In 2012, a 17-year old Saudi, Mujtaba'a Al-Sweikat, was accepted as a student at Western Michigan University. He was headed to the King Fahd airport on his way to visit the university when he was arrested by Saudi authorities because he had attended a peaceful anti-government protest earlier in the year. Mujtaba'a, along with 13 other Saudis who participated in the protest, were sentenced to death. According to the London-based human rights organization Reprieve, they have now been transferred to Riyadh, where their executions could take place at any time.
Human rights, pro-democracy and educational groups have begun pressing urgently for the U.S. government to intercede to prevent the executions. However, since the administration has taken a hands-off approach to human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, these groups are fearful that they may not succeed in saving the lives of these young people, one of whom is half-deaf and partially blind.
Reprieve Director Maya Foa released the following statement in an email: “The increasingly brutal Saudi Arabian regime has ramped up executions for protest-related offences in recent days, and this latest move is extremely worrying,” she wrote. “Mujtaba was a promising 17-year-old boy on his way to study in Michigan when he was arrested, beaten, and later sentenced to death on the basis of a ‘confession’ extracted through torture. He now faces the imminent threat of beheading along with 14 others, including at least one other juvenile and a young disabled man."
The President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, has also urged the US government to intercede: “Saudi Arabia’s threat to behead its own citizens for attending an anti-government protest is an unthinkable and despicable violation of international law and basic humanity,” she said. “People must have a right to speak and associate freely. Should these executions occur, Saudi Arabia should be considered a pariah nation by the world.”