21st Century Wire says…
Last week the U.N. Human Rights Council announced that none other than Saudi Arabia has chosen to head its human rights panel. Yes, we do live in strange times, but the reason for this U.N. sell-out on human rights shouldn’t be a mystery to anyone who recognizes the power of hard cash.
Last month 21WIRE reported on how well Saudi Arabia is doing in the beheading department, chalking up a record year for decapitations in 2015. Some might say this is a hallmark of a truly barbaric society – a modern anathema, which surprisingly, has managed to embed itself under the skin of the United Nations.
The ISIS-like regime in Riyadh has taken things to a whole new level this week, announcing its plans to crucify and behead teenager Ali al-Nimr (photo, above), the nephew of a controversial Shi’ite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. His crime, according to a Saudi kangaroo court, was street protesting ala Arab Spring – an activity which strictly haram in the Oil Kingdom.
Clearly, this is politicized state violence of the worst kind, but you will not here any meaningful objections from spineless Western leaders who claim to have the moral high ground on any number of international issues.
In its typical opaque fashion, Saudi dungeon masters (the judiciary) have kept a-Nimr’s case completely secret and according to the London-based legal charity Reprieve, the throwback Kingdom has denied al-Nimr any final appeal to spare his life, as well as denying him any legal representation.
“We as a defense team have not been able to visit Ali al-Nimr at the detention center to prepare the defense,” al-Nimr’s lawyer Sadeeq al-Jabran tweeted Tuesday. As far as the Western politicians (sales reps for the arms industry) are concerned, Sadeeq’s cries will fall on deaf ears. Tough luck, sir.
CERTAINLY YOUR HIGHNESS: “Easy now.”
One of the Kingdom’s biggest fans is British PM David Cameron who, when he’s not performing his role as leader of Britain’s ‘Conservative’ Party, make a nice crust on the side moonlighting as a sales rep for the British defense industry. On a recent sales trip to the Petro-Empire, Dave brought home the bacon, so to speak, by managing to secure a lucrative deal for BAE Systems supplying British-made Typhoon jets to the Saudi government.
Naturally, Cameron defended his arms deals as “legitimate and right”, because after all, autocratic theocratic dictatorships have a right to self defense too.
HUMAN RIGHTS? “LOL”.
Not to be outdone by his British cousin, US president Barack Obama has overseen a sharp increase in heavy weapons sales to the Kingdom since taking office in 2009. Exports are up under Obama, and Saudi Arabia is in fact, Washington’s No.1 customer when it comes to arms, topping the military industrial complex list with totaly over $46 billion in new contractual agreements. Alas, For war, business has never been better.
Saudi Arabia wasted no time putting their expensive new toys to work. Since March of this year, the Oil Kingdom has been busy unleashing an unprovoked, non-stop assault on neighboring Yemen, starting a war and also killing over 2,500 civilians, injuring thousands, as well as displacing hundred of thousands more.
So if you are still wondering why a brutal regime like Saudi Arabia can get away with so much behavior that might otherwise be classes as “unacceptable” by western politicians and paid-for media operatives at CNN, FOX and the BBC – the answer is right there in front of your eyes.
In a feudal society such as this, when is comes to Saudi Arabia, all you have to know is this: money talks…
A group of U.N. experts has joined rights groups in calling on Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a Shiite man convicted of crimes reportedly committed as a teenager during protests inspired by the Arab Spring.
Ali al-Nimr, the nephew of firebrand Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, faces execution by beheading and an additional rare punishment of “crucifixion,” which means publicly displaying the body after death as a warning to others, according to Saudi state media.
“Any judgment imposing the death penalty upon persons who were children at the time of the offense, and their execution, are incompatible with Saudi Arabia’s international obligations,” the U.N. group said in a statement Tuesday, invoking the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Saudi Arabia is a party.
Arrested as a teenager
Ali al-Nimr was a 17-year-old high school student when he was arrested for taking part in Arab Spring-inspired protests in 2012 calling for social and political reforms in the country’s restive and predominantly Shiite province of Qatif.
A court later convicted him of charges including belonging to a terror cell, attacking police with Molotov cocktails, incitement, and stoking sectarianism, according to the state media report.
His final appeal was rejected when the Appeals Court and High Court ratified his verdict last week, the report said.
Human rights groups, journalists and politicians have expressed outrage, and many have taken to social media to call attention to the case — which coincides with the appointment of Faisal Trad, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, to a Consultative Group for the agency’s Human Rights Council.
The appointment has sparked condemnation among activists and rights groups, including U.N. Watch, a nongovernmental agency based in Geneva that monitors the United Nations.
“It is scandalous,” said U.N. Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. “Petro-dollars and politics have trumped human rights.”
In response to the questions about the Saudi ambassador, Rolando Gomez, a spokesperson for the human rights council, told CNN: “Members of the Consultative Group are appointed by the regional groups, and not the Human Rights Council or any other U.N. body. These members serve in their personal capacity, not their national capacity, for a period of one year.”
Pleas for clemency
Activists are imploring the Saudi monarch, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, to commute al-Nimr’s sentence. This week Muslims mark the holiday Eid al-Adha, traditionally a time of clemency and mercy that often includes pardoning prisoners.
A source close to the al-Nimr family, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest, said that although Ali participated in protests, he was innocent of the charges.
“Ali’s young. He just went (to the demonstrations) with people from his school and chanted with the guys and took pictures,” the source said.
The source also claimed Ali was not an activist — and that his conviction and harsh sentence was “revenge against his uncle.”
Like his nephew, Ali’s uncle Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr has also been condemned to death. The charges include “breaking allegiance with the ruler,” sedition and inciting sectarian strife.
Sheikh Nimr’s arrest in 2012, during which he was shot, triggered days of clashes in the oil-rich eastern province of Qatif, where the Shiite majority population has long considered itself to be marginalized by the state and its Sunni ruling family.
“The (Saudi) government doesn’t want anyone to ask for their rights or speak politics. Sheikh Nimr is different because he spoke while he was in the country, not like others who go abroad and speak from London or the U.S.,” the source said…
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