On the 26th of May, the Special Criminal Court in Jeddah issued, in the case front of three judges headed by Bander Al-Tuwaijri, a primary death sentence on the prisoner of Dammam Investigation Reda Jafar Alrubh (26 year), in the fourth session of the trial.
The prosecutor called for the implementation of the death sentence on 20 of the detainees – including children – according to the monitoring of the European Saudi Society for Human Rights (ESSHR), and against the backdrop of protests that have taken place in Saudi Arabia since 2011, but the death sentence on Reda Alrubh is the first to come out of court, where some others received prison a primary sentences ranging between 3 months and 25 years, and still some others did not get the court sentence yet.
Against the backdrop of charges obtained in investigations accompanied by torture and detention in solitary confinement for more than 5 months in complete isolation from the outside world without access to a lawyer or family visits, the public prosecutor presented against Reda Alrubh the following charges:
1. Disobeying the ruler, undermining security and sedition jointly within an organized terrorist cell with the intention to use arms against the security forces.
2. Harboring wanted-persons.
3. Learned from a wanted-person how to blow up gas cylinders.
4. His involvement in a number of security issues and communication with wanted-persons and sheltering them.
5. Possession of a machine gun.
The ESSHR noticed the amplified charges leveled by the public prosecution against the detainees, and have been pointing such evident in a report released on December 22, 2013 entitled: (execution of claims – statements extracted under torture: the executive authority will conclude in 2013 claims the execution of demonstrators and activists).
The Saudi court did not take into consideration before sentencing, what happened to Reda of torture, whereas statements extracted under torture is illegal, and taking these statements as evidence in proceedings is a breach of the standards of justice, as described in the Article 15 of the Convention against Torture, that Saudi signed in 1997: (each State Party shall not be invoked any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture as evidence in any proceedings …).
Procedures of arrest and investigation included many abuses and irregularities since his detention in 06/11/2013, during which he spent several months 5 of which in solitary confinement accompanied by systematic torturing, and had not been given the right to a counsel, where he attended the first session of his trial without a lawyer. The availability of the right to counsel in the late stages of the trial makes the role of the lawyer very limited on the course of the case.
We in the ESSHR urgently demand the Saudi government the following:
1. The annulment of the death sentence against Reda Alrubh.
2. The immediate release of Reda Alrubh and all other political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.
3. Bring to justice all involved in torturing, on the principle of non-impunity.
The ESSHR calls on the International Community to immediately intervene to protect Reda Alrubh, who was sentenced to death in an unfair trial, and appeal for the following:
1. Condemn the death sentence against Reda Alrubh, especially in light of the lack of a fair trial.
2. Demand the Saudi authorities to drop all provisions politically motivated and unconditional release of all political prisoners, because of the intense practice of torture to extract confessions as monitored by the ESSHR in various reports.
3. Put an end to the use of torture in detentions.
4. Invite the Saudi authorities to hold accountable officials on all cases of torture carried out in detentions throughout Saudi Arabia, especially prison detectives, either through giving orders, supervision, or green light the occurrence of torture.
5. Demand the Saudi government to implement its commitments to international conventions that it has signed.