WarSclerotic

Saudis Sentence Brit to 350 Lashes for Possession of Wine, The Clarion Project, October 13, 2015

(The UN Human Rights Council, of which Saudi Arabia is the head, must be very proud of that splendid nation’s human rights achievements. — DM)

Karl Andree, right. (Screenshot from video)

In a case that has recently become public, a British citizen was sentenced to 350 lashes and one year in jail by the Saudi regime after morality police found homemade wine in his car.

All alcohol is strictly prohibited in the Gulf kingdom which enforces sharia law as state law.

Karl Andree, 74, has already served the one year in prison. The sharia court which sentenced him mandated that the flogging would occur at the end of his prison time and in public.

Andree is in poor health, and it is not believed he will survive the flogging. He is being held in Jeddah’s Briman prison. Prior to his arrest he was an oil executive who worked in Saudi Arabia for 25 years.

His three children, Hugh, 46, Kirsten, 45, and Simon, 33, have now gone public with the story, though the incident took place last year in the port city of Jeddah. They are now calling on UK Prime Minister David Cameron to intervene with Saudi Arabia to secure his release.

“Our father has given 25 years of his working life to Saudi Arabia, and this is how he is treated” they said in a statement reported by The Sun. “Until his arrest, he has always been happy working there and felt safe.”

“He is 74 years of age, has had cancer three times and his wife is dying in a home in the UK. He now needs medical care for his cancer and asthma, and there is no doubt in our mind that 350 lashes will kill him. We implore David Cameron to personally intervene and help get our father home. The Saudi government will only listen to him.”

Saudi Arabia has recently drawn fire for its appalling human rights record, with two cases in particular causing an international outcry:

• Blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for running a website critical of the government. The sentence was upheld by an appeals court in June, leaving him no further legal recourse other than a royal pardon. He received the first batch of 50 lashes in January, which incapacitated him. The rest have been temporarily postponed due to his ill health and an international outcry.
• Human rights activist, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, now 21, was sentenced to beheading and crucifixion for taking part in pro-democracy protests during the Arab Spring in 2011 when he was just 17.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5iMttRf-jc

This entry was posted on October 13, 2015 at 7:47 PM and is filed under Britain, Human rights, Saudi Arabia, Sharia law. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Britain, human rights, Saudi Arabia, Sharia law