Saudi activist sentenced to 15 years in jail for protests: lawyer

[Bengal_Tiger]

Saudi activist sentenced to 15 years in jail for protests: lawyer

DUBAI Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:11pm BST

(Reuters) - A judge on Thursday sentenced a Saudi blogger and activist to 15 years in jail for taking part in protests and defaming the kingdom by communicating with foreigners and through publishing articles on the Internet, his lawyer said.

Fadhel al-Manasef, 26, is the latest activist to be convicted this week on charges which international human rights groups and activists in the kingdom say are part of a new drive to curb political, religious and social dissent. The government denies there is any crackdown.

The Special Criminal Court in the capital Riyadh also fined Manasef 100,000 riyals ($26,700) and barred him from travelling abroad for 15 years after he completes his sentence, the lawyer, Waleed Sulais, told Reuters by email.

Officials from the Justice Ministry were not available to comment on the report.

Sulais said the court found Manasef guilty of charges that included incitement and participation in demonstrations, writing articles against state security and posting them online, signing an anti-government petition and contacting foreign judicial and media outlets without authorisation and taking reporters to protests and giving them harmful information on the kingdom.


Sulais said Manasef, who has been in detention in a jail in Dammam since October 2011, was convicted in three cases that date back from 2009.

Sulais said he planned to appeal the verdict and said Manasef, who is also a photographer, denied the charges and demanded proof of the charges of giving harmful information.

The ruling came two days after prominent Saudi rights lawyer and activist, Waleed Abu al-Khair, was detained by authorities after appearing in court in Riyadh on sedition charges, according to his wife, Samar Badawi.

Human Rights Watch called for Abu al-Khair's release.

"Saudi authorities have repeatedly harassed Abu al-Khair for his human rights work, and now they've suddenly jailed him without letting him notify his family," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement on Thursday.

"The authorities should free Abu al-Khair immediately and drop the charges against him."

State news agency SPA also reported on Thursday that an unidentified activist was sentenced to six years in jail on charges including taking part in illegal demonstrations and organising women's protests.

Another unidentified activist was also sentenced to three years in jail for spreading lies against King Abdullah and inciting the public against him, SPA said.

The world's top oil exporter has regularly dismissed criticism of its human rights record by Western countries and campaign groups.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/uk-saudi-blogger-idUKBREA3G1G020140417

Fadhel Al-Manasif, imprisoned by the Saudi regime.

[Bengal_Tiger]

1. Saudi Arabia has a population of around 29 million of which around 20 million are actual Saudis (the other 9 million being foreign workers).


2. It is reported that there are 30,000 political prisoners in Saudi.

As of 2012, recent estimates of the number of political prisoners in Mabahith prisons range from a denial of any political prisoners at all by the Ministry of Interior, to 30,000 by the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission and the BBC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_prisoners_in_Saudi_Arabia

If we assume that there are 10 million Saudi males (actually more than that since the male to female ratio is 1.37) then that would mean 1 in every 333 Saudi males are in prison for political reasons.


3. So possibly 1 in 333 Saudi males are in prison for political reasons.

However if we assume that 68% of the Saudi male population is between the age of 15-65 that would mean 6.8 million Saudi males.

http://www.indexmundi.com/saudi_arabia/demographics_profile.html

30,000 out of 6.8 million Saudi males would mean 1 out of every 226 Saudi male of adult age (excluding +65 year olds) is in prison for political reasons.


4. If we assume that each one of these political prisoners has immediate family of 5 and then cousins, in-laws of 25 (in reality far more) then that would mean at least 150,000 or 750,000 Saudis personally knowing someone in jail for political reasons.

However Saudi is a tribal society and probably a member of every tribe (or every major tribe) is in prison. Even members of the Saudi tribe themselves have disagreed with the regime including one Saudi prince who has fled to Europe.


Conclusion: The country is a massive jail.

The regime tolerates no disagreement, even if it is polite, non-violent criticism of existing political structures.

The regime may also be seeking to suppress foreign disagreement with its policies through lawsuits as recently a high-level Saudi regime official with the internet handle of "Yzd Khalifa", on a Pakistani forum, hinted at threatening a Pakistani with a lawsuit for claiming that Bandar Bin Sultan supported terrorism.


In other words it wants no criticism of the Saudi regime in Saudi or anywhere else on earth.


- The problem with that is many people insult, criticize Obama or Putin but they do not start law suits against private citizens of foreign countries. If they did so they would be seen as insecure bullies.

- If the Saudis start trying to use the western legal system to suppress criticism of their regime, then others will use the western legal system against them too e.g. 9/11 victims families.




Interior minister, Nayef, one of the most hated men in Saudi Arabia responsible for the arrest and imprisonment of thousands.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Article from January:


New prisons in Saudi Arabia are 95% complete

on Jan 2, 2014


Construction work at two new prisons in Riyadh and Jeddah is over 95% complete.

Director-General of Saudi Arabia’s Prisons Department Major General Ibrahim bin Mohammed al-Hamzi made the announcement adding that Riyadh has spent over 2bn Riyals ($533m) building the two jails.

He said the high number of prisoners jam-packed in the cells was the main reason behind the decision to build the new jails.

More than 40,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, are in jails across Saudi Arabia.

http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-25766-new-prisons-in-saudi-arabia-are-95-complete/#.U1Dp__ldU1I

Most sources say it is 30,000 political prisoners, others say it is 40,000.