In early 2015, Saudi Arabia assembled a coalition for invading Yemen, the poorest country in the region, which soon turned out to be a loose coalition. So much so that just two coalition member countries still remain loyal to the Saudis; The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Since the onset of the war, the three countries have shown no mercy to Yemeni civilians. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced.
But the callousness of the coalition is not confined to the Yemeni theatre.
In fact, the troika’s utter disregard for human life and dignity begins at home and the bloody campaign against Yemen is just an extension of this inhumane attitude towards people.
For Riyadh, the grisly murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul is the rule, not the exception, when dealing with opponents.
Needless to say, Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist who disagreed with the de facto Saudi ruler on some minor issues.
In actuality, free speech is practically nonexistent in Saudi Arabia and in the two other Arab countries (Bahrain and the UAE) where political dissidents and human rights activists are being imprisoned, threatened into silence, or done away with.
You know, when it comes to human rights they’re quite happy to infringe other countries’ sovereignties to get their own back as we saw with the brutal murder-assassination of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
As we have just heard, in recent days from courts in Britain, about the Sheikh in Dubai, Sheikh Maktoum, who had his daughter kidnapped off the streets of Britain because he wanted her home.
These people have no respect for the rule of law inside their own country. They certainly don’t have any respect for the rule of law in other people’s countries.
Yvonne Ridley, Author, and Journalist
In Saudi Arabia, even senior royals are not immune to the iron fist of the ruling system.
The arbitrary arrest and detention of former Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, Prince Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz, and Princess Basma bint Saud Al Saud, a daughter of former King Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud show the gravity of the situation in the kingdom.
These Persian Gulf states have kept failing to abide by international fair trial standards, often holding summary proceedings in secret.
There’s no such thing as a fair trial. In fact, for the majority of political prisoners especially in Saudi, there are no trials, which actually is against the Saudi constitution.
But you know, in this new world, where the de facto leader is the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the rules go out the window, Justice goes out the window, and so the trials, you know, forget even fair trials, trials full stop. People are being held in their thousands, indefinitely, without trial or charge.
Yvonne Ridley, Author, and Journalist
Despite the kingdom’s braggadocio about huge reforms in the judicial system, Saudi Arabia ramped up executions in the first half of 2021, executing at least 40 people between January and July 2021.
The kingdom’s unfair trials are not just a threat to its own citizen. In March 2020, Saudi Arabia opened a mass trial of 68 Jordanians and Palestinians detained beginning in 2018 on vague allegations of links with a “terrorist organization.”
Meanwhile, dozens of prominent activists are serving long prison sentences for their peaceful activities, especially after the 2011 protests that rocked the Arab world.
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For example, prominent Saudi activist Waleed Sami Abulkhair continues to serve a 15-year sentence solely for his peaceful criticism of human rights abuses on social media.
Human Rights has always been a big issue in that part of the world, and despite the much-heralded change in the direction of human rights, I’m afraid it’s all cosmetic. It’s still a facade.
The reality is that there are hundreds if not thousands of people who are having their human rights abused on an almost daily basis, especially in Saudi where women, as well as men, are in prison.
And yet the impression that Saudi gives the West is that it’s very woman-friendly. It’s put in reforms that give rights to women.
Well, if that’s the case, why are some of the women’s rights activists still being held as political prisoners?
Yvonne Ridley, Author, and Journalist
As of 2020, a number of prominent women’s rights activists including Loujain al-Hathloul, Mayaa al-Zahrani, Samar Badawi, Nouf Abdulaziz, and Nassima al-Sadah, who were detained in 2018 remained in detention.
Although al-Hathloul was released later, she is still faced with numerous restrictions.
In the UAE, the two cases of human rights activist, Ahmed Mansoor, and the academic, Nasser bin Ghaith, represent the stifling atmosphere in a country that has painted itself as a progressive, tolerant, and rights-respecting nation.
Bin Ghaith is serving 10 years on charges stemming from criticism of UAE and Egyptian authorities.
In fact, scores of activists, academics, and lawyers are serving lengthy sentences in Saudi, UAE, and Bahraini prisons, in many cases following unfair trials on vague and broad charges.
In Bahrain, thirteen prominent dissidents have been serving lengthy prison terms since their arrest in 2011 for their roles in pro-democracy demonstrations.
Under public pressure, Nabeel Rajab, one of the country’s most prominent human rights defenders, was released from prison on June 9, 2020, to serve the rest of his five-year sentence under the alternative sanctions law.
Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, a founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, Abduljalil al-Singace, a leader in the opposition group Al Haq, and Shaikh Ali Salman, the leader of Al-Wifaq, Bahrain’s largest, but now forcibly dissolved, opposition political society are among other prominent prisoners serving life sentences.
When it comes to human rights violations, the Bahraini regime has been formed by arbitrarily revoking citizenships.
Almost 300 persons whom the Bahraini authorities have stripped of their citizenship in recent years remain without Bahraini nationality, rendering most of them stateless.
With the normalization of ties with the Israeli regime, these regimes have now state-of-the-art technologies at their disposal for committing even more violations of human rights.
There are many reports revealing or indicating that these Arab countries have been using the Israeli NSO Group’s spyware, Pegasus at the heart of their digital crackdown on dissent at home and abroad.
A very good friend of mine who is 82 years old, a trained architect and engineer was disappeared last year from his home in Medina.
His family has been ordered to remain quiet about his disappearance. And I am a lone voice raising the issue of Dr. Mustapha and he is just one of the thousands of people who would have been held without trial, without charge; he’s 82 years old.
Yvonne Ridley, Author, and Journalist
In recent years ‘sports washing’ has gained momentum as a common tactic used by Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Manama to improve their tarnished reputation.
Hosting international sports events and trying to purchase popular sports clubs around the world are all part of their ‘sports washing’ scheme which is criticized by activists and human rights organizations.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain are listed among the worst countries in terms of human rights. Yet, with the almost unconditional support they receive from the West and through a slew of PR exercises, they try to hide their flagrant violations of human rights, without any real attempt to improve the situation.
Given the inaction on the part of the international community, there is no end in sight to the suffering of people in these countries; the troika of tyranny.
