![\"Saudi](\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Abdullah.jpg\")
<\/a>Saudi King Abdullah<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cSaudi authorities have never tolerated criticism of their policies, but these recent laws and regulations turn almost any critical expression or independent association into crimes of terrorism,\u201d said\u00a0Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThese regulations dash any hope that King Abdullah intends to open a space for peaceful dissent or independent groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new regulations come amid a campaign to silence independent activists and peaceful dissidents through intimidation, investigations, arrests, prosecutions, and imprisonment. On March 9, the prominent human rights activists\u00a0Abdullah al-Hamid and Mohammed al-Qahtani\u00a0completed their first year in prison, serving 11 and 10-year sentences, respectively, for criticizing the government\u2019s human rights abuses and for membership in an unlicensed political and civil rights organization.<\/p>\n
Two other human rights activists,\u00a0Waleed Abu al-Khair<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Mikhlif al-Shammari<\/a><\/span>, recently lost appeals and will probably begin their three-month and five-year respective sentences soon for criticizing Saudi authorities.<\/p>\n On January 31, Saudi authorities\u00a0promulgated<\/a><\/span>\u00a0the Penal Law for Crimes of Terrorism and its Financing (the \u201cterrorism law\u201d). The law has serious flaws, including vague and overly broad provisions that allow authorities to criminalize free expression, and the creation of excessive police powers without judicial oversight. The law cites violence as an essential element only in reference to attacks carried out against Saudis outside the kingdom or onboard Saudi transportation carriers. Inside the kingdom, \u201cterrorism\u201d can be non-violent \u2013 consisting of \u201cany act\u201d intended to, among other things, \u201cinsult the reputation of the state,\u201d \u201charm public order,\u201d or \u201cshake the security of society,\u201d which the law fails to clearly define.<\/p>\n On February 3, two days after the terrorism law came into force, King Abdullah issued Royal Decree 44, which criminalizes \u201cparticipating in hostilities outside the kingdom\u201d with prison sentences of between three and 20 years. On March 7, the Interior Ministry issued further regulations designating an initial list of groups the government considers terrorist organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood and the Houthi group in Yemen, along with \u201cAl-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Da`ish [the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, or ISIS], Jabhat al-Nusra, and Hezbollah inside the kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n The interior ministry regulations include other sweeping provisions that authorities can use to criminalize virtually any expression or association critical of the government and its understanding of Islam. These \u201cterrorism\u201d provisions include the following:<\/p>\n These broad provisions contain language that prosecutors and judges are already using to prosecute and convict independent activists and peaceful dissidents, Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n Al-Qahtani and al-Hamid\u2019s convictions included charges such as \u201cbreaking allegiance with the ruler,\u201d \u201cslandering the religiosity and integrity of the Supreme Council of Religious Scholars,\u201d \u201csowing discord,\u201d and \u201cattempting to shake the internal security of the country by calling for demonstrations.\u201d The new terrorism regulations classify several of these charges as acts of terrorism.<\/p>\n Other members of their organization, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), are serving sentences for convictions on similar charges, including Mohammed al-Bajadi, Omar al-Saeed, and Abd al-Kareem al-Khodr. A jailed member, Fowzan al-Harbi, is on trial before the Riyadh Criminal Court on charges that include \u201cparticipating in calling for and inciting breaking allegiance with the ruler,\u201d \u201cexplicit libel of the integrity and religiosity of the Supreme Council of Religious Scholars,\u201d \u201cparticipating in setting up an unlicensed organization\u201d \u2013 namely, ACPRA \u2013 \u201cpublishing details of his investigation,\u201d and \u201cdescribing the ruling Saudi regime \u2013 unjustly \u2013 as a police state.\u201d<\/p>\n In the March 9 case, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA)\u00a0reported<\/a><\/span>, a Saudi appeals court upheld an eight-year sentence for a Saudi citizen for \u201chis involvement in inciting [family members] of detainees in security cases to demonstrations and sit-ins through producing, storing, and sending tweets, video clips on YouTube, and social networking sites,\u201d as well as \u201chis sarcasm toward the ruler of the kingdom and its religious authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n On March 10, the SPA\u00a0reported<\/a><\/span>\u00a0the conviction of another man, with a 10-year prison sentence and a 100,000 riyal fine ($26,600), for \u201cengaging in following, saving, and resending inciting tweets on the social networking site (Twitter) against the rulers, religious scholars, and government agencies and his connection to people who call themselves reformists\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Another human rights activist,\u00a0Fadhil al-Manasif<\/a><\/span>, who played a leading role in documenting abuses against demonstrators in the Eastern Province in 2011, is on trial for \u201csowing discord,\u201d \u201cinciting public opinion against the state,\u201d and \u201ccommunicating with foreign news agencies to exaggerate news and harm the reputation of the kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n And Riyadh-based human rights activists, Mohammed al-Otaibi and Abdullah al-Attawi, who\u00a0came under investigation<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in April 2013 for co-founding a new human rights organization \u2013 The Union for Human Rights \u2013 face a new investigation based on their human rights activities.<\/p>\n Article 32 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights, to which Saudi Arabia is party, guarantees the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and to impart news to others by any means. Article 28 guarantees the rights to peaceful assembly and association.<\/p>\n\n