Yearbook 2007
Sauiarabien. According to CountryAAH, Riyadh is the capital city of Saudi Arabia. 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sharpened, because of her contacts with the media, to 200 whips and six months in prison, but in December King Abdullah rescinded the sentence.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.
- According to abbreviationfinder: SA is the 2-letter acronym for the country of Saudi Arabia.
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).
Saudi Arabia weather in March, April and May
Average daily temperatures between 29 ° C and 42 ° C can be expected over the next three months. It gets warmest in May in Mecca, while March is noticeably cooler in Dammam. The temperatures in Mecca are between 35 and 42 ° C, in Yanbu between 30 and 36 ° C and in Dammam between 29 and 41 ° C.
Do you want to go on a beach holiday? The water temperatures are in March, April and May 20-28 ° C. This is good weather for a great time on the beach and in the water.
You can expect around 6 days of rainfall in March, about 7 days in April and about one day in May.
In the period from March to May, the sun shines on average between 0 and 10 hours a day. The sunniest weather is in May in Mecca, but with less sun you have to get by in Yanbu in March.