Executions in Saudi Arabia have nearly doubled under the crown prince’s de facto rule, according to a report by two NGOs. Since his father’s accession to the throne in 2015, more than 1,000 people have been sentenced to death. In other news from the Middle East, the worrying state of a prisoner in Iran, the 500 days without education for Afghan girls, Israel’s rapprochement with Chad and Sudan, and the ban on eating insects in Qatar.
from arabic ahlan wa sahlan (أهلا وسهلا) welcome to ‘Fragments of the East’, a summary in which every Sunday we bring you the most outstanding news from the Middle East region and its surrounding countries. In this week’s synthesis (from January 30 to February 5), we travel in order to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel and Qatar.
1) The cruel power tool of Mohamed bin Salman
A report from January 31 from the NGO Reprieve and the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights reveals a chilling fact about the prince’s handling Mohammed bin Salman: under its control since 2015, “the use of the death penalty has increased dramatically” and has been used to silence critical voices in Saudi Arabia.
The report – which analyzes the imposition of the death penalty in the kingdom between 2010 and 2021 – indicates that the number of executions increased from an average of 70.8 per year between 2010 and 2014, to 129.5 per year between 2015 and 2021. , a period that corresponds to the throne of King Salman and his son, the heir Mohamed bin Salman, who de facto directs the destiny of the country.
REVEALED: A new report shows the rate of executions in Saudi Arabia has almost doubled under Mohammed bin Salman, from 71 per year to 130 per year.
MBS is gaslighting the world, promising to curb the use of the death penalty, while his regime kills people in record numbers 🧵 pic.twitter.com/ReB4NwvpRN
—Reprieve (@Reprieve) January 31, 2023
Specifically, the current regime has applied more than 1,000 death sentences and has recorded the bloodiest six years in Saudi Arabia’s modern history.
Just 2020 and 2021, with the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, escaped the deadly numbers. In a “high proportion”, the investigation highlights, the kingdom “deploys discretionary death sentences”, tinged with “discrimination and injustice”, particularly for non-lethal crimes and against people who exercised fundamental rights, such as participating in demonstrations or exercising peacefully their freedom of expression.
“Saudi Arabia uses the death penalty, even to stifle the opposition, to stifle dissenting voices. It falls to the power to control the population, to suppress all rights of expression, all rights to protest, all rights of association. Everything is done to silence the Saudi population and dissenting voices,” Jean-Claude Samouiller, president of Amnesty International France, told France 24.
The report also points out that executions continue to be applied to minors, despite the fact that Saudi Arabia internationally proclaimed its cessation three years ago. Since 2013, at least 15 people have received the death penalty for crimes committed when they were under 18 years of age. A reality that is aggravated because the kingdom “refuses to publish data on the death penalty and does not notify the families or return the bodies”, as the NGOs denounce.
2) Anger and mixed versions over the emaciated image of an Iranian prisoner
farhad meysami is a 53-year-old Swedish-Iranian doctor who has been imprisoned in Iran since 2018 for supporting women in their protests against the mandatory wearing of the veil.
But his name drew attention this week due to some images in which he is seen malnourished, a product of the alleged neglect of the prison authorities to the hunger strike that he would be carrying out.
The photographs were released by his defense lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, who assured that his client initiated the measure of force on last october 7 in solidarity with the demonstrations and under three demands: stop the execution of those who protest against the regime, release political prisoners and stop the forced use of hijab. The lawyer pointed out that Meysami lost 52 kilograms and that his life “is in danger.”
The images circulated quickly through social networks and critical messages from leaders, organizations and ordinary people multiplied. In reply, the news agency of the Iranian Judiciary (‘Mizan’) said that the photos are not current but correspond to 2018, when Meysami entered prison and was on a hunger strike.
According to the official media, the Swedish-Iranian doctor – who is serving a five-year sentence for charges such as “insulting sanctities” and “conspiring to commit crimes against national security” – is not currently on a hunger strike, although he would have told colleagues and jail officials who eat as little as possible.
