Dhaka Bureau: It has been five years since the murder of Saudi-born journalist Jamal Khashoggi yesterday. Far from justice, the world could not put much pressure on the country. This critic of the Saudi monarchy was killed today in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Saudi rights activists are still fighting for justice for the killings. They say trade and exchange with Saudi Arabia need to be a little more conservative.
Abdullah Alaudh, the Saudi director of the Freedom Initiative, a US-based human rights organization, said, “We know that the reality is that the governments of the world have to do business with Saudi Arabia, but when a country works with dictatorships and autocratic governments by watering down human rights or basic democratic values, that country’s own strategy or concept of human rights is lost. “When you sacrifice freedom for security, nothing lasts,” he said.
“You can buy oil from Saudi Arabia and criticize the human rights violations in their country,” said Lina Al-Hathloul of Alquist for Human Rights, another UK-based human rights organization. Alaudh’s father, Salman, is now an Islamic scholar. He is a political prisoner in Saudi Arabia. In 2017, he was jailed for a tweet advocating a peaceful standoff with Qatar and other Gulf states.
Human rights activists say Saudi Arabia has one of the most high-profile cases of human rights violations. However, in the last few years, the world’s attention has completely decreased. — DW
