A group of Newcastle United fans delivered a letter to the team coach, Eddie Howe, written by the brother of Hassan Al-Rabee, the Saudi who “faces the risk of being tortured or the death penalty in his country,” according to the website.ENews” British.
Excerpts from the letter were read Saturday at a gathering organized by members of the group called NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing.
This movement comes after the Al Rabie family was handed over by Morocco to Saudi Arabia, according to human rights organizations.
Human rights organizations: Morocco handed over wanted man to Saudi Arabia, who faces “risk of torture”
Twenty-four Arab and international human rights organizations announced that the Saudi citizen Hassan Al-Rabee, who belongs to a politically active Shiite family, has been deported from Morocco, where he was under arrest, to his country.
Hassan, 26, was arrested last January 14 while he was leaving Rabat towards Turkey, according to a Saudi arrest warrant issued in November, accusing him of coordinating “with a terrorist to facilitate his exit from the Kingdom, in an irregular manner.”
But his brother, Ahmed, said in the letter that Hassan left Saudi Arabia because his family was being persecuted.
The letter says Hassan was “kidnapped” at Marrakesh airport in January, and has already been returned to Saudi Arabia, where the family fears he will face the same fate as his other brother, Ali, who has been sentenced to death by the kingdom’s judicial authorities.
The letter read: “I want to tell you and the Newcastle players that sportswashing kills (…) the regime has invested billions of dollars trying to whiten its global image by promoting sporting events and buying football teams like yours, and at the same time the rate of executions at home has doubled since 2015″.
It is noteworthy that the Newcastle team is owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is affiliated with the state.
Al-Rabee, who belong to the Shiite minority that complains of marginalization, hail from the city of Awamiya, east of the kingdom, which witnessed protests by the Shiite minority during the Arab Spring wave in 2011, and then violent clashes in 2017 between opponents and government forces, objecting to a plan to develop the city.
Ahmed’s message implored Howe to use his “influence” to speak on behalf of Hassan Al-Rabee’ and others facing torture, unfair trials and execution during key football dates.
Ahmed took the opportunity to face Newcastle and Manchester United, next week, in the final of the English Professional League Cup, to talk about Hassan’s case, “so that there is a great light” on the seriousness of his brother’s situation, according to the site’s expression.
It is noteworthy that about 24 human rights organizations, including “Amnesty International” and “Human Rights Watch”, confirmed in a letter to the Moroccan Prime Minister, Aziz Akhannouch, that “on February 6, Al Rabie family was deported from Morocco to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
It warned that he faces “risks of persecution and other serious harm, including the risk of being subjected to torture, for reasons related to his religious beliefs and his family’s history of political protests.”
These associations expressed their “extreme concern about Morocco’s violation of the principle of non-refoulement, in accordance with international human rights laws.”
The Saudi government had previously executed two cousins of the Al Rabie family in a mass execution of 37 people, including 33 Shiites, in April 2019.
And in March 2022, it executed 81 people in one day, many of them belonging to the Shiite minority, for their conviction in terrorism-related cases, in a decision that sparked great international condemnation.