A Saudi activist was sentenced to four years and 300 lashes. He is the fourth to be imprisoned from one organization this year

Why won’t the west call out Saudi Arabia for persecution of democratic activists?

Andy Fitzgerald – 29 December, 2013 – The Guardian

At the memorial for Nelson Mandela, President Barack Obama eulogized the fallen leader: Like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement – a movement that at its start held little prospect of success. Like [Martin Luther] King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed.

Listening in the crowd sat Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s second deputy prime minister. Apparently the words were lost on the government His Royal Highness was representing (though it’s questionable he even relayed the message), because within the next week, a Saudi judge sentenced democratic activist Omar al-Saeed to 4 years in prison and 300 lashes. His crime: calling for a constitutional monarchy (a government that would likely outlaw such cruel and unusual punishment).
Omar al-Saeed Omar al-Saeed Photo: Twitter

Saeed is a member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (Acpra), an organization documenting human rights abuses and calling for democratic reform. He is its fourth member to be sentenced to prison this year. In March, co-founders Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani (who I have met in the past, and previously wrote about) and Abdullah al-Hamid were sentenced to prison terms of 10 and 5 years on charges such as “breaking allegiance with the ruler” and running an unlicensed political organization – despite repeated attempts to obtain a license.

Not surprisingly, there has been no strong public statement from the Obama administration regarding Saeed’s sentencing. Following the conviction and sentencing of Qahtani and Hamid, the strongest language came from the obscure United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. It took a direct question at a press briefing to prompt a canned statement from the State department, claiming “concern” at the arrests and sentences, and asserting that the US makes “strong representations for human rights activists” wherever our diplomats are.

It is also of little surprise that American media hasn’t pressed Obama administration officials on this latest persecution, and the clear signal the sentence sends that those “strong representations” fell on deliberately deaf ears. After all, there is much to be distracted by in the region: the Iranian nuclear deal, the continuing bloody war in Syria, and the escalating conflict in Egypt. All of these strategically concern Saudi Arabia and its level of influence – briefings at State in the days following Saeed’s sentencing touched on issues such as Saudi-US cooperation in the Middle East peace process, and the Geneva II conference over Syria, with no mention of the quashing of nascent civil society.

But what is particularly galling about the lack of public pressure on the Saudi government for their continued crackdown on Acpra and other democratic activists is that it is indicative of a broader flight from the lofty pro-democracy rhetoric of the Obama White House at the beginning of the Arab Spring.

…more

Saudi blogger jailed for ‘insulting Islam’ faces a new trial for apostasy, which is punishable by deathath
By Barry Duke – 27 December, 2013

SAUDI blogger and activist, Raif Badawi, currently serving a 7-year prison term for ‘insulting Islam’, may soon appear in a higher court on graver charges of apostasy. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to death. free The activist’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, revealed in this report that a judge had recommended that Badawi, who was also sentences to 600 lashes, should face graver charges .

Raif Badawi is the founder of the Free Saudi Liberals website, created in 2008 to freely discuss the role of religion in Saudi Arabia. His persecution for what was described as “insulting Islam” started the same year the site was set up.

The blogger then fled the country to escape arrest. He returned when the charges against him were dropped, but was eventually jailed in June 2012. In July this year, a criminal court in Jeddah him guilty of insulting Islam through his online forum and of violating Saudi Arabia’s anti-cybercrime law.

The court’s ruling was condemned by international human rights watchdogs. Said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch:

This incredibly harsh sentence for a peaceful blogger makes a mockery of Saudi Arabia’s claims that it supports reform and religious dialogue. A man who wanted to discuss religion has already been locked up for a year and now faces 600 lashes and seven years in prison.

Badawi’s possible retrial is the latest episode in the country’s crackdown on dissent. Four members of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) were jailed in 2013.

