United States Ally Sets To Behead And Crucify A Human Rights Activist For Participating In A Protest

The United States staunch ally in the Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia has upheld the death sentence of a young human rights activist, Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr who was arrested during the 2012 protest in Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Ali has been sentenced to death by beheading and crucifixion. He will be beheaded first and his lifeless body will later be crucified in a public place, according to rights groups.

A United Nations body has said Ali’s trial “fell short of international standards.” He was arrested at the age of 17 for encouraging pro democratic movements with his Blackberry device to oppose the ruling dynasty of the country, House of Saud.

“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,” the UN body said in a statement, citing Saudi Arabia’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Ali has said publicly that he was tortured and forced to admit joining criminal gangs to attack security forces which has been used against him during his secret trial by the Saudi authorities.

The Free Thought Project reports that Ali’s case is meant to serve as a deterrent to anyone willing to speak out against the brutal and authoritarian rule of the House of Saud Dynasty, a strategic geopolitical ally of the US in the Arabian Peninsula.

The International Business Times also reports that his trial and sentence was deeply politically motivated on grounds of ethno-religious sentiments between the Shia and the Sunni battle for supremacy in the region.

“Ali Mohammed al-Nimr’s name is well-known eastern Saudi Arabia, the hotbed of the country’s Shia minority and the scene of a burgeoning protest movement. Ali, 21, is the nephew of Shia cleric and activist Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr, who was jailed and sentenced to death for his fiery speeches against Saudi Arabia’s ruling House of Saud dynasty, which has controlled the Arabian Peninsula since the 1930s. Sheikh al-Nimr was detained and then sentenced to death on terrorism charges as well as “waging war on God” for his speech during anti-government protests in Qatif, a city that saw massive street protests followed by a bloody crackdown by the Saudi authorities in the wake of the Arab Spring”, it said.

Saudi Arabia is ruled by a Sunni monarchy under a strict interpretation of Islam, Wahabbism.  Majority of the population are also Sunnis but small minority that live in al-Ahsa and al-Qatif districts in the country’s eastern province are predominantly Shia. And these people often considered as agents for the Iranian government, which is a major regional power to Saudi Arabia.

According to the French News Agency-AFP, Ali’s execution could be carried out any moment from now after the country’s highest court rejected his appeal. But his family is said to have officially petitioned King Salman bin Abdulaziz for amnesty.

“We hope that the king will not sign the execution order. We don’t need that, we don’t need even one drop of blood”, a family source said, warning that Ali’s execution could also provoke a violent reaction in the minority Shia community.

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