A court in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday sentenced 15 people to death and several others to prison terms in a case involving an alleged Iranian spy cell, a sign of the continuing tension between the two West Asian powers.

A Riyadh criminal court handed down its ruling to the 32 people who were charged, including 30 Saudis, one Iranian and one Afghan national. Their names were not made public. Amnesty International criticised the proceedings as “a travesty of justice and a serious violation of human rights”.

Saudi state media had reported in February that those charged were accused of establishing a spy ring in collaboration with Iranian intelligence and providing Iran with sensitive information on the Saudi military. The reports also said theywere charged with seeking to commit acts of sabotage against Saudi interests. — AP </s> The condemning of 15 people to death by the Specialized Criminal Court today after a grossly unfair trial is a travesty of justice and a serious violation of human rights, said Amnesty International.

The men were among 32 people arrested across Saudi Arabia in 2013 and 2014 who were accused of spying for Iran. Fifteen others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to 25 years and two were acquitted.

The men were charged with a series of offences including “high treason” with some facing several other ludicrous charges which should not be considered criminal offences such as “supporting protests”, “spreading the Shi’a faith” and “possessing banned books and videos”.

“Sentencing 15 people to death after a farcical trial which flouted basic fair trial standards is a slap in the face for justice. Time and again, Saudi Arabia’s justice system has been proven to be incapable of ensuring fairness and justice,” said Samah Hadid, Deputy Director for Campaigns at Amnesty International’s Beirut regional office.

“The death penalty is cruel, inhuman and degrading in any circumstances but it is even more shocking when people are sentenced to death after blatantly unfair trials. These death sentences must be immediately quashed and the accused must either be re-tried in line with international standards without resorting to the death penalty, or released.”

Sentencing 15 people to death after a farcical trial which flouted basic fair trial standards is a slap in the face for justice Samah Hadid, Deputy Director for Campaigns at the Beirut Regional office

Those convicted were all Saudi Arabian nationals except for one Iranian national who was sentenced to four years in prison. An Afghan national was one of the two men acquitted.

According to Taha al-Hajji, one of the lawyers who represented most of the accused, all 32 men arrested were detained without an arrest warrant and held for almost three months in incommunicado detention where they were repeatedly interrogated without a lawyer, heightening the risk that they could face torture and other ill-treatment. In many cases they only discovered the reason for their arrest during their interrogations.

Some told the court that they were threatened with solitary confinement and that they would be banned from having any contact with their families if they did not sign “confession” documents. They said they were told that if they refused to sign these “confessions” that their families would be imprisoned and locked in cells next to them.

After almost three years in detention without charge or trial the defendants were suddenly brought before the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh -

Saudi Arabia’s secretive security and counter-terrorism court in February 2016. Most of them attended their first session without any lawyers and the rest met their lawyers briefly for the first time in court. Some of the defendants had to prepare their defence themselves.

“The entire legal proceedings in this case have made a mockery of justice. The fact that the men were held incommunicado for three months, denied access to a lawyer during the interrogations, and that the court failed to adequately investigate the men’s claims that they were coerced to ‘confess’ makes this little more than a sham trial,” said Samah Hadid.

The entire legal proceedings in this case have made a mockery of justice Samah Hadid, Deputy Director for Campaigns at the Beirut Regional office

While the General Prosecutor had almost three years to build the case against the 32 defendants, their lawyers were given less than a month to prepare their defence after the first hearing and were denied crucial information to enable them to prepare a proper case.

The lawyers complained saying they needed more time since it was a very complex case with 32 defendants involved, however, the request was ignored by the judge. They were initially denied access to court documents and key evidence relied upon for the convictions, including the forced “confessions” of the men.

During the first session in February 2016, the 32 defendants were handed a list of charges that was nearly 100 pages long. Most of the defendants were accused of offences such as “high treason” for either setting up or joining a spy cell or meeting with Iranian intelligence and sharing military and security information with them.

However, some of the other charges listed against the men are not recognizably criminal offences under international standards. These include “supporting protests”, “spreading the Shi’a faith” for example by setting up a Shi’a centre in Mecca, “possessing banned books and videos”, “inciting the public to break allegiance to the ruler and harm his reputation and the reputation of the royal family” among other charges.

