Continuing arms exports to the Riyadh regime decried amid allegations the weapons are being used against the Shia minority
Hassan Salman al-Radwan was working out in a gym when he was arrested and jailed by Saudi police eight years ago for taking part in a public protest. He was 20 years old at the time. On March 12, he was one of 81 men killed in the largest mass execution in Saudi Arabia’s modern history.
He says he vividly remembers his last meeting with Mr. al-Radwan, describing him as someone who used to go to the gym every day, and loved sports and horses. Their final moments together were spent cooking a traditional meal outside and playing dominoes. According to Saudi Arabia’s official news agency, most of the men executed on March 12 were sentenced for “multiple heinous crimes,” including affiliation with “terrorist organizations hostile to the kingdom” and “practising a deviant ideology” – a euphemism for Shia dissidents, who, as a religious minority, have long faced systemic discrimination and violence from the government.
Human Rights Watch reported that 41 of the men belonged to the country’s Shia Muslim minority. “Many Saudi Shia are serving lengthy sentences, are on death row, or have been executed for protest-related charges following patently unfair trials,” the organization said in a report on March 15. Both were high-school students who had tried to apply for university but were rejected because they were Shia Muslims from al-Qatif,Hamzah al-Shakhouri, an opposition activist now based in New Zealand, told The Globe he lost his younger brother, Mohammed Alawi al-Shakhouri, 37, and his cousin, Asaad Makki, 38, in the mass execution.
His cousin’s wife collapsed upon hearing the news of her husband’s execution. “She is suffering psychologically from this trauma, especially because she has a five-year-old son,” he said.The continued executions of political dissidents in Saudi Arabia is taking place against a backdrop of liberalizing social and economic conditions, which are tied to Vision 2030.
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