Saudi Inhumaine Punishments as It Takes Chair of UN Human Rights Council

Two news stories from Saudi Arabia are again raising serious human rights questions about sharia law applied by the Wahhabi school of sunni Islam in the Kingdom. ~~~~~ First, US President Obama is being asked to save Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, sentenced to be beheaded and crucified for attending anti-government protests. Nusra al-Ahmed, the mother of the Saudi teenager, has begged Obama to intervene to save her son from a punishment she described as “savage” and “backwards in the extreme.” Amnesty International and British Prime Minister David Cameron have called for clemency to stop Nimr, who was 17 when arrested, from being beheaded and crucified. His mother said he was detained after joining shiite demonstrators in the coastal city of Qatif, seeking equal religious rights in sunni-majority Saudi Arabia. The official charges against Nimr included attending a protest, using his phone to encourage further support for the demonstrations and possessing a gun, an accusation which the family strongly denies. Nimr's mother said her son showed signs of torture when she visited him. She says she still has hope her son can be saved from being beheaded and his decapitated body hung from a cross in public. ~~~~~ Second, Prime Minister David Cameron will write to the Saudi Arabian government about a UK retiree imprisoned for possessing alcohol - which is illegal in Saudi Arabia - because of concerns from the children of Karl Andree that the 74-year-old will receive 360 lashes for the crime. But BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said Saudi and UK officials have assured him "there was never any question" of Andree being flogged, adding that Saudi officials had given private assurances to the UK Foreign Office. Andree has already spent more than a year in prison since his arrest by Saudi religious police. His daughter, Kirsten Piroth, told BBC News her father would not survive the punishment lashes. She said he was transporting homemade wine in his car in August 2014 when he was pulled over and arrested. Cameron's official spokeswoman said this was an "extremely concerning" case, and the government had already raised the matter with the Saudi government "several times." But she denied there was any connection between Andree's case and the UK government's cancellation of a £5.9 million prisons deal with Saudi Arabia. Andree's one-year prison sentence is now complete and Piroth said her family had been "led to believe" the lashes would not be given due to her father's age and health. But she said there now "seems to be some question mark" about it. Piroth said : "He's an old man, he's 74, he's survived three types of cancer with very strong cancer treatments, he's asthmatic, he has gout - he's not very well. He's got a great spirit but his bodily health is not great and I just feel like he received his sentence and he did his time and I just want him home now." The BBC quoted a Foreign Office spokesman : "Our embassy staff are continuing to assist Mr. Andree, including regular visits to check on his welfare, and frequent contact with his lawyer and family. Ministers and senior officials have raised Mr Andree's case with the Saudi government and we are actively seeking his release as soon as possible." The Foreign Office website warns that penalties for alcohol possession in Saudi Arabia are "severe." ~~~~~ Dear readers, the flogging and death sentences come as Saudi Arabia faces increasing diplomatic scrutiny over the severity of its penal system as it takes over the chair of the UN Human Rights Council. For almost 70 years, Saudi Arabia has been a vital US ally in the Middle East. But, recently, the Obama rapprochement and nuclear deal with Iran has strained the relationship and the Kingdom has sought alliances to balance that with the US. The US-Saudi relationship will continue, including self-imposed US reticence about Saudi human rights abuses. But, private diplomacy might arrange that pardons of Nimr and Andree would be repaid by not commenting on the ridiculous Saudi assumption of the UN Human Rights Council chairmanship.