On Monday, a Saudi court sentenced ten Egyptian Nubians to prison terms of up to 18 years for trying to organize an event commemorating the October 1973 war in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, three years ago, two relatives of the defendants told AFP.
“I feel very angry at the extreme injustice that our people have been subjected to,” said one of them, requesting anonymity for security reasons, following the ten men were convicted on charges of “forming a group without a license” and “forming a terrorist group.”
The ten defendants can appeal the ruling to the Court of Appeal.
The Saudi authorities arrested the first ten Egyptians in October 2019 for trying to organize an event to commemorate the anniversary, which they had previously done in previous years without facing any similar consequences.
The authorities released them in December 2019, before stopping them in July 2020 until now.
International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, called for the release of the ten Egyptians.
Amnesty International issued a statement in November 2021 calling for their release, and then last August, saying that the trial procedures “make a mockery of justice”.
In its statement, it stated that Saudi Arabia is prosecuting the ten Egyptians “just because they exercised their rights to freedom of expression and assembly by organizing a community event and forming a community association to represent them.”
She explained that they “were prevented from contacting their family on a regular basis, and were only allowed access to government-appointed lawyers.”
She pointed out that “some of them are elderly and suffer from health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, and vascular problems.”
A second relative told AFP on Monday that three of them are over 60 years old.
“The rulings are politicized, flawed and unfair,” he added.
The ruling comes as human rights organizations condemn what they describe as the escalation of repression in Saudi Arabia, where political opposition does not tolerate or organize protests.
In recent months, long prison sentences have been issued once morest two Saudi women convicted of posting tweets critical of the authorities on Twitter and retweeting anti-government material.
Legal documents seen by AFP showed that a Saudi woman, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison, was convicted of “appalling” the justice of the king and crown prince of the kingdom.
Saudi officials did not comment on these cases, and it was not immediately possible to obtain comment regarding the prison sentences for the ten Egyptians.
