Saudi Arabia Prepares To Execute Teenager Via “Crucifixion” For Political Dissent

By Michael Krieger: Just last evening, I posted an article about how the UN disgracefully named Saudi Arabia to head its human rights panel.
So how do the Saudis plan on celebrating this achievement? By executing a teenager via crucifixion, naturally.
I covered this story back in May in the piece, Not ISIS – Saudi Arabia Prepares to Execute and Publicly Display Beheaded Body of Political Activist in “Crucifixion.” Here are a few excerpts:

The Saudis have received a lot of bad press as of late due to it consistently breaking its own records for beheadings, but sometimes a simple beheading isn’t sufficient. In a punishment known as “crucifixion,” the executed person’s beheaded body is placed on public display for three days. Currently facing this fate are three political activists, including two children. We learn from Reprieve.org that:

Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al Nimr, a 53-year old critic of the Saudi regime, and two juveniles, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr and Dawoud Hussain al-Marhoon, were arrested during a 2012 crackdown on anti-government protests in the Shiite province of Qatif. After a trial marred by irregularities, Mr Al Nimr was sentenced to death by crucifixion on charges including ‘insulting the King’
and delivering religious sermons that ‘disrupt national unity’. This week, it emerged that the authorities plan to execute him on Thursday, despite protests from the UN and Saudi human rights organizations.

The planned execution of Mr Al Nimr has prompted fears for the safety of the two juveniles, who were both 17 when they were arrested and eventually sentenced to death on similar charges. Both teenagers were tortured and denied access to lawyers, and faced trials that failed to meet international standards. All three prisoners, including Mr Al Nimr, have not yet exhausted their legal appeals.

Now here’s the latest. From Mic:

A Saudi teenager is facing death by crucifixion in his home country of Saudi Arabia on charges activists say are politically motivated. 

In 2012, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, then 17, was arrested in the country’s Qatif province on reportedly shaky charges of illegal protesting and gun possession, the International Business Times reported Wednesday. There was never any evidence to support the guns charge.

After being arrested, al-Nimr was held in jail and not allowed to speak to a lawyer. According to the British legal aid group Reprieve, al-Nimr was subject to torture to extract a forced confession. A closed appeals process — which he was not invited to and occurred without his knowledge — dismissed any remaining possibility that the nation’s legal system would prevent his biblical execution.

“No one should have to go through the ordeal Ali has suffered — torture, forced ‘confession’ and an unfair, secret trial process, resulting in a sentence of death by ‘crucifixion,'” Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, said in a statement.

The treatment of al-Nimr, however, demonstrates the fault lines of official Saudi tolerance. “Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that executes the most people in the world, often after people have been tortured into confessions or had unfair trials,” Reprieve press officer Alice Gillham told Mic. “It’s pretty shocking that this person was convicted as a juvenile and is now set to be executed.”

Online, meanwhile, the Internet protested against the planned execution, under the hashtag #FreeNimr.

#FreeNimr indeed.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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