Saudis must name real killers & stop Yemen war, Alkhalifa detain Bahrainis
Saudis must name real killers & stop Yemen war, Alkhalifa detain Bahrainis
Jamal Khashoggi’s wife has warned that her murdered husband’s case could be buried due to the influence of the Saudi pertordollars. She was speaking in London on Monday night with others as the US appeared to be favour a gradual international disengagement from the crime that has shocked the world of diplomacy. It is now a full month since the Saudi journalist vanished soon after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on 2nd October. There are immense pressures on Turkey to accept a defective Saudi explanation that exonerates crown prince Mohammad bin Salman who is widely believed to have given the orders to kill Khashoggi. There are serious demands to end the Saudi era in Arabia, after years of misconduct and criminal activities including terrorism, sectarianism, regional conflicts and wars, threats to regional and world peace and a bleak record of executions, torture and liquidation of opponents.
Among the outcomes of Khashoggi’s brutal murder are the international calls for the immediate and unconditional Saudi-led war on Yemen. In the past few days the Saudis have rushed more than 10,000 troops to the port city of Hodeida to make quick gains in order to improve their chances of better negotiations on a ceasefire deal to give them face-saving choice. On Thursday 25th October the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia. “We think it’s a very good initiative,” says Cécile Coudriou, president of Amnesty International France.Yesterday, for the first time the US called for an end to the war. ‘It is time to end this conflict,’ says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, adding that cessation of hostilities would ease humanitarian crisis
A count by a non-partisan group has produced a study demonstrating 56,000 people have been killed in Yemen since early 2016. The number is increasing by more than 2,000 per month as fighting intensifies around the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. It does not include those dying of malnutrition, or diseases such as cholera. “We estimate the number killed to be 56,000 civilians and combatants between January 2016 and October 2018,” says Andrea Carboni, who researches Yemen for the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), an independent group formerly associated with the University of Sussex that studies conflicts and is focusing attention on the real casualty level. He expects a total of between 70,000 and 80,000 victims, when he completes research into the casualties, hitherto uncounted, who died between the start of the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemen civil war, in March 2015, and the end of that year.
Saudi Arabia has been urged by United Nations human rights experts to immediately halt the execution of six people sentenced to death for crimes allegedly committed when they were under the age of 18. Yesterday the experts warned that carrying out the sentences could amount to “arbitrary executions.” The six who face imminent execution, were sentenced for charges that the experts said criminalize fundamental human rights, including the freedom of assembly and expression, UN official website reported. The six individuals, all male, – Ali al-Nimr; Dawood al-Marhoon; Abdullah al-Zaher; Mujtaba al-Sweikat; Salman Qureish; and Abdulkarim al-Hawaj – were tortured and ill-treated, forced to confess, denied adequate legal assistance during trial and never had access to an effective complaint mechanism, the experts said. “As a State Party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Saudi Arabia is under an obligation to treat everyone under the age of 18 as a child,” said a news release by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, on 29thOctober.
On Monday 29th October at least five native Bahrainis were detained by Alkhalifa torturers including one religious scholar. Sheikh Isa Al Mo’min was summoned by the torture apparatus, questioned about his interpretation of Quranic verses and remanded in custody. A week earlier two were detained from Duraz; Ali Jaffar Al Rayes and Hussain Abdul Ghani. Muslim Al Tayyar was arrested at the Bahrain-Saudi causeway. From Bilad Al Qadeem three were detained: Hussain AlGhanem, Mohammad Ghazi and Jamil Al Qudaihi. On Monday regime’s court upheld a three-year sentence against activist and mother-of-four Najah Ahmad Yousuf. She had been tortured, beaten and sexually assaulted and threatened with rape by her interrogators.
In a serious blow to those who defend Alkahalifa dictatorship, Alkhalifa tyrant has ordered the cancellation of a seminar at the National Democratic Assembly Party. The seminar was to be addressed on 28th October by Ibrahim Sharif, an economist, former detainee and former Secretary General of Wa’ad Party. |He was scheduled to speak on “Assessing the financial balance” with reference to Bahrain. The regime’s ministry of justice informed the society that Mr Sharif was banned and he would not be allowed to speak at the seminar. The Group cancelled the seminar in protest at this extreme form of censorship that amounted to a war on freedom of expression.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
1st November 2018 (info@vob.org, www.vob.org)