HRW: Over 160 peaceful dissidents arrested in Saudi Arabia since February

[News_Editor]

HRW: Over 160 peaceful dissidents arrested in Saudi Arabia since February

2011-04-21 04:02:02 GMT+7 (ICT)

MUNICH (BNO NEWS) -- More than 160 peaceful dissidents have been arrested in Saudi Arabia since February, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday.

The New York- based organization urged Saudi Arabia's interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abd al-'Aziz Al Sa'ud, to order the immediate release of peaceful dissidents, who had been mainly demanding the release of political prisoners. It also criticized the Sa'ud family for ruling Saudi Arabia "as an absolute monarchy" and reiterating a ban on demonstrations in early March.

HRW condemned the European Union and the United States for not standing up against the country's "violation of international human rights law." U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon and U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates, who recently visited Riyadh, didn't publicly commented on the kingdom's human rights violations.

"As the list of Saudi political prisoners grows longer, the silence of the US and the EU becomes more deafening," Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said Monday that she had been "very pleased" with her two-day visit to the Saudi capital and made no public comments about the political prisoners.

"The EU's silence on the brazen arrest of a peaceful dissident on the first day of its chief foreign policy representative's visit looks like a pat on the back for an authoritarian state," Wilcke added. "Silence when more than 160 peaceful dissidents are locked up should not be an option for Brussels or Washington."

Several Facebook groups called for protests on a Saudi Day of Anger on March 11, but a heavy security presence prevented demonstrations in all but the Eastern Province, where protests continued on April 14 and 15. They were mainly in Qatif and Awwamiyya, two predominantly Shia towns, where protesters, many of them women, held a candlelight vigil to demand the release of Shia detainees who have been imprisoned without charge or trial for 12 years and longer on suspicion of involvement in a 1996 bombing.

The demonstrators also called for the release of over 120 detainees still being held for peaceful protests in Qatif and al-Ahsa' provinces since February. Only several dozen have been released, and none of those arrested have been charged with violence.

In 2009, Saudi Arabia acceded to the Arab Charter for Human Rights, which guarantees in article 32 the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The kingdom is one of few countries that have not yet signed the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.

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