Amnesty urges Saudi Arabia to halt execution of 2 Bahraini men
The two Bahraini men were initially arrested in 2015 and have now become at imminent risk of execution by the Saudi regime.
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Amnesty urges Saudi to halt execution of 2 Bahraini men
Amnesty International urged Saudi Arabia to halt executions earlier this Tuesday. The Kingdom has sentenced two Bahraini men, Jaafar Mohammad Sultan and Sadeq Majeed Thamer, to death.
In January, the Saudi court ratified the death sentence on both the young men who were arrested on May 8, 2015, on King Fahd Causeway. Later, the Saudi authorities charged them with "preparing to blow up the bridge linking to Bahrain," but they refuted these claims and slammed them as politically motivated.
After a “grossly unfair” trial, the two men had their sentences handed down in October 2021.
According to AFP, Saudi Arabia has already executed 120 people so far this year. This included the mass execution of 81 people sentenced to death, for allegedly being involved in "terrorism" within the Kingdom, on a single day in March. An Amnesty International report, analyzing the use of the death penalty worldwide, exposes Saudi’s 2022 execution tally is nearly double what was recorded in the previous year, 65 executions, which in itself was beyond double the 2020 numbers.
In a separate statement, on the same day, Amnesty shed light on the case of the Bahraini youths Jaafar Mohammad Sultan and Sadeq Majeed Thamer whose sentences were upheld by Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court last month and are currently before the King for ratification. Amnesty’s statement emphasized that the pair "are at imminent risk of execution."
Furthermore, Amnesty declared that the two men were initially detained in May of 2015 and were held incommunicado in solitary confinement for three-and-a-half months.
#SaudiArabia goes on with its unlawful executions; 2 months after the last mass executions that shocked the whole world, Sadiq Majid Thamer and Jaafar Muhammad Sultan now face a death sentence for allegedly smuggling explosives.#Bahrain pic.twitter.com/xcP8jvrpR3
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) May 22, 2022
With no counsel or access to legal representation throughout their pre-trial detention and interrogations, the two men ended up being sentenced based on what Amnesty called a “deeply flawed trial based on torture-tainted confessions."
"King Salman should immediately halt the execution of Jaafar Sultan and Sadeq Thamer, annul their death sentences, and ensure they are retried in accordance with international law,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
