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Saudi Arabia: 14 Shia Activists Facing ’Imminent’ Beheading

Saudi Arabia: 14 Shia Activists Facing ’Imminent’ Beheading
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Fourteen Shia activists who face being imminently beheaded in Saudi Arabia at the stroke of a pen raised the plight of the Kingdom's minority.

Saudi Arabia: 14 Shia Activists Facing ’Imminent’ Beheading

The activists were given the death penalty after being convicted of a series of what the Saudi regime refers to as ‘terrorism charges' just for taking part in peaceful protests.

They had taken to the streets as part of the Arab Spring protests which had swept across the Middle East in 2011 demanding reforms.

Activists in Saudi Arabia say the men who face immediate execution for taking part in the Shia uprising in the country is proof of an on-going crackdown on the minority faith in the country.

Human rights groups said the fourteen, including a student and a disabled man, had been tortured before being enduring a "grossly unfair mass trial".

The 2011 peaceful protests in the kingdom erupted in the eastern province of Qatif - a Shia stronghold which has seen violent clashes between government forces and militants in recent months.

Seventeen were martyred in May in the military campaign in the town of Awamia, with thousands fleeing their homes in the aftermath.

The 14 men face being imminently beheaded as soon as the country's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud signs-off their death sentences.

The Supreme Court last month gave them the death penalty for claimed charges including shooting at the security forces, throwing Molotov Cocktail bombs and for organizing and taking part in riots.

One of the fourteen men who faces a beheading includes Mujtaba al-Sowaiket, a student whom police arrested as he was about to board a flight to the US to start university.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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