Activites

• 2015/10/08 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T8-0345/2015 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the case of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr. The resolution was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ECR, ALDE, GUE/NGL, Greens/EFA, EFDD, and ENF groups. Parliament strongly condemned the sentencing of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr to the death penalty. It called on the Saudi Arabian authorities, and in particular His Majesty the King of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, to halt the execution of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr and to grant a pardon or commute his sentence. Members called on the European External Action Service and the Member States to use all their diplomatic tools and efforts to immediately stop this execution. They recalled that Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who was 21 years old and a nephew of a prominent dissident, was sentenced in May 2015 to capital punishment, reportedly by beheading followed by crucifixion, by Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court on criminal charges including sedition, rioting, protesting robbery and belonging to a terror cell.  Ali al-Nimr was under the age of 18 – and thus still a juvenile – at the time he was arrested while demonstrating for democracy and equal rights in Saudi Arabia. Parliament reminded the KSA that it was a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which strictly prohibited the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by anyone below the age of 18. It called for an enhanced mechanism for dialogue between the EU and Saudi Arabia on human rights issues and an exchange of expertise on justice and legal matters in order to strengthen the protection of individual rights in the KSA, in line with the process of judicial reform which it had undertaken. Furthermore, Members reminded Saudi Arabia of its commitments as a member of the UN Human Rights Council, noting that Saudi Arabia had recently been appointed to chair a panel of independent experts on the UN Human Rights Council. They strongly urged the Saudi authorities to ensure that standards of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in their country were consistent with such an international role. Parliament called on the Saudi Government to: abolish the Specialised Criminal Court, set up in 2008 to try terrorism cases but increasingly used to prosecute peaceful dissidents on apparently politically motivated charges and in proceedings that violate the fundamental right to a fair trial; ensure a prompt and impartial investigation into the alleged acts of torture and to ensure that Ali Mohammed al-Nimr is given any medical attention he may require and regular access to his family and lawyers; sign and ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which entered into force in 1976, Article 6 of which stated that ‘every human being has the inherent right to life’. Lastly, Parliament expressed its grave concern at the reported rise in the number of death sentences in the KSA in 2014 and the alarming rate at which court rulings had ordered the death penalty in 2015.

Documents

• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T8-0345/2015

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)