The legal director of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Taha al- Hajji confirmed that, despite Saudi Arabia’s talk of plans, visions, and reforms concerning human rights, it proceeds to violate international laws and its obligations and underestimates legal opinions and everything that is issued by international human rights mechanisms.
During a speech to the European Saudi Organization and the discussion of the fourth article, episode 52 on human rituals, that indicated on the 12th of March, the execution of Jordanian Hussien Abu al-Khair on drug charges by Saudi Arabia. Moreover, al- Hajji clarified that Abu al-Khair was the subject of several correspondences. The High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Saudi Arabia to stop al-Khair’s execution last November. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention confirmed that his previous custody was illegal. His sister spoke before this council about the violations he was subjected to and the torture he faced throughout the years of his detention. However, all of this did not prevent Saudi Arabia from executing him.
Al- Hajji considered that such law implementation on behalf of Abu al-Khair confirms Saudi Arabia’s insistence on execution in cases that are not considered the most serious or dangerous according to International Law. This is also despite the denial of the right to obtain a lawyer and a fair trial.
Nevertheless, the speech highlighted that the execution of Abu al-Khair raised fear among other detainees convicted due to drug charges and whose cases are hard to document due to Saudi Arabia’s suppression of civil society. Such execution laws also spread fear in the lives of dozens whose cases are being followed by the two organizations. Among such cases are those of the convicted minors Youssef al-Manasif, Abdullah al-Huweiti, Hassan Zaki al-Faraj, and Abdullah al-Derazi, and others facing charges of freedom of speech, such as researcher Hassan al-Malaki and cleric Salman al-Awda.