In the most recent case in December, 24-year-old Omar al-Saeed was sentenced to four years in prison and 300 lashes after calling for political reform. Amnesty International called for the activist’s immediate release. After serving his sentence he will be prohibited from travelling for four years. …more

Saudi activists endure darkest year
28 Decemebr, 2013 – New Zealand Herald

With global attention focused on upheaval elsewhere in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia quietly intensified its clampdown on dissent in 2013, silencing democracy advocates and human rights defenders with arrests, trials and intimidation in what reformists say was one of the darkest years for their efforts in the powerful United States-allied Gulf state.

The clampdown reflects the highly delicate times that the world’s top oil producer is passing through.

The monarchy is trying to modernise the country’s economy to reduce its reliance on oil revenues and create a more diverse private sector to provide jobs for a grumbling population. To manage the shifts, activists say it has manipulated the divisions in Saudi society, playing on tribal sentiments and shifting between Saudis who seek a more liberal lifestyle and the ultraconservative Wahhabi clerics who traditionally give the royal family legitimacy.

As it navigates those currents, the monarchy is blunting calls for political reform, fearing an Arab Spring-style upheaval that would rattle the ruling family’s grip on power.

This year, at least nine prominent reformers were given lengthy jail sentences for offences including “breaking allegiance with the king”. A leading rights lawyer was forced to flee the kingdom for fear of arrest. One of the kingdom’s most prominent rights organisations – the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights, known in Arabic by its acronym Hasem – was shut down. A tough anti-terror law was approved by the Government, defining acts as vague as “defaming the state’s reputation” as terrorism.

More than 200 protesters, including women and children, were detained for demanding the release of imprisoned relatives. A Saudi man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in leading protests by the country’s Shia minority and five women were detained for several hours for flouting a driving ban.

Abdulaziz Alhussan, the rights lawyer who fled to the United States, warned that if the monarchy doesn’t address calls for change, the demands could escalate and destabilise the country.

“If we wait another seven to 10 years, we will be in a more dangerous situation than Egypt and Syria,” he said. “What we need to do is fix it before it’s too late.”

He said that although 2013 was bad for activists – “one of the worst years we are facing in Saudi Arabia” – it was ultimately “much worse for the Government” because Saudis are more informed and aware of the needs for better governance.

“The Government has no option but to reconcile with its own people,” he said. “They do not want to overthrow the royal family. They are saying we need reform where human rights are respected and where there is accountability and transparency within government.”

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s last absolute monarchies. All decisions are centred in the hands of 89-year-old King Abdullah, who has sole power to ratify new laws. There is no parliament. There is little written law, and judges – implementing the country’s strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam – have broad leeway to impose verdicts and sentences. A Specialised Criminal Court created in 2008 for terrorism cases has tried reformers and activists. Offences such as “disobeying the ruler” can result in years in prison. …more

Saudi Prosecutor Demands Death by Crucifixion for Shia Cleric Nemer
By Gianluca Mezzofiore – 27 March, 2013 – IBTimes

A Saudi Arabia prosecutor has demanded the death sentence by crucifixion of a prominent Shia cleric who was arrested last year, prompting deadly protests in the Gulf kingdom.

Sheikh Nemer al-Nemer, a firebrand preacher seen as a radical leader in the Shia minority, was accused of inciting sectarian strife, “aiding terrorists” and instigating them to commit crimes and interfering in the matters of neighbouring countries.

The prosecutor said he was guilty of “waging war on God”, a crime that automatically carries the death penalty according to the sharia. Earlier this month, 16 Shiites were detained on charges of spying for Riyad’s rival Iran. Teheran has denied any allegations of spying in the kingdom.

In the past two years, clashes between police and protesters in the Saudi’s Eastern province of Qatif, a Shiite-dominated area, have led to 16 demonstrators and a security officer being killed. Nemer was based in al-Awamiyah, a neighbourhood in Qatif that was at the centre of the unrest. He was detained in July 2012 after a car chase. Police said he had rammed a police car and possessed weapons. But local Shiite denied both accusations. After his arrests, three demonstrators were killed during protests.

