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Saudi authorities are suspected of evicting people from the al-Huwaitat tribe from their homes in three villages, often without adequate compensation, and cracking down on those who oppose or resist the eviction.
On Wednesday, United Nations human rights experts denounced the “imminent” execution of three members of a Saudi tribe, on the background of their opposition to the mega-city project that Riyadh wants to build on the Red Sea.
About a dozen independent experts have warned that three members of the al-Huwaitat tribe face “imminent” execution.
The tribe inhabits the desert region in northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the huge $500 billion city of Neom is being built and is the most important project of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“They were accused of terrorism, but in reality they were stopped for resisting forced evictions to make way for the NEOM project and the construction of a 170-kilometer-long city called Al-Khatt,” the experts said in a statement.
They added that the three men, Shazly Ahmed Mahmoud Al-Hwaiti, Ibrahim Saleh Ahmed Abu Khalil Al-Hwaiti, and Atallah Musa Muhammad Al-Hwaiti, were sentenced to death on August 5, and their sentences were confirmed on January 23.
The experts stressed that “under international law, countries that have not yet abolished the death penalty can only impose it for the ‘most serious crimes’ involving intentional killing.”
And they continued, “We do not believe that the charges against them rise to this extent.”
The UN experts pointed out that three other members of the Al-Huwaitat tribe were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 27 to 50 years.
The experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the organisation, also lamented that these six people were charged under an “extremely broad” 2017 anti-terrorism law.
They also called on the Saudi authorities to investigate allegations that some detainees were subjected to torture, and to review the sentences issued against them.
Experts have expressed concerns about the NEOM project as a whole, as human rights organizations accuse the Saudi authorities of committing serious violations in the context of the project.
Saudi authorities are suspected of evicting people from the al-Huwaitat tribe from their homes in three villages, often without adequate compensation, and cracking down on those who oppose or resist the eviction.
In 2020, a member of the al-Huwaitat tribe was shot dead after he refused to hand over his land.
The experts added that all companies involved in the project must “ensure that they do not cause or contribute to… serious human rights abuses.”