Human Rights

How to Be Brave

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Bravery is a skill. I do not know if I have cultivated it in myself.

A young man sits today in a prison, awaiting a death sentence to be carried out, possibly this Friday. Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 when he was 16 or 17 years of age (both ages have been reported), making him a juvenile at the time of his arrest. He was arrested at a protest. His country is Saudi Arabia, and the protests in 2012 in other autocratic nations in that region had been effective in fostering change. At trial, he was not given access to the “evidence” amassed against him, in no small part because there was no such evidence. He was convicted, no joke, of stealing every gun and every uniform from a local police station, single-handed.
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#OpNimr Strikes to #FreeNimr

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

As of September 28, today, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr‬ has not been beheaded by the justice system of Saudi Arabia.

Human rights activists have not relented in their campaign to somehow pry Ali from this fate, especially with the possibility that the week we are now in was added to his life.

And now hacktivists have stepped in to take action. Several websites in Saudi Arabia—including the site for the Ministry of Justice and the servers of the Saudi Computer Emergency Response Team—were knocked offline this weekend, and members of Anonymous and affiliated groups have revealed that they were behind the attacks on the websites.
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An Imminent Beheading

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement Tuesday night urging Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of ‪Ali Mohammed al-Nimr‬ because he was “convicted for a crime reportedly committed as a child.” It is rare that a specific person’s specific case be the subject of such a statement.

The statement reads, “Any judgment imposing the death penalty upon persons who were children at the time of the offence, and their execution, are incompatible with Saudi Arabia’s international obligations.” It reminds Saudi Arabia that it is a party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Because Ali’s trial was conducted unfairly, the UN OHCHR argues, “International law, accepted as binding by Saudi Arabia, provides that capital punishment may only be imposed following trials that comply with the most stringent requirements of fair trial and due process, or could otherwise be considered an arbitrary execution.” Thus, Ali’s impending execution must be halted and a new trial set up.
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