UN accused regime of torture to extract false confessions from Hussain Abu al-Khair
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Hussain Abu al-Khair was arrested in 2014 while driving his taxi across the border from his local Jordan.
A man jailed for drug-related offences in Saudi Arabia fears he will then be “spared”, his sister said, after the regime abandoned its intention to “moratorium” on the execution of others imprisoned for such crimes.
Hussain Abu al-Khair was arrested in 2014 while driving his taxi across the border from his local city of Jordan, after the border government allegedly discovered 200,000 tablets of Captagon, a stimulant commonly used in the Middle East, in his vehicle.
The father of 8 was reportedly taken to a black site for thirteen days and tortured into falsely confessing to the crime, in what human rights teams say he was an unintentional drug mule. Although he told the judge about the nature of his confession, he sentenced him to death. The verdict was reportedly overturned by the Supreme Court, but was overturned again in 2017 after government intervention.
A year later, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in his attempt to look like a reformer, claimed he sought to end the death penalty for some criminals, and in 2021, the government-led Human Rights Commission (HRC) insisted that a “moratorium” on drug-related death sentences had led to a sharp drop in executions.
But rights teams were skeptical, saying the 85% drop in executions demanded through the regime in 2020 was partly due to coronavirus restrictions, as was also the case in other countries where the death penalty is legal.
Last month, those fears were justified without caution when Saudi Arabia executed another 17 people accused of drug trafficking and smuggling offenses over a 12-day period, according to the United Nations, marking a record year of beheadings in the kingdom, fueled by the country’s largest mass execution in decades.
A few days later, Mr. Abu al-Khair allegedly told his sister that he had been transferred to the execution segment of his criminal and that the day before two men had been taken from his mobile phone to be executed.
While the guards warned her they would execute him sooner if he spoke to the media, he suggested she communicate about her case, reportedly she said, adding, “How can you be a prince preparing for the king and making promises to the king?”media and do something else in the shadows?
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had warned in the past that Saudi Arabia was trying to reduce the use of the death penalty.
Abu al-Khair’s sister, Zainab, 61, who lives in Canada, told the Daily Mirror this week: “My brother lives with great concern for his life. . . Every moment waits for it to be your turn as our total circle of family members is forced to live in worry, sadness and anxiety.
The Jordanian citizen, born in 1965, is “surrounded by dead people everywhere,” his sister said, adding: “It’s mental torture because he doesn’t know when his head is going to be cut off. “
His 8 children, who live in Jordan, are in “misery” because of the absence of their father, who in the past “smiled, enjoyed life and told jokes” and enjoyed music, making a song and playing sports, according to his sister. .
But after 8 years of detention without access to a doctor, the UN Human Rights Council reported that Mr. Abu al-Khair is now nearly blind and likely suffers from “death row syndrome,” a mental deficiency seen among those threatened with execution.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention alleged that Mr. Abu al-Khair tortured him before signing a confession and denied him access to a lawyer.
The framework said Saudi Arabia may have violated its obligations under foreign human rights agreements and suggested the regime silence Mr. Abu al-Khair, release him unconditionally and ensure he receives medical care.
In its 30 years of existence, the UN-led organization has found that Saudi Arabia has violated its international human rights obligations in more than 65 cases, indicating a widespread or systemic challenge to arbitrary detention in Saudi Arabia that would possibly amount to crimes against humanity. , the frame told me.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights alleged this month that dozens of detainees were on death row for drug-related offences in Saudi Arabia and warned that resuming executions for such crimes would lead to an unprecedented backlog of beheadings.
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Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had warned in the past that Saudi Arabia was trying to reduce the use of the death penalty.
Saudi Green Initiative
Hussain Abu al-Khair was arrested in 2014 while driving his taxi across the border from his local Jordan.
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