Nemer was indicted for meeting some of the people that featured in a list of 23 wanted over the unrest in Qatif. They were accused of being foreign agents from Iran. The cleric was also accused of interfering in the internal affairs of Bahrain. …more

Bahrain arrests photographer Ahmed Al-Fardan
27 December, 2013 – Committee to Protect Journalists

New York, December 27, 2013–Ahmed Al-Fardan, photographer for the NurPhoto agency, was arrested Thursday at his home in Bahrain, according to his agency, news reports, and human rights groups. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest.

Al-Fardan’s father, Jaber, told local independent daily Al-Wasat that Bahraini security officers stormed their house in the early hours of Thursday morning while they were asleep, handcuffed his son, and took him to an unknown location. Jaber later received a short call from Ahmed, who said he was fine but did not give any details of his whereabouts, according to the report.

Bahraini authorities didn’t disclose any charges against Al-Fardan, according Mohammed Al-Maskati, president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights.

Al-Fardan’s photos of unrest in Bahrain have appeared in international news outlets and been recognized by human rights groups. Recently, one of his photos won second place in IFEX’s international contest to expose impunity as part of the International Day to End Impunity on November 23, 2013.

Al-Fardan is also known for advocating for his fellow photographers. In his last tweet, on Monday, he called for the release of Ahmed Humaidan, another Bahraini photojournalist who has been imprisoned for a year because of his work in documenting protests against Bahraini authorities. Al-Fardan also participated in a demonstration this month calling for Humaidan’s release.

“We call on Bahraini authorities to immediately release Ahmed Al-Fardan,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator, Sherif Mansour. “Despite paying lip service to the importance of the press, the government continues to try to suppress any information that does not conform to its official narrative.” …more

Bahrain: Detainee Muneer Habib Thrown Out of Court after Testifying against the Public Prosecutor who Tortured him and Forced him to Confess
25 December, 2013 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its concern for the Public Prosecution and Court in Bahrain continued fabrication of malicious cases and mock trials that lack the foundations of a fair trial against activists and citizens, where the Judge of the Fourth High Criminal Court Ali Khalifa Al-Dhahrani on 21 November 2013 threw one of the detainees, and he is Mr. Muneer Habib, out of the courtroom after declaring that the present Public Prosecutor (Hamad Al-Bouainain) is the one that tortured him and forced him to make a false confession. This took place during the first hearing in the case of forming a terrorist cell where the accused are: Mr. Sadiq Ali Al-Shakhoori (43 years), Mr. Muneer Habib Saeed (31 years), Mr. Sajjad Al-Alawi (28 years), Ali Hussein Haji (30 years) and Mohammed Jaffar Nasser.

The Court charged Mr. Sadiq Ali Al-Shakhoori with managing and financing a terrorist cell that was founded in 2011 which aims at suspending the provisions of the law and harming national unity, and using violence as a means to achieve that, while it charged the remaining four with joining this cell, which they all denied at Court. At the end of the hearing, the case was adjourned until 8 December 2013, in order to enable the lawyers to look into the case file and to refer Sajjad Al-Alawi and another detainee to the forensic doctor while continuing the imprisonment. The lawyer of the detainee Sajjad Sayed Mohsen Al-Alawi indicated on his Twitter account[i] that he requested that his client gets referred to a forensic doctor, although he had already made such a request two months ago. This could cause the torture marks to fade due to neglecting to refer him at that time. The father of detainee Sajjad Al-Alawi also said that his son told him in a phone call which followed the hearing that the Public Prosecutor who was present at Court was in fact the one who participated in his torture and threatened him with further torture in case he did not sign the confessions that have prepared beforehand.[ii]

