Report of the International Day of Protest.
WHEN: SATURDAY, 14 MARCH 2015 FROM 2 – 4PM
VENUE: Saudi Embassy, 30-32 Charles St, London W1J 5DZ and other embassies and venues around the world
“PROTEST AGAINST SAUDI ARABIA AND DEMAND THAT ITS POLITICAL PRISONERS ARE FREED!”
UJN launched this event as a protest against Saudi which which saw demonstrations on 14 March 2015 in cities around the globe.
The event was designed to draw attention to the little publicised persecution faced by thousands of political prisoners imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for having criticised the ultra-conservative monarchy and its policies. Many of them are political reformists but their number also includes religious leaders who have campaigned for fundamental rights and freedoms.
One of the most prominent and still open cases was that of Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr (later executed), a leading Shia scholar sentenced to death on trumped up charges of apostasy and terrorism for his outspoken criticism of the Saudi government and his calls for equality and reform. He had been severely tortured in detention.
In addition, Saudi Arabia’s justice system was already under criticism due to a record number of beheadings in 2014 as well as already performing nine beheadings so far that year which included a Burmese woman who was executed without painkillers and received three blows before dying from decapitation.
Images to follow.
