Save My Son: Mother of Death Sentence Pleads to Obama
Saudi Arabia is experiencing increased scrutiny over the severity of its penal system with a case that’s attracting global attention.
Hajj in Saudi Arabia. Image Credit: Al Jazeera English (Flickr)
The mother of a Saudi protester who has been sentenced to death by crucifixion and beheading, is imploring Barak Obama to help save her son.
In her first interview with foreign media, Nusra al-Ahmed spoke to the Guardian and described the prescribed punishment for her son attending a protest as “backwards in the extreme.”
Human rights lawyers at groups such as Amnesty International and Reprieve have all spoken out for clemency, currently to no avail.
Criminal lawyers in Bangkok have decades of experience working in both Thailand and the United States.
The Saudi Ambassador to the UN Abdallah al-Mouallimi, said:
“We respectfully request the world to respect our systems and our judicial processes, and our laws and regulations, and not to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state.”
Saudi Arabia’s severe punishments, even minus the death sentence have been causing shockwaves this week. Karl Andree, the 74 year old pensioner has spent a year in prison for possessing wine, in the country where alcohol is illegal. He now faces 350 lashes in a public flogging, which his family feels he won’t survive.
Read the full story here.
Editorial comment: Obama has been droning targets in the Middle East and 90% of the drone attacks have killed civilians. The Obama administraion has recently bombed a Doctors Without Borders.
Therefore there is an extreme irony to this plea to Obama. To add insult to injury, a Saudi Arabian man has recently been appointed a key role in the Human Rights panel of the UN.
