Bahrain Mirror: A Saudi Court of Appeal upheld the death penalty for 14 activists, who took part in protests in Qatif, referring their cases to the Supreme Court in Riyadh for review and examination yesterday on May 25, 2017.

The anti-government Mirat al-Jazeera newspaper reported that they were sentenced over charges based on their participation in popular protests that were held in 2011.

Some legal experts view the criminal court specialized in terrorism-related cases, before which these activists and peaceful protestors are being prosecuted, as "an Interior Ministry tool that implements the ministry's decisions," which indicates that this court is not independent from the executive authority.

The Supreme Court will have the final say in the verdicts, which will then be raised to the Royal Court that may approve their execution at any moment.

Human Rights groups have stated that the defendants were not allowed to assign a lawyer during their interrogation and were subject to physical and psychological torture in order to be forced into making false confessions. A father of one of the defendants said that his son and others attended confidential trials, stressing that the lawyers and defendants' families were unable to attend the first court hearing, particularly.

The Shia population in Qatif and Al-Ahsa have been experiencing systematic sectarian discrimination, aimed at obliterating the cultural and historical landmarks of their region and eliminating the Shiite identity. Residents of those areas complain about the accelerated rate of demographic change and environmental and cultural destruction of the region over the past decades.

Names of those whose death sentences were upheld:
1- Hussein Mohammed Al Muslem: Death by Ta'zeer
2- Muhammad Mansour Al Nasser: Death by Ta'zeer
3-Mustafa Ahmed Darwish: Death by Ta'zeer
4 - Fadel Hassan Labbad: Death by Ta'zeer
5 - Said Mohammed Al-Scafy: Death by Ta'zeer
6- Salman Amin Al Quraysh: Death by Ta'zeer

7- Mujtaba Nader Al-Suwaikt: Death by Ta'zeer
8- Munir Abdullah Al Adam: Death by Ta'zeer
9- Abdullah Salman Al Sarih: Death by Ta'zeer
10- Ahmed Faisal Al Darwish: Death by Ta'zeer
11 - Abdul Aziz Hassan Al Sahawi: Death by Ta'zeer

12-Ahmed Al Rabie': Death by Ta'zeer
13 Hussein Hassan Al Rabie': Death by Ta'zeer
14- Abdullah Hani Al Tarif: Death by Ta'zeer

Arabic Version