Freedom For Ashraf Fayadh

By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

16 January, 2016
Countercurrents.org

Beginning of 2016, the Saudi Arabian dictatorship went on a beheading spree. 47 people were decapitated, among them the Shiite cleric and civil rights activist Nimr al-Nimr. None of them had a fair trial. Now, it's Ashraf Fayadh's turn, a Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia.

As in many other cases, the charges against Fayadh are made up. On 17 November 2015, he was sentenced to death for "apostasy". The Saudi Arabian Kangaroo courts have charged him with the "questioning of religion" and for the "dissemination of atheism". Arrested in January 2014, Fayadh hasn't seen a lawyer, and the trial was held in camera.

Fayadh belongs to a nascent art scene. He has curated art shows in Jeddah and at the Venice Biennale. Originally, Fayadh was sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes by a court in the city of Abha. Despite his repentance, his appeal was dismissed and he was retried by another Kangaroo court, which passed the final deadly verdict. So far, not a single evidence was presented. There are rumors that he has been sentenced to death because of his Palestinian origin though born in Saudi Arabia.

Although the Saudi Arabian dictatorship is the closest ally of the West, the Western governments seem to have no interest in preventing the unlawful beheadings. One argument is that Saudi Arabia is part of the coalition against terrorism while the fundamentalist regime is the largest supporter of international terrorism against the West. ISIS is a "Saudi army in disguise". Therefore, the Obama administration has only halfheartedly fought these terrorists until Russia has intervened alongside Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

The present Saudi king has been the Godfather of international terrorism, dating back to the creation of Al Qaeda and the establishment of a terror infrastructure in Bosnia-Herzegovina. His son, the current Saudi defense minister is waging a terror war against Yemen. Instead of supporting the most devilish regime under the sun, the West should go for a regime change in Saudi Arabia to get rid of the myth of "international terrorism" that the West's closest ally has established against its so-called Western friends.

Dr. Ludwig Watzal works as a journalist and editor in Bonn, Germany. He runs the bilingual blog
http://between-the-lines-ludwig-watzal.blogspot.de/