Cameron Criticized for Turning ’Blind eye’ to KSA’s Executions

Local Editor

British PM David Cameron's silence in the wake of Saudi Arabia's execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr that has sparked global outrage has been branded "utterly shameful".

The Prime Minister has yet to comment publicly on the killings and human rights campaigners have urged him to condemn the mass killings.

The international human rights group Reprieve said the UK "must not turn a blind eye to such atrocities and must urgently appeal to the kingdom to change course". The leading human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the UK Government's stance on Saudi Arabia was "completely immoral".

The kingdom has been widely condemned by the international community for executing scores of prisoners in Riyadh, Mecca, Medina and in the eastern and northern regions.

Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at Reprieve, said: "The Saudi government is continuing to target those who have called for domestic reform in the kingdom, executing at least four of them today. There are now real concerns that those protesters sentenced to death as children could be next in line to face the swordsman's blade. Saudi Arabia's allies - including the US and UK - must not turn a blind eye to such atrocities and must urgently appeal to the kingdom to change course."

Speaking on Sky News' Murnaghan program, Tatchell said the government's position on Saudi Arabia "does not make sense and it is completely immoral".

He said it was "utterly shameful that David Cameron had not yet publicly condemned the kingdom's actions.

"Saudi Arabia and Isis are two sides of the same coin. They are motivated by the same extremist ideology, they use the same barbaric methods like beheading" he said, "[But] in British government policy we are against Isis but we are allied with Saudi Arabia".

He said Saudi Arabia "was not known for its free and fair trials" so it was unclear whether the "terrorists" among the 47 were actually guilty.

The EU has released a statement saying the case of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr has raised "serious concerns regarding freedom of expression and the respect of basic civil and political rights" and potentially "enflamed further sectarian tensions".

It reiterated its opposition to the death penalty - particularly mass executions - and called on Saudi authorities to "promote reconciliation between the different communities of the kingdom".

Natalie Bennett, the Green Party leader, has condemned the brutality of the Saudi Arabian regime.

Bennett - speaking on Sky News - said the UN had been campaigning for Sheikh al-Nimr's release. She said: "This is a peaceful democracy campaigner who has just been executed.

"And I think one of the things there hasn't been much focus on, perhaps because it so awful, is they displayed the bodies of those executed men on gibbets after they were executed...

"That's the kind of regime we're fawning too, we're treating as a friend an ally, we're bending over backwards and the government's response to this has been totally inadequate - it is very disturbing."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team