President Francois Hollande hands Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest honour
Prestigious French award undermined by Saudi Prince Nayef, a known human rights violator
By Ali Adubisi
Saudi Organization for Rights and Freedoms
It is with deep surprise we learned that France awarded the Legion d’Honneur award to Saudi crown prince and interior minister Mohammed bin Nayef, for his fight against terror.
– This award comes 62 days after the mass execution, which included the execution of peaceful political opposition and human rights defender Sheikh NimrAl-Nimr who was sentenced to death on falsified security charges. The execution also included four minors. Currently, ESOHR have a list of 55 individuals awaiting execution, including 12 minors, one of whom is Ali Al-Nimr.
– This award was given on the same day as Saudi youth Makki Al-Orayed died in police custody due to torture, although according to Saudi officials his death happened due to the ‘psychological state of fear’. But according to a family statement, they maintain it was a result of torture.
– It should be borne in mind, that all execution that take place are implemented by the ministry of interior, the very ministry that Mohammed bin Nayef heads. In fact, arbitrary arrests, detentions and related violations are the result of the direct orders of this ministry, and their incidence has increased since bin Nayef took the reigns of the ministry in November 2012. He was later given the title of crown prince in February 2015.
– In Saudi Arabia there is a culture of impunity, which allow complaints against officials to go un-investigated, as in the case of Saudi police killing one citizen, Abdullah Al-Ramadhan, on the 21st April 2015, with no type of investigation into his death.
– As Saudi human rights activists, we have documented several instances where terrorism laws have been used against various sectors of peaceful civil society, including lawyers, protestors, activists and some even prosecuted for tweets such as in the case of Abdulaziz Al-Sonaidi.
– We believe the value of such an award has been undermined and that the human rights records of individuals must be considered as an important criteria for receiving such an award.
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