FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND ASSOCIATION TRIAL
In March, Saudi Arabia opened a mass trial of 68 Jordanians and Palestinians detained beginning in 2018 on vague allegations of links with a “terrorist organization.” Family members of defendants described a range of abuses by Saudi authorities following the arrests, including enforced disappearances, long-term solitary confinement, and torture. Their legal status remained unclear at the time of writing. By November, those on trial facing the death penalty included prominent cleric Salman al-Awda, whose charges were connected to his alleged ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and public support for imprisoned dissidents, as well as Hassan Farhan al-Maliki on vague charges relating to the expression of his peaceful religious ideas.Īuthorities detained prominent royal family members in 2020, including former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and former Saudi Red Crescent head Faisal bin Abdullah, and held them incommunicado. Prominent women’s rights activists detained in 2018 remained in detention while on trial for their women’s rights advocacy, including Loujain al-Hathloul, Mayaa al-Zahrani, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdulaziz, and Nassima al-Sadah.Ĭapital trials continued against detainees on charges that related to nothing more than peaceful activism and dissent. Saudi authorities in 2020 continued to repress dissidents, human rights activists, and independent clerics. Through 2020, the Saudi-led coalition continued a military campaign against the Houthi rebel group in Yemen that has included scores of unlawful airstrikes that have killed and wounded thousands of civilians.įreedom of Expression, Association, and Belief
Saudi authorities detained two of al-Jabri’s adult children in March and held them incommunicado in an apparent effort to coerce al-Jabri to return to Saudi Arabia. In August, former Saudi intelligence official Saad al-Jabri filed a lawsuit against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a United States court alleging that the crown prince sent a hit squad to murder him in Canada in 2018. The court originally sentenced five of the eight men to death in December 2019, but the penalties were later reduced.
Instead, a Saudi court sentenced eight lower level operatives found responsible for the murder to prison terms of 7-20 years in a trial that lacked transparency. Saudi Arabia held the presidency of the G20 in 2020 despite the country’s longstanding human rights abuses, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced authorities to turn G20 events, including the leaders’ summit, into virtual forums.Īuthorities failed to hold high level officials accountable for suspected involvement in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
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