Worth mentioning, Mr. Muneer Habib was arrested at dawn on 28 May 2013 after civil forces accompanied by police patrols raided his house. Information indicated that he was tortured at that time in the Criminal Investigation Department, notorious for its systematic torture, to force him to confess to his involvement in carrying out terrorist acts. His family informed the BCHR at an earlier time that Mr. Habib had spoken to the Public Prosecutor – Ali Al-Jazzaf – and had told him that he was exhausted from the severe torture and that he suffers from extreme pain in his hands in addition to pain in various areas of his body, among them head and back. However, the Public Prosecutor did not pay any attention to what he was saying and continued the interrogation to charge him with a series of accusations. Muneer expressed to the Public Prosecutor his fear that the torture may continue to make him confess to other charges; yet the Public Prosecutor ensured that that would be impossible and ordered his release. Nonetheless, orders from supreme bodies were made and his imprisonment was renewed for 60 days pending investigation according to the requisites of the Terrorism Law. The family also stated that it noticed clear torture marks on his body; on their first visit on 3 June 2013, it was clear that he had saggy eyes and his right eye was swollen, in addition to not being able to walk normally. Muneer informed his family that he was subjected to torture on a daily basis and that he was taken to the Criminal Investigation Department for interrogation and his confessions were filmed where he claims leading groups of 14 February youth in various villages, among them Ghurayfah, Juffair, Mahooz and Manama. He was also subjected to severe torture to force him to confess falsely that his sister, a former detainee, Muneera Habib, was involved in the accusation of being affiliated with the 14 February Youth Coalition[iii]. …more

Bahrain diplomat accused of abusing woman sent home
29 December, 2013 – Hindi News

Exactly three weeks after he was accused of abusing and manhandling a woman, Bahrain’s Consul General in Mumbai Mohammed Abdul Aziz Al Khaja was sent back to his home countryon Friday night.

While some reports said the Union Home ministry had issued a formal order asking Khaja to immediately leave India, the Bahrain Embassy in India tweeted that Al Khaja had been “transferred to Bahrain” because he had completed histerm.

Confirming the news to SUNDAY Mid Day, a top bureaucrat in the Maharashtra government said the state had received an intimation to this effect from the Union Home Ministry. Khaja was booked for molestation earlier this month. Khaja returned to Bahrain on Friday evening by a Jet Airways flight, 9W 592 that left Mumbai at 7.05pm.

The diplomat was accused of abusing and attacking a 49-year-old woman, a manager at the Silver Arch residential society in Malabar Hill where Khaja also resided.

He was reportedly upset over one of the elevators in the building being shut for repairs and ransacked the woman’s office premises after an angry exchange of words. Speaking to SMD earlier, the victim had said the diplomat had kept banging the elevator door and abused and pushed her when she asked him to calm down.

The consul general had himself called police officials to the building after the fight, after which the victim decided to register a case with the local Malabar Hill police station. Later after the police officials came to the building premises, they noted down the statements of both the parties and registered a case against the diplomat. …more

Bahraini princess acquitted of torture charges
27 December, 2013 – PressTV

A Bahraini lawyer has confirmed that princess Sheikha Noura bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa has been acquitted on charges of torturing doctors.

Hameed Mulla, a lawyer for the doctors, made the remarks in a telephone interview from the capital Manama on Friday, Reuters reported.

The princess was one of the two police officers acquitted by the country’s Supreme Criminal Appeals Court on December 23.

The lawyer said that he intended to submit a request to appeal against the verdict for a second time.

On Monday, Bahrain’s Ministry of Information confirmed that the 29-year-old princess was acquitted, but did not elaborate on what charges she had faced or any other details.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of pro-democracy protesters have held numerous demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling for the Al Khalifa royal family to relinquish power.

On March 14, 2011, troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates invaded the country to assist the Bahraini government in its crackdown on peaceful protesters.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested.

Physicians for Human Rights says doctors and nurses have been detained, tortured, or disappeared because they have “evidence of atrocities committed by the authorities, security forces, and riot police” in the crackdown on anti-government protesters. …source

Bahrain: After Torture And Defamation, Ali Al-Haji Faces An Unjust Trial On Charges Of Carrying Out Terrorist Acts In The American Service Center
26 December, 2013 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its deep concern for the authorities in Bahrain continued fabrication of malicious cases against activists and citizens; to punish them for peacefully expressing their opinions. This punishment includes torturing, defaming and bringing them forth to trials that lack the most basic elements of justice. The detainee Ali Hussein Ahmed Al-Haji – 30 years – who declared being subjected to torture at the Criminal Investigation Department, and whose photo was broadcasted on national TV, and who is currently facing charges of carrying out terrorist acts in the American Service Center in Juffair is an utmost example of this.

