Human rights campaign calls on King Salman to release all political detainees

LONDON, Aug. 11 (YPA) – Amnesty International has launched a human rights campaign, urging Saudis to sign a petition calling on King Salman to immediately and unconditionally release all those detained for their peaceful protest.

“A sufficient number of Saudis have taken the initiative to show their support for the Saudi activists who are being prosecuted by the state,” the organization said.

It added in its human rights campaign: “Then King Salman will have to listen to them by releasing the activists from Saudi prisons.”

The human rights campaign follows a report by Amnesty International, in which it confirmed that Saudi Arabia has recently intensified its crackdown on human rights activists and opponents and has increased the pace of executions over the past six months.

It noted that the Saudi authorities executed at least 40 people between January and July 2021.

In a report entitled “The Saudi crackdown on freedom of expression after the G20 meeting”, the organization said that “the Kingdom, after handing over the presidency of the G-20, ratified sentences against at least 13 people.”

The European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights monitored the execution of 31 death sentences in the first half of 2021, and confirmed that it exceeded the total number of executions carried out during the year 2020.

YPA