UK’s Soft Diplomacy Approach to Saudi Arabia ’Not Enough’

Local Editor

Families of the three juvenile Saudi detainees held up by the UK considered the British soft approach to diplomacy with Saudi Arabia is not working.

Ali al-Nimr, Abdullah al-Zaher and Dawoud al-Marhoon were all children when they were arrested by the Saudi authorities for attending protests, and yet they were sentenced to death after a secretive court process.

When he defended the government's meek response to the mass execution of 47 people in the kingdom on 2 January, British Secretary of State Philip Hammond said the three juveniles showed Britain could get results in Saudi Arabia when it intervened in specific cases.

Almost exactly three months after Hammond told Parliament that "private" UK diplomacy secured clemency for the detainees, nothing has really changed.

Al-Zaher, the youngest of the boys who was just 15 when he was arrested, was transferred to a prison in Riyadh where a number of the 47 executions were carried out at the start of the month.

Furthermore, al-Nimr and al-Marhoon were also moved since the mass executions from Riyadh to the infamous Dammam prison in the Eastern Province, a facility known for housing death row inmates in the past.

According to "Reprieve", a human rights organization campaigning on behalf of the juveniles, sudden prison transfers are often a precursor to sentences being carried out, and the families say all three could be executed any day.

Relatively, the execution of prominent Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr sparked protests across the Middle East. His young nephew remains on death row and, despite UK assurances, could still be killed at any time.

Mohammed al-Nimr, Ali's father, said his son and Dawoud al-Marhoon had been moved but no reason was given to explain it. He said they were "on death row with the sword over their necks".

In parallel, Maya Foa, head of Reprieve's death penalty team, said: "It is shocking that the Saudi authorities are still threatening to execute three juveniles who were arrested at protests, tortured into dubious ‘confessions', and sentenced to death in flagrantly unfair trials."

"Governments that are close to Saudi Arabia - the UK included - must firmly demand the release of the juveniles without delay," she added.

For his part, British PM David Cameron stood by Britain's relationship with Saudi Arabia in spite of growing concerns over human rights abuses in the kingdom.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team