[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 732]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              SAUDI ARABIA

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, on January 12 in Saudi Arabia a prominent 
human rights lawyer, Mr. Waleed Abu al-Khair, was handed a 5-year 
extension to his 10-year prison sentence. Mr. Abu al-Khair, who is the 
founder and director of the watchdog group Monitor of Human Rights in 
Saudi Arabia, was also fined, banned from travel outside the country 
for 15 years after his release, and his websites will be shut down. 
What were the crimes that brought about this sentence? He was charged 
with harming the kingdom's reputation and insulting judicial authority, 
among other violations related to his non-violent activism.
  This case and others like it certainly have harmed the kingdom's 
reputation, and insulted its judicial system, but the fault is not Mr. 
Abu al-Khair's.
  After years of defending human rights activists as a legal advocate 
in Saudi courts, he was called in front of a terrorism tribunal at the 
end of 2013 for a trial that from its earliest days was declared a 
farce by human rights organizations. This was not the first time Mr. 
Abu al-Khair was made a target of the justice system, having first 
faced trial in 2011 for signing a petition that called for government 
reform.
  During the fifth hearing in front of the terrorism tribunal he was 
jailed mid-trial under the January 2014 antiterrorism law, which covers 
verbal acts that harm the reputation of the state. Mr. Abu al-Khair was 
eventually sentenced to 10 years for his activism amid growing 
international condemnation of Saudi repression. His decision not to 
disavow his beliefs led to this week's further sentencing.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Abu al-Khair's case is not unique. As more Saudis 
have begun to speak out against government repression, the monarchy has 
responded by escalating its crackdown on dissent, including by using 
the already dubious terrorism tribunal system to punish human rights 
defenders.
  It is ironic that while Saudi officials condemned the brutal killings 
of journalists at Charlie Hebdo, and their Ambassador attended the 
rally in Paris, their Justice Ministry was preparing to carry out the 
first of 1,000 public lashings of Raif Badawi. Like the cartoonists, 
Mr. Badawi has been accused of insulting Islam, and like them and his 
former lawyer, Mr. Abu al-Khair, he was simply exercising his 
nonviolent right of freedom of expression. Needless to say, his 
persecution has drawn an international outcry, including by many of 
those who joined the Saudi government in denouncing the attacks in 
Paris.
  The United States and Saudi Arabia have long been strategic allies, 
and we want that relationship to continue. But the fundamental right of 
free expression cannot be a casualty of convenience. The injustices I 
have described must be addressed. Not only do these actions violate the 
Saudi government's stated policy and its commitment as a member of the 
UN Human Rights Council to protect human rights, but they are a flawed 
strategy for discouraging dissent. Ominously, as we have seen in many 
countries, they may cause critics of the government to resort to 
violence to achieve their goals.
  I urge the Saudi government to release Mr. Abu al-Khair and Mr. 
Badawi and dismiss the spurious charges against them. This kind of 
repression and barbarity have no place in the 21st century.

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