human rights

#SaveThe3: The World Is Watching

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

The fear that the executions of three young men arrested by Saudi Arabian authorities while they were juveniles are imminent may be legitimate and the reasons for applying pressure on the Saudi government to spare their lives ought to be kept front and center in activists’ minds each day, but a clear eye and caution must be maintained while interpreting the pronouncements of the Saudi judicial system.

It was striking that Amnesty International and Reprieve, two organizations that are tenacious human rights defenders but also cautious as organizations, on Friday began to publicize fears that the three executions were hours away from taking place, given that the fears came from a single source: an article in a Saudi newspaper, Okaz.

One can hazard a guess as to the effect this publicity had on the families and loved ones of Dawood al-Marhoon, Abdullah al-Zaher, Ali Mohammad al-Nimr: on one hand, it may have been heartening to witness the world bearing witness with speed and ferocity, as the #SaveThe3 hashtag started trending on Twitter, but it also may have given needless vitality to the fears for the worst outcomes that the families already live with every day. The three were sentenced to death last year, and, for the families each day opens and closes with the knowledge of this in their hearts.

A source reported to me this afternoon that Ali spoke with his family by phone on Friday, and that Abdullah spoke with his family today, Sunday, March 13.
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#SaveThe3: More Saudi Executions Loom

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Yesterday, Amnesty International, Reprieve, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, and other major human rights groups began to publicize the horrifying fear that the executions of Dawood al-Marhoon, Abed allahhassan al-Zaher, Ali Mohammad al-Nimr will likely take place today, March 12. The source is a report in Saudi Arabian media which does not name the three, who were teenagers when they were arrested at protests and were convicted of charges up to and including “terrorism,” but which states that mass executions of “terrorists” are impending in the Kingdom.

Okaz, a newspaper in Saudi Arabia is quoted: “The four terrorists awaiting the implementation of the death sentences complement the first group of 47.” That group of 47 included Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, ‪Ali Mohammed al-Nimr’s uncle who was a Shiite cleric who encouraged peaceful protest, and 46 others who were beheaded on January 2, as reported here. This is sufficiently similar to how Saudi Arabian authorities published information last autumn in advance of the mass executions in January to lead to human rights organizations sounding their alarms as loudly as possible.
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I Am His Voice: Hossein Ronaghi

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

In his second-to-last post on Twitter (below), Hossein Ronaghi wrote, “The response to opinions is not prison.” But he is in prison, Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, and has spent the last six and a half years fighting for his freedom of expression, his freedom, and now even his life itself.
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