Coinciding with the Riyadh Season’s inauguration to whitewash the Saudi crimes, human rights organizations and activists push to bring the government’s violations and abuses to the surface, bringing the plights of political prisoners to the spotlight.
According to the Sanad human rights organization, these activities come in light of the regime’s insistence on issuing arbitrary sentences to dozens of prisoners of conscience, including 12 death sentences, bringing the number of those threatened with the death penalty to about 40 detainees.
The Saudi regime seeks to cover up its failures and horrific crimes against the country’s people, including prisoners of conscience, through entertainment activities and what is known as the Riyadh season to distract the world and the people from the abuse that occurs against prisoners of conscience.
The organization stressed that the reality of human rights had constantly been declining since Mohammed bin Salman assumed the position of Saudi Crown Prince, in light of arrests, repression, abuse and arbitrary sentences used by the judiciary against innocent prisoners of conscience.
In light of the issuance and ratification of death sentences against dozens, including minors, and the unprecedented arbitrary sentences that amounted to 9 decades against male and female activists, Riyadh opened its third entertainment season.
The seasons, which come in new directions after the launch of Vision 2030, are a kind of economic investment in the non-oil fields, and it is an attempt by the Saudi government to make the country a tourist destination for the world.
The Seasons host celebrities from different countries and are distributed over 15 regions, each of which has a unique entertainment character, most notably Boulevard World, which includes the cultures and atmospheres of several countries worldwide.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights said that Saudi Arabia’s attempts to shed light on the entertainment seasons and the various events it has received and organized since 2017 come in light of an unprecedented deterioration in the human rights situation at home.
Despite the Saudi government’s attempt to bury the faces of deterioration by imposing silence on civil society, preventing any role for organizations and intimidating families, the facts about the violations are still emerging.
The organization indicated that during October 2022, in which the activities of Riyadh will start, the Saudi government decided to issue death sentences against at least 12 people, bringing the number of detainees at risk of death, and whose cases the organization was able to track 40 people.
Among them are at least eight minors: Abdullah Al-Dirazi, Jalal Al-Labad, Youssef Al-Manasif, Hassan Zaki Al-Faraj, Abdullah Al-Huwaiti, Jawad Qureiris, Mahdi Al-Mohsen, Ali Al-Sbaiti.
The organization’s report confirmed that most detainees, threatened with execution, were deprived of the conditions for fair trials and were subjected to severe violations, including various types of torture and ill-treatment and the denial of the right to self-defence. However, most of them did not face serious charges.
While the Entertainment Authority says that the seasons bearing the slogan: Riyadh season, beyond the imagination, the Saudi government deprives hundreds of individuals of their right to freedom to live on charges related to their exercise of legitimate rights such as expressing an opinion or going out in demonstrations. In addition, the judiciary in Saudi Arabia issues death sentences and decades of imprisonment for minors.
Saudi Arabia has confirmed that the entertainment seasons announced within Vision 2030 aim to promote a culture of joy and create sustainable investment opportunities, in stark contrast to the fact of increasing terror and fear, as it is still among the top 5 countries that carry out the death penalty in the world, and carried out 124 death sentences. Moreover, since the beginning of 2022, it has threatened the lives of at least 40 detainees.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights stressed that the seasons of entertainment and the sports whitening campaigns, on which Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars over the past years, come as part of its attempts to paint a new image for the world under which the violations and oppression that people are subjected to at home hide.
The organization considered promoting these seasons, hosting celebrities from countries around the world, and opening the doors of Saudi Arabia to tourists and foreigners. But, at the same time, the lives of minors, demonstrators and prisoners of conscience are still threatened with execution is a stark contradiction.