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HRW slams Saudi Arabia for trying to add up to a Shia cleric’s jail term

Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh al-Habib with executed Shia cleric Sheikh Nirm al-Nimr

SHAFAQNA- Advocacy group Human Rights Watch in a new report has accused Saudi Arabia of trying to lengthen the prison sentence already given to Shia cleric Sheikh Mohammad bin Hassan al-Habib.

In December 2012, al-Habib was sentenced to seven years in prison on alleged charges of insulting religious establishment, calling for sectarianism and inciting against the Saudi rulers and disobedience. He left prison in 2016 after he was forced to sign a pledge not to give sermons deemed with objectionable content. However, the Shia cleric rearrested in the same year as he was leaving the kingdom for Kuwait. Saudi authorities returned Sheikh Mohammad al-Habib to prison on charge of violating his pledge and trying to escape from the Arab country, HRW official website mentioned.

Al-Habib who is still serving the remaining part of his previous sentence, now faces a second indictment, being charged with attempts to shake the social fabric and national unity by supporting protests and inciting riots in the Eastern Qatif region.

Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch has said that the only evidence submitted to court by Saudi security forces includes contents from al-Habib’s computer such as a picture with Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr (executed in January 2016). He continued that the HRW has not found any proof for al-Habib’s alleged escape in the charge sheet and the evidence regarding this charge is the defendant’s confession.

 

Page has indicated that Saudi Arabia’s judicial actions against Sheikh al-Habib is another case on the long list of Saudi Shia grievances against their government. The HRW’s deputy Middle East director continued that while the Saudi Shia hoped newly-introduced reforms would reduce discrimination against them, judicial harassment of their religious leaders and mass execution of their youth are just more of the same abusive treatment by the authorities.

Michael Page added that the increasing repression across Saudi Arabia is part of what the kingdom’s Shia and Ismaili communities have faced for many years. The new indictment against Sheikh Mohammad al-Habib comes in the wake of April 23 mass execution of 37 people including 33 Shia men from the oil-rich Eastern region. They were found guilty of alleged crimes such as protest-related offenses, espionage and terrorism. The Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called the trials unfair and denounced the executions as shocking.

 

Read more from Shafaqna:

The Persecution of Shias Continues in Saudi Arabia: Alkhoei Foundation

Saudi Arabia executed top Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr

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