RNA - Amnesty says jail sentences handed down to prominent Saudi human rights defenders and similar other verdicts show Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's resolve to suppress the civil society. The London-based rights group says the Specialized Criminal Court in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, sentenced Mohammad al-Otaibi and Abdullah al-Attawi to 14 and seven years in prison, respectively, adding that the Saudi crackdown "has continued unabated, with almost all the country’s most prominent human rights defenders now behind bars."
It goes on to state that “the harsh sentencing of Mohammad al-Otaibi and Abdullah al-Attawi, who should never have been prosecuted in the first place, confirms our fears that the new leadership of Mohamed bin Salman is determined to silence civil society and human rights defenders in the Kingdom. "
No doubt the Saudi reign of terror in the region and human rights violations at home continue on the back of US support and complicity - with complete impunity and unaccountability. The US government has always been the first to call out other nations with poor track records on human rights abuses. Invariably they are the two nations viewed most threatening to America’s global hegemony and power – rivals Russia and China. Other loudly criticized countries include Iran that most defies US dominance and Saudi war crimes and state terrorism in places like Yemen and Syria.
At any rate, any nation on earth is at risk of America’s wrath that fights to protect its own self-interest over and above the global bully’s in a noble effort to minimize economic exploitation in the plundering of precious natural resources and subjugating. But any country going against the world’s worst human rights violator is automatically deemed an enemy of the US and subject to such labels as axis-of-evil and a serious threat to regional peace.
No surprise that countries like Iran and Syria are all targeted in the crosshairs of the next war or next regime change living under decades of heavy-handed economic sanctions designed to break the will of these independent nations bold enough to resist US aggression, state terrorism, superpower control, and full frontal dominance.
On the other hand, when a corrupt despotic regime like Saudi Arabia with the worst human rights records in the entire world encourages and willingly allows a strong US presence with active duty military installations, it is merely given a free pass and even a seat at the UN Human Rights Council, immune from any US criticism and threat. The Saudis continue to succumb and are openly complicit in the murdering and pillaging of Yemen and its people by the global bully, all because they are assured the War Party has their back and always turns a blind eye to their heinous crimes against humanity and human rights violations of the most vile kind.
In the face of this latest incriminating report by Amnesty International, it is obvious that Saudi Arabia’s allies and protectors in the West also believe that the autocratic regime has finally gone too far. Of course they only admit and criticize, and take no further action. But that’s more than enough to refer the regime to The Hague and kick it out of the UN Human Rights Council. Clearly this latest report shows that the US-backed Saudi regime systematically disregards all international protocols and Geneva Convention rules prohibiting imprisonment of human rights defenders, torture and inhumane treatment of detainees.
The latest crackdown is just one tip of the iceberg, illustrating high profile example of Saudi human rights abuses on the back of US culpability that have long been embedded as standard regime policy throughout the country, the Middle East and North Africa.
In summary of the above, the entire world laughs at America’s blatant hypocrisy and double standard as well. Since the US has chiefly been responsible for escalating the Saudi-led war on Yemen by supporting and arming the coalition in this unjustified human tragedy and military aggression, it is also responsible for the Saudi regime’s human rights abuses at home.
A solid case can be made that the United States is also a major human rights offender. The global bully bears much of the blame for the majority of these most notorious human rights offenses, crimes against humanity and war crimes, defying and violating all international laws, disregarding other nations’ sovereignties, and maintaining horrendous human rights records.
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