Alwaght- The Saudi regime’s judicial system violating freedom of expression by sentencing top reform advocates, activists, and writers to lengthy jail terms on vague charges, Human Rights Watch says.
“The Saudi authorities harass and jail people for peacefully expressing reform-oriented opinions,” HRW Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson said on Monday.
She noted that such practices demonstrate Saudi Arabia’s “complete in tolerance” toward people who speak out for human rights and reform.
On Saturday, Amnesty International voiced concern over the imprisonment and abuse of peaceful human rights defenders and activists by the Saudi regime under the pretext of war on terror.
“More and more human rights defenders are being sentenced to years in prison under Saudi Arabia’s 2014 counter-terror law, while its allies shamelessly back the kingdom’s repression in the name of the so-called ‘war on terror’,” said James Lynch, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
He added that dozens of prisoners of conscience remain in jail “at the risk of suffering cruel punishments and ill-treatment for their peaceful activism.”
The Saudi regime has been condemned internationally for the execution of prominent Islamic scholar Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, which was announced on January 2.
International rights bodies have criticized the regime in Riyadh for its grim human rights record, arguing that widespread violations continue unabated in the country arbitrary ruled by the minority Aal Saud clan.
