{"id":97075,"date":"2017-08-14T12:02:05","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T11:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=97075"},"modified":"2017-08-13T16:16:29","modified_gmt":"2017-08-13T15:16:29","slug":"us-and-uk-ally-saudi-arabia-moves-to-behead-14-for-participating-in-anti-government-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/08\/us-and-uk-ally-saudi-arabia-moves-to-behead-14-for-participating-in-anti-government-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"US and UK Ally Saudi Arabia Moves to Behead 14 for Participating In Anti-Government Protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

The condemned includes a young student named Mujtaba al-Suweyket, who was only 17 at the time of his sentencing and was about to study in a U.S. university.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The \u2018crucifixion\u2019 of 5 beheaded bodies following their execution in Saudi Arabia.<\/p><\/div>\n

26 Jul 2017 – <\/em>Saudi Arabia, the Gulf kingdom ruled by an absolute monarchy, and key United States ally, is planning to behead 14 men for participating in anti-government protests after what Amnesty international called a \u201cgrossly unfair mass trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/em><\/strong>UK Arms Dozens of Nations on Its Human Rights Watch List<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBy confirming these sentences Saudi Arabia’s authorities have displayed their ruthless commitment to the use of the death penalty as a weapon to crush dissent and neutralize political opponents,\u201d Samah Hadid of Amnesty International said.<\/p>\n

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British PM Theresa May (L) with Saudi King Salman (R). | Photo: AFP<\/p><\/div>\n

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia decided to uphold the sentences, and the 14 men were transferred to Riyadh, indicating that the beheadings could occur anytime.<\/p>\n

\u201cKing Salman’s signature is now all that stands between them and their execution,\u201d Hadid said.<\/p>\n

According to Amnesty International, the condemned prisoners were \u201csubjected to prolonged pre-trial detention and had been tortured and otherwise ill-treated during their interrogation to extract their ‘confessions’.\u201d<\/p>\n

The condemned includes a young student named Mujtaba al-Suweyket, who was only 17 at the time of his sentencing. He was in the midst of preparations to leave to the U.S. to study at Western Michigan University. He was arrested at the airport.<\/p>\n

Western Michigan University urged \u201ccritical national political figures with influence\u201d in Saudi Arabia to prevent the executions when they found out what had happened to the prospective student.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/em><\/strong>Charities Urge UN to Blacklist Saudi-Led Coalition in Yemen<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe were stunned to learn, for the first time, of this situation. It is not unusual for an admitted student to opt out of enrolling at the last minute, so we had no idea there was such a troubling reason behind this student’s failure to come to campus,\u201d the spokes person for the university, Cheryl Roland said to Michigan Live.<\/p>\n

The American Federation of Teacher’s has also issued a statement urging U.S. President Donald Trump to use his influence with the gulf kingdom to stop the executions.<\/p>\n

In addition to al-Suweyket, the men to be beheaded for their participation in the protest include Hussein al-Rabi\u2019, Abdullah al-Tureif, Hussein al-Mosallem, Mohamed al-Naser, Mustafa al-Darwish, Fadel Labbad, Sa\u2019id al-Sakafi, Salman al-Qureish, Munir al-Adam, Abdullah al-Asreeh, Ahmad al-Darwish, Abdulaziz al-Sahwi, Ahmad al-Rab\u2019i.<\/p>\n

Executions employing brutal methods, such as beheading and crucifixion in one of the largest purchasers of U.S. weapons as well as a key regional ally for the U.S. and United Kingdom, are unfortunately a regular occurrence. Amnesty International estimates that at least 66 people have been executed in 2017 alone, with 26 of those being in the past three weeks.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 telesurtv.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

26 Jul 2017 – Saudi Arabia, the Gulf kingdom ruled by an absolute monarchy, and key United States ally, is planning to behead 14 men for participating in anti-government protests after what Amnesty international called a \u201cgrossly unfair mass trial.\u201d The condemned includes a young student named Mujtaba al-Suweyket, who was only 17 at the time of his sentencing and was about to study in a U.S. university.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east-north-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97075\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}