Bericht von Amnesty International, 3.8.2021 (engl. Originalfassung)
Following Saudi Arabia’s presidency of the G20 which culminated in the November 2020 summit, the Saudi Arabian authorities resumed punitive trials of human rights defenders and other dissidents, particularly before the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), and their use of the death penalty. The months during which Saudi Arabia hosted the G20 summit had seen a lull in trial proceedings of human rights defenders and dissidents before the SCC and other Criminal Courts, as well as a marked drop in the use of the death penalty. This coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic which disrupted operations in the criminal justice system.
However, after the end of the summit, from December 2020 onwards, courts resumed these trials, handing down heavy prison terms to individuals for their human rights work or expression through tweets, or imposing restrictive conditions on individuals released after serving their sentences such as travel bans or ordering the closure of their social media accounts. Some of those sentenced in early 2021 had in recent years finished serving lengthy prison terms from previous cases on similar charges related to their peaceful exercise of human rights.
After an 85% drop in executions during Saudi Arabia’s presidency of the G20, executions resumed with nine people executed in December 2020 alone and a further 40 executed to date in July 2021. In one egregious case, the authorities executed a young man from Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a minority in June.
This briefing features Amnesty International’s documentation of 13 cases of activists and dissidents who have been or continue to be prosecuted, sentenced or have had their sentence confirmed by the SCC or ratified by the King, between December 2020 and July 2021. Amnesty International has documented the cases of 64 individuals prosecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly: 39 currently imprisoned, while the others were recently conditionally released after serving their sentences or are awaiting trial for charges related to their expression and human rights work.
Den vollständigen Report finden sie hier.