Qatif Shia Activists Sentenced to Death by Saudi Court

Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court sentenced five anti-regime dissidents from the kingdom’s oil-rich and Shia-populated Eastern Province to death.

Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court sentenced five anti-regime dissidents from the kingdom’s oil-rich and Shia-populated Eastern Province to death.

This comes as a crackdown led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman against pro-democracy campaigners, Muslim preachers and intellectuals continues in the country.

The London-based and Arabic-language Nabaa television news network, citing social media activists, reported that the Riyadh-based tribunal passed the verdicts against Mahmoud Issa al-Qallaf, a resident of Ash Shweikah neighborhood in Qatif region, and four others from the town of al-Awamiyah, who were identified as Mohammed Ali al-Aqili, Ahmed Mohammed Abu Abdullah and his brother Amir, and Musa Jaafar al-Samkhan.

Saudi officials have intensified crackdown in the country’s Eastern Province.