SAUDI ARABIA: TWO SHIITE CITIZENS SENTENCED TO DEATH

February 16, 2023:

Two Shiite citizens were sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia on 7 February 2023 for allegedly collaborating with terrorist groups.
The kingdom’s Specialized Criminal Court handed down death sentences to Ali Muhammad al-Rabi and Ali Hassan al-Safwani, according to a report by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights.
This is while the Saudi prosecutor’s office had earlier called for a 20-year prison sentence as well as a travel ban to prevent them from leaving the country.
Ali Muhammad—who is from a Shiite community which faces systematic discrimination by the Saudi regime -- has been accused of being a member of a terrorist organization, supporting a terrorist ideology, helping and sheltering a number of terrorists and providing them with food, using information networks and social networks, and plans to contact terrorists.
Ali Muhammad was arrested on 7 February 2021, after Saudi forces attacked his house without a warrant. He was held in solitary confinement for 3 months and denied access to his family during this time. 
Ali Hassan has also been accused of being a member of a terrorist organization, supporting terrorist ideology, and aiding and abetting a number of terrorists.
Both of them had rejected the accusations in court and had been forced to confess without having access to a lawyer, the European human rights body said.