Brussels, 05/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - Three MEPs from the S&D Group - Véronique De Keyser of Belgium, Ana Gomes of Portugal and Maria Muñiz de Urquiza of Spain - have sent a letter to the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Belgium, His Excellency Faisal H. Trade, in which they express their “profound concern” over the execution on 5 March of seven young men in Saudi Arabia, and invite the Saudi authorities to reconsider their approach. “We express our deepest concern about this case and we call for the immediate halting of the above-mentioned executions”, they state in the letter.
According to the three MEPs, several human rights organisations have expressed “serious concerns about the legal procedure leading to this court sentence”. They claim that the accused had been detained for three and a half years before their trial, that they were denied any representation or appeal. Their trial only lasted a few hours and the accused were apparently tortured in order to sign confessions.
Under such circumstances, the signatories of the letter call for the ambassador's “personal intervention with the relevant authorities” in order to “investigate the allegations that these persons were tortured and mistreated as well as to ensure that the accused receive a new court procedure that fully respects the universal right to fair trial and meets relevant international standards, and does not have recourse to the death sentence”.
The spokesman for EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton underlined, for her part, the EU's concern regarding the fact that several of those condemned to death were minors at the time of the crime. “We do not believe that the death of its alleged perpetrators can mitigate in any way the harm done”, the spokesman said, while recognising the serious nature of the crime in question. He went on to point out that the EU is calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty.
The seven men, of about 20 years of age, were judged guilty by the court in Abha in August 2009 of armed robbery three years earlier when they were all minors. One of them has been condemned to death by crucifixion, the others by firing squad. The King of Saudi Arabia ratified the acts of execution in February this year.
On Tuesday afternoon, it was learned that the Saudi authorities had decided to postpone the collective execution of the seven young men. (CG/transl.jl)