3) 500 days without education for Afghan girls under the Taliban regime
The Taliban regime’s repression against women in Afghanistan reached the January 29 a sad figure: 500 days of school closures for girls between the ages of 6 and 12, who face a very uncertain future and an irreparable loss of a fundamental right such as education.
Students consulted by the local media ‘Tolo News’ said that this forced interruption has caused them psychological problems. “They are in very bad shape. When they sleep at night and wake up in the morning, they have tears in their eyes and say ‘I dreamed that the schools reopened,'” Sadia, a student, explained to the aforementioned portal.
Specifically, the report highlights a greater vulnerability among girls with visual disabilities, similarly marginalized during the years of democratic government. “Last year, when the schools closed, I was desperate. I was faced with depression and felt like there was no way out of it,” confessed a blind student named Malika.
Despite calls from the international community, the Taliban have done nothing but extend and extend the ban, reaching universities in January. Faced with each limitation, the regime of the Islamic Emirate promises to restructure what is necessary to readmit the students, but little progress has been made in this regard in the almost 17 months of prohibition.
4) Israel moves closer to Africa, with a Chadian embassy and better deal with Sudan
In the new Executive of Benjamin Netanyahu – in alliance with far-right and ultra-Orthodox radicals – Israel is deepening its strategy of engaging with Arab- or Muslim-majority nations without even addressing a resolution of decades of violence with the Palestinians. In these days, he has achieved two ‘triumphs’: the opening of the Chadian embassy and a promise to normalize relations with Sudan.
In the first case, the Chadian president Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno He completed what his late father and predecessor in office (Idriss Déby) had started in 2019. That year, Chad restored relations with Israel after cutting them in 1972 along with dozens of African nations, in rejection of the occupation of the Palestinian territories. . A position that was buried with the inauguration of the Chadian consular headquarters in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, and a two-day visit by the president of the Sahel nation.
Regarding Sudan, the Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, concluded a trip to Khartoum and – after meeting with the president of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, General Abdelfatah al-Burhan– affirmed that a normalization pact could be signed at the end of this 2023.
This would mean that Sudan would adhere to the Abraham Accords, which since 2020 have allowed Israel to establish strong ties with Arab nations. Although both governments had expressed their willingness to come closer in October 2020, the convulsed Sudanese politics, with a coup involved, delayed the talks.
Given these statements, the Broad Islamic Current – which brings together ten Sudanese political parties – questioned the de facto leader of Sudan for engaging in these talks when he is not an elected leader and has no popular mandate to address such critical issues. The condemnation was joined by the Hamas group, ruler of the Gaza Strip, which rejected normalization “in the strongest possible terms.”
5) Qatar has sentenced it again: insects are not halal
Qatar has reaffirmed the religious ban on selling or consuming products containing insects because they do not meet “food requirements halal“, as the food is called that, according to Islamic law or shariacan be ingested by those who profess the Muslim religion.
The Qatari Ministry of Health ratified its position following “the decision of some countries to approve the use of insects in food production.” Although the statement did not mention any specific nation, it seemed to respond to the measure of the European Union (EU), which earlier this January added four types of insects to its list of allowed foods.
Among Muslim theologians there is no unanimous position on whether or not insects can be eaten. While some believe that lobsters are halal, as mentioned in the Qur’an, others hold that they should not be eaten because they are impure. Qatar is governed by the regulations of the Gulf Cooperation Council “and the religious advice of the relevant authorities”, which favor the second option.
It should be noted that insects have been a historical source of protein for some communities in the world and their consumption has expanded due to the need to find alternatives to meat and other foods, the production of which generates high levels of greenhouse gases.
As closing, the image of the week it is for Yemeni farmers, who are at the forefront of the orange harvest in Marib, in the northwest of the country. It is a key product of this region, renowned for its ancient city and for being at the center of the bloody civil war (which will be nine years old in September), which has led it to receive one million internally displaced persons since 2015. .
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