One defendant, who is among those sentenced to death, even faced charges for possessing articles written by Mikhlif al-Shammari a prominent human rights defender and advocate for Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a Muslim community who was sentenced to prison and 200 lashes for his activism.

It is not the first time a Saudi Arabian court has issued death sentences after an unfair mass trial. On 1 June 2016, 14 Shi’a Muslim men were sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court after a trial which relied on “confessions” extracted through torture for a series of offences including among other things, taking part in violent protests in the Eastern Provinces in 2012.

Trials before the Specialized Criminal Court are shrouded in secrecy. Given the opaque procedures at these courts, in some cases simply being brought to trial appears to be enough grounds for judges to find the accused guilty.

In a letter submitted to the Specialized Criminal Court at the second session several of the lawyers said they would boycott the trial in protest the manner in which the trial was being conducted including the fact that they were not allowed to visit their clients, view evidence and prepare their defence adequately. The lawyers also objected to the “media war” waged against the defendants. The Saudi Arabian authorities do not allow any critical or independent media to operate in the Kingdom. </s> Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor has sought the death penalty against five human rights activists, including a prominent female rights defender, campaigners said on Wednesday.

Among those accused of inciting protests by the Shia Muslim minority in the oil-rich Eastern Province is Israa al-Ghomgham, the first female activist to possibly face the death penalty for her rights-related work.

“Israa al-Ghomgham and four other individuals are now facing the most appalling possible punishment simply for their involvement in anti-government protests,” said Samah Hadid, Amnesty International's Middle East director of campaigns.

“We are urging the Saudi Arabian authorities to drop these plans immediately.”

Saudi government officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ghomgham, a prominent Shia activist who documented mass demonstrations in the Eastern Province starting in 2011, was arrested at her home along with her husband in December 2015, according to Human Rights Watch.

“Sentencing Israa al-Ghomgham to death would send a horrifying message that other activists could be targeted in the same way for their peaceful protest and human rights activism,” Hadid said.

“The charges against Ghomgham... are absurd and clearly politically motivated to silence dissent.”

Amnesty says at least 12 other leading human rights activists, including eight women, have been arrested in the kingdom since May — just before the kingdom ended its ban on women drivers.

Many of them long opposed the decades-long ban and resisted the system of male “guardians” — fathers, husbands or other relatives, whose permission is required to travel or get married.

The ultra-conservative kingdom has one of the world's highest rates of execution, with suspects convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking facing the death penalty.

Rights experts have repeatedly raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom, an absolute monarchy governed under a strict form of Islamic law. The government says the death penalty is a deterrent for further crime. </s> Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against five human rights activists from the kingdom's Eastern Province currently on trial in a secretive terrorism court, groups including Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

Among the detainees is Israa al-Ghomgham, whom Saudi activists said was the first woman to possibly face the death penalty for rights-related work. Charges against her include incitement to protest and providing moral support to rioters.

"Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behavior, is monstrous," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW, said in a statement on Wednesday.

A government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Activists said the trial was ongoing, and denied social media reports that the detainees had already been executed.

Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy where public protests and political parties are banned, has enacted some high-profile social and economic reforms in recent years under powerful young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

They have, however, been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent, with dozens of clerics, intellectuals and activists arrested in the past year, including women who had campaigned for the right to drive in the deeply conservative Muslim country. </s> RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A court in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday sentenced 15 people to death and several others to prison terms in a case involving an alleged Iranian spy cell, a sign of the continuing tension between the two Mideast powers.

A Riyadh criminal court handed down the sentences to the 32 people who were charged in February, including 30 Saudis, one Iranian and one Afghan national. Their names were not made public and it was not clear who and if anyone represented them in court.

There was no immediate reaction from Tehran on the verdicts and details about the case remain few.

Saudi state media reported in February that those charged were accused of establishing a spy ring in collaboration with Iranian intelligence and providing Iran with highly sensitive information on the Saudi military.

