UK Muslims demand for Sheikh Al-Nimr release

Islamic Human Rights Commission in London has written to the UN requesting that it urgently intervene to prevent the imminent execution of Sheikh Al-Nimr a leading scholar and opposition figure.

Sheikh Al-Nimr is a leading Shia scholar who was convicted for his outspoken criticism of the Saudi monarchy and his calls for equality and reform. He was sentenced to death last year on trumped up charges of apostasy and terrorism.

According to Taghrib’s reporter (TNA) in London, IHRC's letter, addressed to the Office of the High Commission for Human Rights, calls on the OHCHR to do all that is necessary to put pressure on the Saudi government to stay his execution and to secure his release. It states: "It is a severe blight on the reputation of this office if it is not able to work to protect the rights of individuals to free speech, to protest, to practice their religion, to a fair trial, to not be subjected to torture, and the right to life."

Islamic Human Rights Commission in London believes that the Specialised Criminal Court, Saudi Arabia's terrorism tribunal, which sentenced Sheikh al-Nimr, has flagrant due process violations, including broadly framed charges that do not resemble recognisable crimes, and denial of access to lawyers at arrest and during pre-trial detention that makes it almost impossible to prepare cases for trial.

IHRC has also criticized the court for dismissing without investigation allegations of torture and admitting as evidence confessions that defendants said were coerced.

At the end of this letter IHRC refers to a 2011 report compiled by IHRC and says“there are an estimated 30,000 political prisoners in Saudi Arabia out of a population of approximately 18 million Saudi nationals.”
/SR