Archive for month: October, 2015

Ali Mohammad al-Nimr’s nightmare began on February 14, 2012, when age only 16. Saudi Security Forces arrested him, as he rode his bike near his family home, by rear ending him with a Jeep.

Ali was born December 25, 1995 in Qatif, Saudi Arabia. He is the nephew of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. In December, 2011, Ali accompanied his uncle to a meeting, where Shiekh Nimr called for the peaceful  respect human dignity for all citizens. For this crime, on October, 15  2014, Sheikh al-Nimr was sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court, where charges included  “seeking ‘foreign meddling’,  ‘disobeying’ its rulers and taking up arms against the security forces.”  His brother, Mohammad al-Nimr (Ali’s father), was arrested on the same day for tweeting information about the death sentence.

In the terrible  day in February, without his parents ever being informed, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was taken to a juvenile prison – there he was tortured for months and asked to confess to crimes he never committed: all of it to implications Shiekh Nimr.  For the next four month Ali Mohammad al-Nimr was held incommunicado, without any access to legal counsel or contact with the outside.

For he attended a peaceful rally in the Shia majority  Qatif (eastern province of Saudi Arabia), Ali Mohammad al-Nimr was abducted and incarcerated. Because his family represents outspoken beacon of hope for Saudi Arabia’s Shia community, Ali Mohammad has been brutalized by the regime.

In June 2012, Ali’s mother was finally allowed to visit her son in prison. There, she witnessed  the horrors her son was put through – the beating, the torture, the abuses and psychological duress he had to endure day after day, week after week, month after month.

In December 2012, Ali Mohammad al-Nimr, then age 17, was charged with thirteen ludicris charges including Hariba (treason against God and the King of Saudi Arabia) – a blanket accusation the Saudi regime has often times used to silence its prisoners of conscience.

Ali Mohammad was never allowed access to a lawyer, he was never offered the opportunity to defend himself, or even allowed to challenge the charges which were brought against him.

After being found guilty of all the charges against the King, Ali Mohammad al-Nimr was sentenced to death by beheading and crucifixion.

In May 2014, following a lengthy and difficult appeal, Ali Mohammad’s case was reviewed before a panel of judges. Judges in Saudi Arabia, fall under the direct authority of the king, and their allegiance is not to the rule of law but the throne. Ali Mohammad al-Nimr never stood a chance at any fair trial.

Again, the final appeal was handed out secretly in July of 2015, where 13 judges sentenced him to death with no chance of further appeal.Since May 2014, Ali Mohammad, this young boy from Qatif has sat in prison, awaiting for his accusers to steal his last breath. His crime? Being a Shia Muslim in Saudi Arabia.

Ali’s predicament is not an isolated incident – Saudi Arabia’s prisons hold many minors within their walls; and too many,  like Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, have been sentenced to death, in clear violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

It needs to be noted that in 1996, Saudi Arabia agreed to be a state party to the CRC, when the Saudi Human Rights Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

And yet, Saudi Arabia has systematically violated Ali Mohammed al-Nimr’s rights.

Not only has the UN failed to fulfill its mandate by challenging those in infractions of international law, it rewarded the kingdom.

In June of 2015 Faisal Trad, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Geneva, was elected Chair of the UN Human Rights Council panel that appoints independent experts.

Today we wish to break the silence and denounce those crimes the international community should have acted against long ago!

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states:

“Article 37 States Parties shall ensure that:(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age;

(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;

(c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child’s best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances;

 (d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action.”

Moreover, under article 15 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), peaceful assembly is a protected right. It reads:

“Article 15: 1. States Parties recognize the rights of the child to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly.

2. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of these rights other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”

Active petitions calling for the unconditional and immediate release of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr:

– The White House (for U.S. citizens only): https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/negotiate-release-ali-mohammed-al-nimr

– Amnesty International: http://www.amnesty.org.au/action/action/38122/

– Change.org: https://www.change.org/p/king-abdullah-bin-abdul-aziz-supreme-court-of-saudi-arab-stop-the-crucifixion-of-ali-mohammed-al-nimr#petition-letter

– Reprieve: https://reprieve.bsd.net/page/s/saudi-arabia-do-not-crucify-ali-mohammed-al-nimr

END

For all press queries and details please contact Al Nimr PR representatives at Veritas Consulting:

Catherine Shakdam in the UK at

Email: catherine.shakdam@veritas-consultancy.one

or

Marwa Osman in Lebanon at

marwa.osman@veritas-consultancy.one

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The Khalid bin Abdul-Aziz military air base located in Khamis Msheit in Assir border region was directly hit by the Scud attack.

Surveillance unit in the Yemeni army confirmed the news.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 203 days now to restore power to Hadi. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 6,579 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Yemeni national military, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

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Statement of the Ahlulbayt World Assembly on the Threshold of Muharram 1437 A.H.

