US Silent Complicty in the Saudi Nightmare of Human Rights Abuse

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.

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