Imminent Execution of Shia Activists in Saudi Arabia

Recently a court in Saudi Arabia sentenced Sheikh Namar Olnamar and a number of Shia activists (including his nephew Ali) who since the summer of 2012 following demonstrations in the country, had been charged with creating unrest and preparing for outside intervention are in prison. The High Court reaffirmed the sentence.
Ayatollah Namar who studied in Qom (Iran) and in Syria seminaries, has several times been arrested for human rights issues, such as officially recognising the Shia in the country, changing the Wahabi methods of teachings in schools, equality between the Shia and Sunni, participation in international Koran Conference, request for taking care of the Baghee cemetery, and the condition of the Shia minorities. For a while Sheikh Namar had warned that if the Saudi Shia lose hope of getting their rights, they will move towards independence from Saudi Arabia. And following his arrest, thousands of Saudi Shias congregated in the eastern parts of the country which is Shia populated to show their solidarity with political activists that had been sentenced to death.
In this regard, human rights and nongovernmental organizations such as Amnesty International, in a statement released in late November, expressed concern over the sentences issued to these civil activists, another 50 prisoners and particularly al Alnamar who at the time of his arrest in 2012 was only seventeen years old. Pointing to the 151 executions that have been carried out since the beginning of 2015, Amnesty International stressed that according to international law the execution of individuals under the age of 18 is prohibited and there is no doubt that these individuals were sentenced in unfair trials.
Also recently, the Islamic Human Rights Commission in a letter to Zeid Raad Al-Hussein, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, stressed on the necessity to apply pressure to Riyadh to suspend the death sentence and free this clergy as soon as possible.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has also asked Saudi Arabia to stop the execution of Sheikh Namar. Also Human Rights Watch has called upon the Saudi judicial officials to immediately overturn the sentence because of its unfairness. According to the HRW investigations of the trial procedures, while the ambiguity of the crime of the accused, it has been stressed that they were denied the presence of lawyers in the proceedings, and without initial investigations and torture they were forced to confess. HRW representative has said that these unfair trials are tools for the suppression of their long term demands.
A number of Iranian lecturers and intellectuals have sent a statement to the Islamic Cooperation Organization regarding the human rights and citizen's rights and minorities rights in members countries, and asked for this organization to have more responsibility and while contacting Saudi officials, to take all measures possible to prevent the carrying out of this violent and unjust sentence, and if necessary to utilize the capacities of other international organizations such as the United Nations and the Human Rights Council and other similar institutions towards forcing the Saudi government to reconsider this unjust sentence.
To this aim political analysts believe that if Saudi judicial officials do not reconsider these verdicts there will be severe repercussions that include Shia protests and the igniting of sectarian violence in the country.

Dr Elham Nouri

http://shabestan.ir
http://khabarfarsi.com
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/25/saudi-arabia-supreme-court
www.PressTV.ir
https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/16/saudi-arabia
http://www.shia-news.com