Saudi Arabia: International effort to avert executions of peaceful protesters
Education International has expressed grave concern about the fate of detained peaceful protesters in Saudi Arabia who face possible execution.
While currently, student Mujtaba’a al-Sweikat seems no longer in immediate danger of execution after his case was raised with the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States and moved to a higher court for consideration, the significant international pressure has not yet yielded results for others in the same situation.
These other sentenced demonstrators – amongst them a disabled person - remain on death row, charged with insurgency and sedition because of their participation in peaceful protests.
Background
Mujtaba’a al-Sweikat and thirteen other men allegedly took part in peaceful protests in Saudi Arabia. They subsequently stood trial in a Criminal Court.
They were held in detention in Dammam since their arrest, and tried and sentenced to death in 2016. However, United Nations observers have described the protests they allegedly took part in as peaceful. In the meantime, they had been moved from detention in Dammam to Riyadh, where executions by beheading customarily take place.
Petition
EI urges all affiliates and concerned parties to sign an Amnesty International petition in a concerted effort to persuade the Saudi authorities to halt these executions.
Click here to sign the petition.
