Dozens of human rights activists protested in the British capital, London, on Friday against the arbitrary arrests of the Saudi regime.
The protesters carried in front of the Kingdom’s embassy in London banners with pictures and names of prisoners of conscience, Palestinian, and Jordanian detainees in the Kingdom’s prisons.
The protesters demanded the immediate release of the detainees, the abolition of the mock trials, and held the authorities responsible for their safety.
The condemnation of the black human rights record of the Saudi regime enjoys an international human rights consensus amid repeated condemnation in it in the reports of the United Nations and international organizations.
International and human rights reports condemn the Saudi violations and deplore the relentless repression that has taken place in the Kingdom, especially since Muhammad bin Salman took over the mandate of Al-Ad in the summer of 2017.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michel Bachelet, before the United Nations Human Rights Council a few days ago the absence of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in the Kingdom, the issuance of unjust judgments against activists, clerics and journalists, and the detention of activists because of their demand for reform.
For its part, Amnesty International highlighted in a recently released annual report for 2019 that the Saudi regime prohibits the formation of civil associations, uses the courts as a tool to silence mouths and deprives members of the Shiite minority of their rights.
Human Rights Watch condemned the widespread repression against opponents and independent activists in the Kingdom and the arbitrary detention of human rights defenders, highlighting at the same time that the reforms related to women and promoted by the system are formal and did not include the release of detained activists without legal justification.
The Human Rights Foundation also affirmed in its annual report issued a few days ago that the Saudi regime rules with a security grip and intimidation, publishes political prisons, practices brutal torture, absent independent media and prohibits civil institutions.
The same was confirmed by the European Saudi Human Rights Organization, which stressed that the Kingdom faces the worst reality in recent decades and that tyranny controls the government and crushes any opposition at the time of the executive branch controls the judiciary and prevents its independence.
According to UN reports and the mentioned international organizations and others, the Saudi regime is committing grave violations, including the prevention of justice in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Kingdom’s consulate in early October 2018.
The Saudi regime is also implicated in the appalling war crimes against civilians in Yemen as part of the war that it has waged for more than five years, leaving thousands dead and wounded and turning the country into the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.