Amnesty reports on Saudi repression

Amnesty International has said the last nine months has seen a new wave of repression in Saudi Arabia as Riyadh has been clamping down on peaceful protesters and reformists The human rights group said in a 73-page report published on its website on Thursday that thousands of people had been arrested in the ultraconservative kingdom, many of whom without charge or trial. The report says the Saudi government has drafted an anti-terrorism law that defines dissent against the ruling Saudi family as a 'terrorist crime.' If implemented, the law would strip away more rights from the accused, it added. Amnesty stated that well-known reformist activists had been given long prison sentences following 'grossly unfair' trials. The body accused the Saudi authorities of arresting people for their having merely demanded implementation of political and social reforms in the country. It underlined that many had been detained for simply calling for the release of their relatives arrested without charge or trial. The report pointed out that, since February, the Saudi government had carried out a brutal crackdown on anti-regime protesters in the eastern parts of the country. The authorities had arrested mainly Shia Muslims in the oil-rich Eastern Province, it added. Since March, over 300 people, who had taken part in peaceful demonstrations against the ruling monarchy in the province's towns of Qatif, Ahsa, and Awwamiya, had been arrested, the report said. Amnesty noted that last week 16 protesters, including nine eminent reformists, were handed down prison sentences ranging from five to 30 years. It added that during the trial they were blindfolded, handcuffed, and denied during the first three sessions their right to legal representation. “Peaceful protesters and supporters of political reform in the country have been targeted for arrest in an attempt to stamp out the kinds of call for reform that have echoed across the region,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty's interim Middle East and North Africa Director. "While the arguments used to justify this wide-ranging crackdown may be different, the abusive practices being employed by the Saudi Arabian government are worryingly similar to those which they have long used against people accused of terrorist offences," he emphasized. The kingdom has been swept with an uprising for the past several months, despite the Saudi regime's known intolerance of dissent. In March, the Saudi Interior Ministry called all public gatherings 'illegal,' authorizing regime forces “to take all measures needed” against the people defying the ban.