Guest column
On death row, fighting for democracy
Scott Schulte
Imagine your 17-year-old son wanting to attend Western Michigan University only to be beaten, arrested and sentenced to death on the basis of a “confession” given during torture.
This travesty is still unfolding and underscores just how broken the American/Saudi Arabia relationship is. A young man named Mujtaba Al-Sweikat is on death row awaiting execution by beheading for participating in pro-democracy rallies in Saudi Arabia.
This is the very same country where a young woman was recently arrested for wearing a short skirt in a viral video that recently was released. Amazingly, the arrest of this woman received much more publicity than the potential Western Michigan University student. WMU has confirmed Al-Sweikat had been accepted to the university in 2013, but never attended.
Human rights groups said the execution is troubling, but what about our president or the United States Congress? Why are they not speaking out against our supposed allies? Why does our government speak out against all the human rights abuses going on in Russia, North Korea and China, but remain silent when it’s our allies? How can that be and how can the United States claim to have moral interests in those other countries?
The brutal Saudi Arabian regime continues to ramp up executions and continually receives praise from The Wall Street Journal in the form of David Ignatius, a longtime PR guy for the Saudi regime. An example would be “Women gain newfound stature in Saudi Arabia” (Jan. 18, 2013).
If you’ve followed viral videos and other stories involving female rights in Saudi Arabia, you can notice this is clearly not the case.
Furthermore, Mujtaba is not the only student who faces beheading. He waits along with 14 others, including one other juvenile and a young disabled man.
Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world. Prisoners such as these boys and men are often tortured into making false confessions and convicted in secret trials. In this particular case, they were convicted and sentenced to death by Saudi Arabia’s controversial Specialized Criminal Court.
At this time, all those guilty of supporting democracy are being transferred from Dammam Mabahith prison in preparation for their execution.
This case would be a national embarrassment – if it were well known. However, supporting democracy is clearly not in our interests and the government is weighing our options as to if we want to address this issue with the Saudis. Given that this particular case has not gotten much publicity, one would expect the worst outcome without any public dissent.
I strongly applaud Western Michigan for joining in the call to Trump to get involved and help stop the executions. Will our Congress men and women join in and help save these 14 men and boys? Or will our foreign interests decide that there is too much risk to destroy any relationship we have with the Saudis?
Congress and President Trump, will you act?
This travesty is still unfolding and underscores just how broken the American/Saudi Arabia relationship is. A young man named Mujtaba Al-Sweikat is on death row awaiting execution by beheading for participating in pro-democracy rallies in Saudi Arabia.
This is the very same country where a young woman was recently arrested for wearing a short skirt in a viral video that recently was released. Amazingly, the arrest of this woman received much more publicity than the potential Western Michigan University student. WMU has confirmed Al-Sweikat had been accepted to the university in 2013, but never attended.
Human rights groups said the execution is troubling, but what about our president or the United States Congress? Why are they not speaking out against our supposed allies? Why does our government speak out against all the human rights abuses going on in Russia, North Korea and China, but remain silent when it’s our allies? How can that be and how can the United States claim to have moral interests in those other countries?
The brutal Saudi Arabian regime continues to ramp up executions and continually receives praise from The Wall Street Journal in the form of David Ignatius, a longtime PR guy for the Saudi regime. An example would be “Women gain newfound stature in Saudi Arabia” (Jan. 18, 2013).
If you’ve followed viral videos and other stories involving female rights in Saudi Arabia, you can notice this is clearly not the case.
Furthermore, Mujtaba is not the only student who faces beheading. He waits along with 14 others, including one other juvenile and a young disabled man.
Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world. Prisoners such as these boys and men are often tortured into making false confessions and convicted in secret trials. In this particular case, they were convicted and sentenced to death by Saudi Arabia’s controversial Specialized Criminal Court.
At this time, all those guilty of supporting democracy are being transferred from Dammam Mabahith prison in preparation for their execution.
This case would be a national embarrassment – if it were well known. However, supporting democracy is clearly not in our interests and the government is weighing our options as to if we want to address this issue with the Saudis. Given that this particular case has not gotten much publicity, one would expect the worst outcome without any public dissent.
I strongly applaud Western Michigan for joining in the call to Trump to get involved and help stop the executions. Will our Congress men and women join in and help save these 14 men and boys? Or will our foreign interests decide that there is too much risk to destroy any relationship we have with the Saudis?
Congress and President Trump, will you act?