The Security Apparatuses arrested Al-Haji at dawn on 20 May 2013 from his apartment in Tubli. Al-Haji informed the observers of the BCHR that those who arrested him did not have an order to search the apartment or an arrest warrant. The apartment was raided by a group of policemen dressed in civilian clothes, and who are believed to be affiliated with the National Security Apparatus, they beat him and cursed his sect and hit him in front of his wife before blindfolding and handcuffing him; he was then taken out. They also confiscated electronic devices, some of them belonging to his wife. …more

Former US ambassador agonises over ‘stability’
Opposing democracy in Bahrain
by Brian Whitaker – 22 December, 2013

The latest issue of the Middle East Policy Council’s journal contains a lengthy essay on US policy towards Bahrain, basically arguing that reforms in the tiny Gulf kingdom should stop short of full democracy.

Its author, Ronald Neumann, is a former US ambassador to Bahrain and currently president of the American Academy of Diplomacy in Washington, and his essay is a troubling example of the extraordinarily charitable attitude that many in the western diplomatic establishment still display in relation to Gulf autocrats.

Neumann rightly points out that US policy towards Bahrain, in its present form, lacks clarity and is leading nowhere. He also points out that almost everything about the situation in Bahrain “is as contested as it is complicated”.

If the need is for clarity, though, it might be better to dwell less on the complexities (which Neumann does at length) and focus instead on some guiding principles.

One clear and simple principle which would serve as a good starting point is that people everywhere have a right to choose their own government and hold it accountable – and that when they seek to exercise their right it should not be the role of the US, or anyone else, to stand in their way.

In Bahrain’s case, that basic principle has become clouded by other concerns such as America’s perception of its regional interests and a desire for stability. The US is no exception in this – all countries seek to protect their own interests – but when those interests appear to conflict with democracy we need to ask whether they are being interpreted correctly.

Stability and US ‘interests’

The “stability” argument is an old and familiar one that has led the US down the wrong path many times before. Stability sounds comforting and desirable but in the Middle East particularly it is also a codeword for preventing significant change. Autocratic regimes promise their people stability in return for acquiescence – and that is dangerous because in the long run it leads to more instability, not less.

Political systems actually need a degree of instability because that is how change comes about. Reforming early and often, before the system crashes, is the way to keep it healthy and resilient. The alternative – the “artificially constrained systems” beloved of Arab autocrats – may look calm on the surface but as pressure builds up below they are liable to explode.

Regimes that fail to recognise this and refuse to take reform seriously are planting the seeds of future instability, as are the countries that support them.

There’s a similar problem with defining “American interests”. Are we talking short-term or long-term? Policies that seem a good idea in the short term may turn out to be a very bad idea in the long term, especially in the Middle East. The region is in the throes of a political upheaval that will take decades to play out. Somewhere along the way the monarchies of the Gulf will either fall or become marginalised beyond recognition and other countries, including the US, need to start preparing for that. Leave it too late and they risk ending up on the wrong side of history.

A case against democracy

Opposing real democracy in Bahrain may not strike many people as a particularly smart way to prepare for the future, but let’s consider Neumann’s argument.

His starting point is that Shia Muslims form a majority of Bahrain’s population (nobody is quite sure how big a majority they are because the government would rather not find out). Thus, in a one-person-one-vote system, if Bahrainis voted along sectarian lines, the result would be a permanent Shia majority with no alternation of power. Neumann writes:

“When people vote as a community, an elected majority becomes a function of community size. This is very different from a flexible system in which losers in one election believe they have a chance to become winners at another time. If the tyranny of a minority is (rightly) seen as wrong by the majority, absolute control by the majority is equally seen as wrong by the minority.”

That certainly presents some problems (which I’ll come to shortly) but Neumann seems reluctant to acknowledge that this hypothetical tyranny of a Shia majority could scarcely be less accountable than what we have today: the tyranny of a Sunni minority headed by the Khalifa family.

