Editorial: Politically-Motivated Extrajudicial Killing

2023-06-02 - 3:00 p

Bahrain Mirror: Since Saudi forces stormed Bahrain in 2011, the Saudi regime has been involved in killing and abusing Bahrainis simply for demanding political reforms, in order to put an end to the Al Khalifa family's monopoly over power.

The execution crime of Bahrainis Jaafar Sultan and Sadiq Thamer was not the first and will not be the last, as Saudi forces in Bahrain were involved in killing demonstrators. Bahrainis remember how martyr Ahmed Farhan was executed in Sitra in the field at the hands of Saudi forces.

This is not about terrorism, as the Saudi regime attempted to claim and circulate through its official statement on the execution of the two martyrs, but rather about terrorizing Bahrainis, intimidating and pushing them to withdraw their legitimate political demands.

This is what Saudi Arabia called for when it directly intervened in Bahrain's internal political affairs in March 2011, as it made political protesters choose between returning to their homes or facing repression and death.

Since then, Saudi Arabia has provided all means of intervention, from military and political support to back the Al Khalifa family against the Bahraini people, an approach Saudi Arabia has taken to quell the Arab Spring everywhere.

The execution of martyrs Jaafar Sultan and Sadiq Thamer came in the context of Saudi Arabia's killing method that it deems to be its undefeated method, which the Bahraini government has chosen for itself in response to popular protests.

It is a crime carried out by Saudi Arabia and applauded by the Bahraini regime, which carried out similar sentences against 5 young men, Abbas Al-Samie, Sami Mushaima, Ali Al-Singace, Ahmed Al-Malali and Ali Al-Arab in 2017 and 2019.

This crime was just an exchange of roles between the two regimes, as the Bahraini formal courts had sentenced Sultan and Thamer to life imprisonment in support of the Saudi courts' death penalty, before leaving them there to face their death.

The Bahraini authorities could have requested their extradition to serve an enforceable sentence issued from their courts, but they chose to leave them there to face the death penalty, a punishment they wanted and encouraged the Saudis to commit.

The Bahraini authorities, who have carried out and sentenced dozens of young men to death within the framework of their so-called security approach to political demands, certainly would not want to save them from the death penalty.

By executing martyrs Sultan and Thamer, Saudi Arabia has once again confirmed that it is a party to an internal political conflict involving the Bahrainis, in which it supports one party at the expense of another under sectarian motives.

Al Saud has increased the systematic escalation of executions, which reached up to 38 victims this year, most of whom belong to the Shia faith.

The sentences, although under a legal cover, are extrajudicial killings driven by political and sectarian motives, whose victims are Shia who have been tortured and forced to confess to crimes they did not commit.

Arabic Version