3 indigenous mens have been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for not following orders to move out of their homes for NEOM.
Saudi Arabia has recently sentenced 3 indigenous mens to death after refusing to move out of their homes to make way for the new futuristic city of NEOM, a dream project of the kingdom’s young Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a UK-based rights group.
The 3 mens were members of the Howeitat tribe, also known as al-Huwaitat – The Huwaitat people reside in towns and villages in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.
Shadli, Attaullah and Ibrahim al-Howeitat were first arrested in 2020 and before sentenced, in September – other Howeiti people were sentenced to 50 years in prison by Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court, which tries terror-related cases, but it is mainly used to charge human rights activists and dissidents in the oil-rich kingdom, according to VICE.
Shadli, Attaullah and Ibrahim’s brother – Abdul Rahim – was shot and killed by Saudi special forces after he used his final social media post to criticise the compulsory eviction.
The government described his death as the result of a shootout with the security forces, saying that he had to be “neutralised” after “he barricaded himself in his house” and threw “molotov cocktails” at the security forces. The authorities kept his body for weeks before handing it over to his family.
But reports citing eyewitness accounts claim his death was an “extrajudicial execution”. The Saudi government has closed the case without releasing any further details, and had offered to pay other figures in the community to condemn Howeitat’s actions.
Those who spoke out against the compensation scheme were quickly silenced. The country, which has zero tolerance for public dissent, has cracked down on people voicing concern and arrested an estimated 150 members of the community of 20,000. The Howeitat people live in small villages and towns in the northwest of Saudi Arabia.
