Yearbook 2007
Sauiarabien. According to
CountryAAH, a verdict against a woman who was subjected
to group rape aroused the world's disgust in November. The
woman and a male friend of hers were sentenced to 90
whipsaws for having been alone in a car before the rape, a
violation of strict Saudi gender segregation laws. When the
woman appealed, the sentence was sharpened, because of her
contacts with the media, to 200 whips and six months in
prison, but in December King Abdullah rescinded the
sentence. The seven rapists were sentenced to imprisonment
for up to ten years and a thousand whips were each.
In October, it was announced that the country's legal
system would be modernized. Among other things, two Supreme
Courts, one for criminal cases and one for civil cases,
would be established, as well as a system of appeals. The
reformed justice system would also be based on Islamic law
Sharia.
Four Frenchmen were killed in an attack Feb. 26 north of
the city of Medina. A number of suspects were arrested.
Later in the year, a total of about 400 people were
arrested, according to authorities jihadists who had planned
attacks on, among other things. oil facilities, military
targets and police. A so-called anti-radicalization
campaign, aimed at getting extremists on better minds, was
reported in April to include about 2,000 people. The
participants had to undergo social and psychological
training and were helped to find a job and also to find a
wife.
At the Arab League summit in Riyadh in March, Arab
leaders brought to life a Saudi proposal for peace between
Israelis and Palestinians from 2002. King Abdullah also
mediated between rival Palestinian groups and participated
in a US summit in November on the Palestinian issue.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Saudi
Arabia on March 3-4. He and King Abdullah expressed great
appreciation for one another, despite Saudi leaders having
previously criticized the increased Iranian influence in
Iraq and Lebanon.
The country is one of the world's most brutal human
rights violators. One case in particular stood out in 2015.
In May 2014, blogger Raif Badawi had been sentenced to 10
years in prison and 1,000 strokes. No human survives 1000
whips, so the Islamist court had decided that they should be
distributed over 20 weeks. Every Friday after the Friday
prayer, he should have 50 whips. He received the first one
on January 9, 2015. However, the penalty created
international furore, and after the first round of whipping
that sent Badawi to the hospital, the execution of the
sentence was suspended. But he remains incarcerated. Another
prominent victim of the regime's atrocities was Palestinian
poet Ashraf Fayadh, who was sentenced in November 2015 to
death for the critique of Islam.
In February 2016, the European Parliament adopted an arms
embargo on Saudi Arabia as a result of the country's war
crimes in Yemen. The embargo was ignored by the big
countries and their weapons manufacturers.
In March 2016, the Special Criminal Court (SCC) in Riyadh
sentenced journalist Alaa Brinji to 5 years in prison,
followed by 8 years of outlaw bans. The occasion was a
series of comments he had posted on Twitter. That same
month, the SCC sentenced Islamic scholar Mohanna Abdulaziz
al-Hubail to 6 years in prison, followed by a 6-year ban on
having "offended the king and the state". The state also
continued to crack down on human rights activists. In May,
the founder of the human rights organization ACPRA,
Abdulaziz al-Shubaily, was sentenced to 8 years in prison,
followed by 8 years of exit bans.
In June 2016, the United Nations published a report on
countries that grossly violate children's rights. Saudi
Arabia stands out in the report in particular because of the
country's war on Yemen, which has killed many thousands of
children and created famine. Saudi Arabia became extremely
angry about being commended for its war crimes in Yemen,
mobilized other Gulf countries to put pressure on the UN and
even threatened to suspend its contributions to UNWRA, the
United Nations program for the millions of Palestinian
victims of Israel wars and ethnic cleansing. The massive
pressure on the UN succeeded. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon
had the mention of Saudi Arabia removed on his own. This in
turn triggered condemnation from world human rights
organizations, which found that the UN was under threat from
the rogue state. (Saudi Arabia's row with Ban Ki-moon over
Yemen marks new low in UN relationship, Guardian
10/6 2016), (UN blacklists Saudi-led coalition on child
deaths in Yemen, Daily Star 3/6 2016).
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