The reports said they also were charged with seeking to commit acts of sabotage against Saudi economic interests, inciting sectarian strife, recruiting others for espionage and participating in anti-government protests.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations to Iran after protesters stormed and ransacked two Saudi diplomatic posts in the Islamic Republic.

Those violent demonstrations came after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric in January, along with 46 others.

Tensions have remained high between Shiite power Iran and the Sunni-ruled kingdom of Saudi Arabia all year long. On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tehran and Riyadh can and should cooperate to resolve regional crises.

Bahram Ghasemi told reporters that the recent OPEC agreement to cut oil production and the Lebanese presidential election — in which an Iran ally who was elected president designated a Saudi ally for prime minister — were both recent examples of Iran-Saudi cooperation. </s> Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against five human rights activists, including, for the first time a woman, campaigners say.

The five stand accused of inciting mass protests in mainly Shiite areas of the Sunni-ruled kingdom's oil-rich Eastern Province and human rights groups charged that the execution threat was a calculated bid to stifle dissent.

It comes as Saudi Arabia takes an increasingly combative approach to international criticism of its human rights record, imposing a raft of sanctions against Canada after it spoke out earlier this month.

Female activist, Israa al-Ghomgham, who has documented the protests in Eastern Province since they began in 2011, would be the first woman activist to face the death sentence for rights-related work.

She was arrested at her home along with her husband in December 2015, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in separate statements this week.

"Israa al-Ghomgham and four other individuals are now facing the most appalling possible punishment simply for their involvement in anti-government protests," said Samah Hadid, Amnesty International's Middle East director of campaigns.

"We are urging the Saudi Arabian authorities to drop these plans immediately."

Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

HRW said Ghomgham, her husband and the three other defendants face charges that "do not resemble recognisable crimes".

"Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behaviour, is monstrous," its Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said.

Amnesty said the unprecedented call for a death sentence against Ghomgham was a clear attempt to scare other dissidents into silence.

"Sentencing Israa al-Ghomgham to death would send a horrifying message that other activists could be targeted in the same way for their peaceful protest and human rights activism," Hadid said.

Amnesty says at least 12 other leading activists, including eight women, have been arrested in the kingdom since May -- just before the authorities ended their decades-long ban on women driving.

Many of them had opposed both the driving ban and the wider system of statutory male "guardians" for women -- fathers, husbands or other relatives, whose permission is required to travel or get married.

Earlier this month, Canada sparked fury in Riyadh by calling for the "immediate release" of the detained activists, including award-winning women's rights campaigner Samar Badawi.

Saudi Arabia froze all new trade and investments, moved to pull out thousands of Saudi students from Canadian universities and pledged to stop all medical treatment programmes in Canada. State airline Saudia also suspended flights to Toronto.

The ultra-conservative kingdom has one of the world's highest rates of execution, with suspects convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking facing the death penalty.

Human rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom, an absolute monarchy governed under a strict form of Islamic law. The government says the death penalty is an effective deterrent against serious crime. </s> Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia are seeking the death penalty for five activists in the country’s Eastern Province, according to Saudi activists and Human Rights Watch. Among those being targeted is Israa al-Ghomgham, who Saudi groups say would be the first female human rights activist to be put to death in the Saudi kingdom if the execution proceeds.

“Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behavior, is monstrous,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “Every day, the Saudi monarchy’s unrestrained despotism makes it harder for its public relations teams to spin the fairy tale of ‘reform’ to allies and international business.”

Human Rights Watch says that Ghomgham is among five activists for whom Saudi Arabia’s Public Prosecution office is seeking the death penalty. They are being tried in the country’s terrorism tribunal for what their supporters say was peaceful activism.

The Berlin-based European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (EOSHR) highlighted Ghomgham’s case in a series of emails earlier this week, calling it a “precedent” and saying that the Saudi prosecution was seeking the activist’s beheading. Last week, the organization released a statement that suggested 51 people were awaiting execution in the country.

Ghomgham and five other activists are facing trial in connection with demonstrations in the Shiite-populated parts of Eastern Province that began in 2011. The demonstrations were held to protest the discrimination that Shiite Muslim citizens face in the predominantly Sunni Muslim kingdom. According to Human Rights Watch, Ghomgham and her husband were arrested on Dec. 6, 2015, and have been held in prison ever since.

Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against five of the six suspects, according to an indictment obtained by the Post. The allegations against Ghomgam included participating in protests and “provoking” young people to do the same; inciting what the authorities called a “soft revolution;” and traveling to Iran, where prosecutors said she received “theoretical lessons on how to create chaos.” The Saudi government did not immediately respond to questions about her case.

Apart from the cases related to protests in the Shiite-majority areas of Eastern Province, the Saudi government faces growing condemnation for a crackdown on dissidents, including women’s rights advocates. Among the women recently arrested was Nassima al-Sadah, a Shiite Muslim from the eastern city of Qatif, who had tried unsuccessfully to run for local elections there and had sued to lift the kingdom’s long-standing ban on female drivers.

According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia uses the death penalty more than almost any other country in the world, with 146 executions reportedly carried out last year. Only China and Iran were thought to have executed more people in 2017.

Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has sought to bolster its international image with splashy business events and diplomatic outreach. However, the country has bristled at criticism of its handling of human rights, resulting in a diplomatic spat with Canada earlier this month after the country’s foreign minister tweeted a message in Arabic that expressed alarm over the detention of a women’s rights activist who had relatives in Canada.

Asked about Ghomgham’s trial on Tuesday, the office of Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told the Globe and Mail newspaper that “Canada is extremely concerned by the arrests of women’s rights activists” and that these concerns have been raised by with the Saudi government.

Kareem Fahim and Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul contributed to this story. </s> Riyadh: Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor is seeking the death penalty against five human rights activists from the kingdom’s Eastern Province currently on trial in a secretive terrorism court, groups including Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

Among the detainees is Israa al-Ghomgham, whom Saudi activists said was the first woman to possibly face the death penalty for rights-related work. Charges against her include incitement to protest and providing moral support to rioters.

Monstrous, says HRW

 “Any execution is appalling, but seeking the death penalty for activists like Israa al-Ghomgham, who are not even accused of violent behaviour, is monstrous,” Sarah Leah Whitson, official at HRW, said in a statement on Wednesday. ALQST, a London-based Saudi rights group, reported the decision involving Ghomgham’s case earlier this week. A government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Activists said the trial was ongoing, and denied social media reports that the detainees had already been executed.

Saudi Arabia, under its powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has sought to crack down on dissent, with many activists, including women, arrested in the last one year.

Protests in 2011

 Ghomgham is a prominent Shia Muslim activist who documented mass demonstrations in the Eastern Province starting in 2011. She was arrested from her home in December 2015.

Most of the country’s Shia minority lives in the oil-producing Eastern Province and some have complained that their religious ceremonies are banned or interfered with by Sunni authorities, and that they lack opportunities for work and education. The government has denied the charges.

Saudi Arabia has previously executed Shia activists on what rights groups called politically-motivated charges. </s> RIYADH: : Saudi Arabia´s public prosecutor has sought the death penalty against five human rights activists, who are currently being tried by the country's terrorism tribunal, rights groups said on Wednesday.

Among those accused of inciting protests in the oil-rich Eastern Province is Israa al-Ghomgham, the first female activist to possibly face the death penalty.

"Israa al-Ghomgham and four other individuals are now facing the most appalling possible punishment simply for their involvement in anti-government protests," said Samah Hadid, Amnesty International´s Middle East director of campaigns.

"We are urging the Saudi Arabian authorities to drop these plans immediately," Hadid added.



Ghomgham was arrested at her home along with her husband in December 2015, according to Human Rights Watch.

"Sentencing Israa al-Ghomgham to death would send a horrifying message that other activists could be targeted in the same way for their peaceful protest and human rights activism," Hadid said.

"The charges against Ghomgham... are absurd and clearly politically motivated to silence dissent."
Amnesty International criticizes a Saudi court decision to impose the death sentence on 15 people in a case involving 32 people including 30 Saudis, one Iranian and one Afghan national in an alleged Iranian spy cell.