Today, mothers of seven children that imminent execution risk in Saudi Arabia issued a statement on the occasion of Mother’s Day in the Arab region on 21 March 2018.
The seven mothers are Nasra Abdullah Al Ahmad, the mother of Ali Al Nimr, Amna Mohammed Al Safar, the mother of Dawood Al Marhoun, Fatima Hassan Al Ghazawi, the mother of Abdullah Al Zaher, Amal Taqi Al Mustafa, the mother of Abdul Karim Al Hawaj and Jalilah Ibrahim Al Awami, the mother of Mujtaba Al Suwaiket, Ali Hassan al-Mutlaq, mother of Salman al-Quraish and Fatima Ahmed al-Sakafi, the mother of Said al-Sakafi. They said that for last six years they have celebrated the Mother’s Day without their children.
The statement said that their children were detained from street, tortured in prisons and subjected to the constant threat of death just because they exercised their legitimate rights.
The mothers’ statement reflects their continuous concern about the fate of their children and that they are waiting for a call from their children to make sure they are still alive.
The statement also urges all people of conscience in the world to protect their children from death because of charges endorsed to them when they were children and based on confessions extracted under torture. Also, the mothers confirmed that their children neither killed nor harmed anyone.
The mothers concluded the statement by demanding to halt the sword of death from their children.
The European Saudi organisation for Human notes that the Saudi government has ignored a number of statements, recommendations and UN messages that calling for the protection of children sentenced to execution penalty. In 2016, UN Special Rapporteurs submitted letters to the Saudi government demanding it to stop the death sentences of four children, but that demands were ignored by the Saudi government.
In October 2016, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) urged the Saudi government “to immediately cease the execution of individuals who were under the age of 18 when they committed the alleged offences, including Ali al-Nimr, Abdullah al-Zaher, Salman al-Quraish, Mujtaba al-Suwaiket, Abdul-Karim al-Hawaj, Dawood Al Marhoun “.
In addition, in May 2016, the Committee against Torture demanded for the retrial of individuals who confirmed that confessions were extracted from them under torture, including children, but the Saudi government had not yet shown any response.
ESOHR joins its voice with the mothers in calling for halting the sword of the death from the children and for responding to the demands of the United Nations. Also, ESOHR asserts on the need for their release and to have a fair trial, as well as persecuting all those who were involved in their torture and in the violation of their rights.