{"id":13927,"date":"2018-09-05T09:22:36","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T09:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13927"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:22:36","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T09:22:36","slug":"saudi-seeks-death-penalty-for-muslim-scholar-salman-al-awdah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13927","title":{"rendered":"Saudi seeks death penalty for Muslim scholar Salman al-Awdah"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Public prosecutors in Saudi Arabia are seeking the death penalty against prominent Muslim scholar Salman al-Awdah, local media, activists and his family members have said.<\/p>\n

Awdah, who UN experts have described<\/a> as a “reformist,” was imprisoned a year ago, shortly after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman\u00a0launched a crackdown on dissent\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>imposed a land, sea and air blockade on\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>kingdom’s\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Gulf neighbour, Qatar.<\/p>\n

Awdah, who has 14 million followers on Twitter, posted a tweet<\/a> on September 9, saying: “May God harmonise between their hearts for the good of their people” – an apparent call for reconciliation between the Gulf countries.<\/p>\n

Local daily Okaz reported<\/a> that the public prosecution,\u00a0which represents the Saudi government, had levelled 37 counts against Awdah and called for the death penalty.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

According to London-based Saudi rights group ALQST and other activists, some of the charges included incitement against the ruler and spreading discord.<\/p>\n

Awdah’s son, Abdullah, told the Reuters news agency that the accusations against his father included critical tweets and establishing an organisation which worked to defend the honour of the Prophet Muhammad.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International’s Saudi Arabia campaigner Dana Ahmed called the reports “a disturbing trend in the Kingdom [that] sends a horrifying message that peaceful dissent and expression may be met with the death penalty”.<\/p>\n

Crackdown on dissent<\/h2>\n

The ruling Al-Saud family has long regarded Islamist groups as the biggest internal threat to its rule.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Sahwa (Awakening) movement demanded political reforms that posed a challenge to the ruling family.<\/p>\n

Awdah, a Sahwa leader, was imprisoned from 1994-99 for agitating for political change, an act which would earn him praise from Saudi-born late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Awdah called for elections and separation of powers, demands considered dangerous provocations in the kingdom.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy where public protests and political parties are banned, has witnessed a massive crackdown on dissent, with dozens of religious leaders, intellectuals and women’s rights activists arrested in the past year.<\/p>\n

Among those arrested were prominent Islamic preachers Awad al-Qarni, Farhan al-Malki, Mostafa Hassan and Safar al-Hawali.<\/p>\n

Al-Hawali, 68, was detained after he published a 3,000-page book attacking bin Salman and the ruling family over their ties to Israel, calling it a “betrayal”.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, bin Salman softened the kingdom’s stance on Israel<\/a>, telling the US-based Atlantic magazine that Israelis “have the right to their own land” and “there are a lot of interests we [Saudi Arabia] share with Israel”.<\/p>\n

Last month, authorities recommended the death penalty for five human rights activists from the kingdom’s Eastern Province, including Israa al-Ghomgham, the first woman to possibly face that punishment for rights-related work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public prosecutors in Saudi Arabia are seeking the death penalty against prominent Muslim scholar Salman al-Awdah, local media, activists and his family members have said. Awdah, who UN experts have described as a “reformist,” was imprisoned a year ago, shortly after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman\u00a0launched a crackdown on dissent\u00a0and\u00a0imposed a land, sea and air…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}