in Reprieve organization. He considered that Saudi Arabia should be evaluated on its actions, not on the promises it makes, and pointed out that since 2016, Saudi Arabia has made several promises regarding the death penalty for minors. During the years that followed, Saudi Arabia violated these promises and executed minors and is still threatening others, and indicated that at least 5 minors face the threat of execution.
With regard to the execution for drug crimes, Al-Sarraf said that Saudi Arabia has unofficially announced a moratorium on executions for these crimes, but in return there are no practical steps to implement, and he referred to the case of Hussein Abu al-Khair, who has faced the threat of execution since 2014. Despite talking about a halt to executions, his life is still in danger because no alternative ruling was issued. His intervention indicated that Saudi Arabia is also still prosecuting individuals and requesting their execution on charges related to expressing opinion. And he talked about the case of researcher Hassan Farhan al-Maliki, and the violations involved in it. He concluded that the promises made by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman regarding judicial reforms must be effective, and in particular, they must confirm that they end the punitive death sentences.
The Egyptian activist, co-founder and head of the open source investigations unit in the organization We Record Haitham Ghoneim, considered that the tracker of the execution of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia notes that after a sharp rise during the years between 2015 and 2019, to decrease in 2020 and rise again in 2021. Ghoneim considered that these numbers have several reasons most of them based on political desire and the Crown Prince's attempt to improve his image, which raises a real question about the integrity of the judiciary and judges. The second thing is that this decline comes against the background of severe and unprecedented repression. Ghoneim pointed out that tracing some cases, including some Egyptians cases, confirms the lack of integrity of the judiciary, and the mood in dealing with sentences, as they are changed from execution to imprisonment without logical reasons.
The son of preacher Salman al-Awda, Abdullah al-Awda, spoke in his intervention about the violations his father was subjected to, and the Public Prosecution calls for his execution. Al-Awda explained that his father is subjected to medical neglect and ill-treatment, among others. He explained that this led to serious health complications, including losing part of his hearing and sight. The speech indicated that the Saudi government has prevented the family from communicating with Sheikh Al-Awda normally for a year and a half due to the leakage of a call that clarified some of the violations he is subjected to. Al-Awda confirmed that the Public Prosecution has filed 37 charges, all related to expressing his opinion.
In a recorded video, Asmaa Al-Shafei, the lead petitioner in the case brought in the Lahore High Court, spoke on behalf of ten Pakistanis imprisoned in the Gulf states. Asmaa lost her brother in 2019 when the Saudi government executed him on drug charges. Al-Shafei spoke about the pain that accompanied the family from the moment of his arrest, especially when it became known about the violations he was subjected to, including torture, starvation and ill-treatment. She indicated that she had received a phone call, in which she informed that the verdict had been carried out against her brother, despite all the violations he had been subjected to, and without any additional information. She indicated that her family tried to retrieve the body and contacted the embassy and other concerned authorities, to no avail.
Pakistani lawyer and member of the Pakistan Justice Project, Sana Farrukh, spoke about the plight of many Pakistanis. She explained that the Pakistani government had taken a number of steps recently, including signing a prisoner exchange agreement from Saudi Arabia, but it was too late for many Pakistanis whose cases the organization was following up on. Farrukh pointed out that most of the Pakistani detainees in Saudi Arabia are workers who wanted to search for a better future and work in Saudi Arabia. She explained that some labor agencies deceived them, and their fate became Saudi prisons and the Saudi criminal justice system. Farroukh stressed that this tragedy extends to the families of the victims back home.
For his part, lawyer Taha Al-Hajji stressed that the main dilemma in confronting the violations is that Saudi Arabia paints a different picture, as it denies committing violations and torture, boasts about the shape of prison buildings, and promotes its reform programs. But, according to Al-Hajji, behind all these buildings are violations and abuses that camera do not reach. While Saudi Arabia claims to allow individuals to defend themselves, it does not allow defendants to hire a lawyer until after court sessions have begun. With regard to the death penalty, he said that the past two years have witnessed changes, especially in terms of execution numbers that shrank in 2020. Al-Hajji explained that the reasons for these changes are many, but most importantly, they did not continue, as the current year witnessed 66 death sentences. Al-Hajji considered that these figures illustrate confusion, vacillation and moodiness in dealing with human rights issues.
Deputy Director of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Adel Al-Saeed, concluded the conference by praising the testimonies delivered at it, and hoping that these testimonies reflected the reality of this punishment and the violations that permeate it. Al-Saeed made a number of concluding recommendations:
- Working on documenting all issues that can be accessed and seeking to establish a common database between organizations that can be accessed and compared to build on it.
- Seeking to access the most secure mechanisms to communicate with the victims and their families.
- Submitting cases and statements to the UN mechanisms, especially the committees concerned with the agreements that Saudi Arabia is committed to implementing.
- Supporting victims from families whose suffering continues in all available ways, including supporting their demands.
- Providing a space to meet the families of the victims, especially foreign workers, and support their demands.
- Seeking to hold the torturers and violators accountable by the currently available international means.
- Supporting all endeavors to create new international mechanisms to hold violators accountable.