“The Holy Prophet of Islam – peace be upon him and his Infallible Household – said: Verily, there is a flame within the hearts of believers in the wake of Hussein’s martyrdom, which will never be extinguished.” (Mustadrak al-Wasa’il, vol 10, p 318)

Salam to the month of Muharram; the month of roaring by the oppressed upon the tyrants; the month of zeal and loneliness; the month of heroism; the month of courage and martyrdom; and the month of the victory of blood over the sword … a month on whose pages has been carved the slogan of ‘Humiliation is too far from us!’ ….. and Salam to Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Seal of Prophets (s.a.) who gave his heart’s blood to save God’s people from ignorance and error …

Muharram comes so that the followers of the path of Imam Hussein (a.s.) will hoist the flag of pure Mohammedan Islam once again to spread the culture of Ashura across the Muslim World through their public meetings and mourning ceremonies as emphasized by the late leader of Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (r.a.): “The Lord of Martyrs (i.e. Imam Hussein) has kept Islam alive throughout the history … He was the one who saved Islam. Mourning for Imam Hussein (a.s.) is to safeguard his school of thought. For over 1400 years, such mourning ceremonies, speeches, weeping for his sake, and beating chests in his remembrance have protected our religion.”

Words of the leader of Muslim world, Ayatollah Khamenei, too, highlight the issue as being fundamentally significant: “If the people of Islam keep the name and remembrance of Hussein (a.s.) alive and choose it as a role model, they will pass all obstacles and difficulties.”

Now that the Muslim World is still grieving for the unjustly spilled bloods of innocent pilgrims in Mena by Al Saud regime, the followers and lovers of Ahlulbayt worldwide are preparing themselves for the advent of Muharram’s mourning ceremonies at this particular time when similar tragedies are being repeated in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Pakistan and Iraq by terrorists who are hired by the evil states of Britain and the United States.

On the other hand, the attacks of the Zionist regime in Jerusalem has also started and is being continued while a number of countries including the U.S. and Britain who are sided with the aggressor and usurper regime have condemned the defensive responses by Palestinian groups. Also many other states who take the gesture of democracy and freedom have adopted weak stances and issued passive statements on this matter.

Unfortunately, the extraordinary meeting of U.N. Security Council to investigate these attacks ended without any result (as expected!) as if the fate of the oppressed people in today world is somehow linked to the event of Karbala and Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) .

As usual, Arab reactionary regimes, who have mainly taken refuge in the arms of the Western powers out of fear of popular revolutions, marked another shameful page in their records with their deadly silence and useless actions against the crimes of Al Saud and Zionism.

In response to these events, the Ahlulbayt World Assembly as an international popular organization, which has intellectual and cultural authority among millions of Muslims in the world, calls the attention of its members, representatives, missionaries (Muballeghin) and agencies to the following points:

1) You are kindly requested to condemn the crimes of the Zionist regime in attacking defenseless civilians and protectors of Al-Aqsa mosque and urge all Muslims and free-thinking people worldwide to ask for stopping such crimes and respond to these human disasters through all possible ways including the following:

A) Organizing protests against the U.S. embassies, condemning their support for the Zionist regime and the rulers of Saudi Arabia, and urging the U.S. and the West to control these regimes.

B) Issuing statements and organizing protest rallies, sit-ins and demonstrations against the traitors and Saudi rulers who strengthen the Zionist usurper and weaken the resistance axis in the region by suppressing the oppressed people of Bahrain, Yemen and Syria.

C) Holding seminars and meetings attended by Muslim and non-Muslim intellectuals as well as exhibitions of photos to reveal the crimes of Israel and Saudi Arabia and depict the viewpoints of the Resistance Front against the Accordance Front. In this way, and by enlightening the public with true information, the monopoly of International Zionist and Wahabism media will be broken.

2) All elites and scholars of the Islamic world are hereby requested to make efforts to strengthen the unity among the Islamic nations in these critical conditions and take advantage of the days of the month of Muharram to inform people of the movement of Imam Hussein (a.s.) and encourage them to follow the teachings of Karbala uprising against oppression and injustice and fighting against the Yazids of the time and the modern age of ignorance.

3) We urge the international community and human rights organizations to fulfill their legal duty to condemn the brutal and inhuman crimes by terrorist and Takfirist groups and to take practical measures to prevent the continuation of their crimes. Human Rights organizations are seriously expected to support the oppressed people of Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Syria and Palestine.

4) We expect the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to hold emergency meeting for immediate practical actions to defend the oppressed people of Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Syria and Palestine with all its might. OIC is also expected to activate the diplomacy of the member states to push international organizations such as the UN, the Arab League, the Association of Muslim Scholars and the Non-aligned Movement to take positive measures in this regard.

At the end, we call the oppressed people of Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Syria and Palestine to resist the invaders and oppressors and pin their hope in the divine promise: “Verily, Allah defends those who believe” as we have experienced it during the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the 22-Day 33-Day Wars in Lebanon.

The Ahlulbayt World Assembly extends its the condolences over the current sad days, and appeals to all believers and lovers of the Ahlulbayt to take Imam Hussein’s teachings about the culture of martyrdom as their role model at the present time and in future until the return of Imam Mahdi (a.s.) and the golden age after his reappearance.

Last but not least, the Ahlulbayt World Assembly urges all preachers, poets, eulogists, and scholars to observe the high dignity of mourning ceremonies and Majalis of Imam Hussein (a.s.) by elaborating the merits and virtues of Imam Hussein (a.s.) and the philosophy of his revolution by adhering to authentic sources; and avoid putting forward any superstitious and inauthentic matters. Muharram and Ashura is actually a very good opportunity to upgrade the insight, knowledge and spirituality among the society.

Salam upon Hussein, and upon his son Ali ibn Hussein, and upon the offspring of Hussein, and upon the companions of Hussein; and Allah’s mercy and blessings be upon them.

The Ahlulbayt World Assembly 12 October 2015

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