Apart from the king himself, the apparently unsackable prime minister is the king’s uncle. He has been in office for almost 44 years and is the world’s longest-serving prime minister. Four of the five deputy prime ministers are also members of the Khalifa family, as are the ministers of interior, finance, foreign affairs, justice and culture.
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Bahrain: Arrest of 13 year old Children and Detaining them for More than Two Weeks
ABNA – 28 December, 2013

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its concern for the Authority’s in Bahrain continued targeting and arresting of children, where the security apparatuses arrested the two 13 year old children Sayed Tameem Majid and Sayed Hashim Alawi and kept them in detention of over two week.

The detained children’s parents stated that the police forces arrested the children on Saturday 7 December 2013 after suppressing a peaceful demonstration in the village of Al-Qurayyah, West of the capital Manama, and led them to Budaiya police station and released them after signing a pledge to attend the next day. On 8 December, the Public Prosecution decided to imprison them for 5 days pending investigation on the charge of assembly, burning tires and possession of Molotov cocktails. When the specified detention period was over the Public Prosecution renewed the detention of Tameem and Hashim twice, 7 days each time (12 December and 19 December)[1]. They were finally released on 26 December 2013. On 19 December the Public Prosecution[2] decided to detain two other children for 7 days[3] and they are Jehad Al-Sameea (10 years old) and Abdulla Yusuf Al-Bahrani (13 years old), and their charge was throwing stones at a police patrol.

This takes place just days after Amnesty International released its report[4] that addresses the violations practiced by the Authority in Bahrain against children, especially during detention, since February 2011. Amnesty stated that detaining, abusing and torturing children in Bahrain is one of the usual things in Bahrain. Dozens of children were arrested, among them children not over the age of 13, due to suspecting their participation in anti-government demonstrations, as well as blindfolding, beating and torturing them during detention for the past two years. Other children were subjected to threats of rape, in order to extract forced confessions from them. Said Boumedouha – Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa – stated that, “Bahrain is displaying an appalling disregard for its international human rights obligations, by rounding up suspected under-age offenders and locking them up”. Amnesty added that it had received news that there are at least 110 children, between the ages of 16 and 18, detained pending investigation or trial at the Dry Dock Prison, which is an adult facility on the Island of Muharraq. At the end of the report, Amnesty urged the government in Bahrain to consider alternative penalties, such as probation and community service, for children who have committed internationally recognizable criminal offences. The BCHR had documented more than 20 cases of arrests of children between the ages of 17 and 20, since Amnesty released its report until 23 December 2013.

The BCHR believes that the Authority in Bahrain systematically targets children by arresting them and targeting them at school and on the streets at times, and at other times killing them outside the law. Despite the Authority’s claims of caring for children, and the endorsement of Bahrain’s ruler Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa on the Children’s Act[5] which includes 8 entries, most importantly protecting children from abuse, and it includes 69 Articles that defines the rights and protection of the Bahraini child, however, the BCHR had documented more than 120 cases of arrests of children since Bahrain endorsed the Children’s Act until this day; some of them have been released, others remain in detention. The BCHR also documented cases of being expelled from school and others being subjected to shotgun bullets which are used to suppress peaceful protests. The BCHR[6] released on 20 November 2013, which marks the Universal Children’s Day, an extensive report that addresses the various violations faced by the children of Bahrain. …more

Bahrain Acquits Police Officers Accused of Torture
By Associated Press – 23 December, 2013

MANAMA, Bahrain — A lawyer says a Bahrain court has acquitted two police officers accused of torturing doctors who were detained while treating wounded Shiite protesters in 2011.

Lawyer Ali Al Juffairi says he attended Monday’s court session and that none of the six doctors or the two police officers were present when the verdict was read. The doctors were released from custody at different times over the past years.

Among the two acquitted was Noora bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, a female police officer and member of Bahrain’s royal family.

The doctors were detained at the height of protests in Bahrain by Shiites demanding greater rights from the Sunni monarchy.

The case is the latest in a string of acquittals for security officers accused of using excessing force and abusing detainees in Bahrain. …source