Hammond slammed for excusing Saudi executions

UK foreign secretary has been accused of “parroting Saudi Arabian propaganda” as he refuses to condemn the execution of 47 people in the oil-rich monarchy.

Asked about whether London should be “more robust” in condemning the executions in Saudi Arabia, Philip Hammond labeled those executed as “convicted terrorists.”

However, according to rights campaigners, at least four of the 47, including Saudi Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, were arrested and executed in relation to political protests.

'Justifying murder'

The London-based commentator Javier Farje has slammed Philip Hammond’s comments, saying he is trying to justify the “murder” of those executed by Saudi authorities.

“Human rights officials have been very clear that many of the people who were executed were not terrorists but advocated regime change in Saudi Arabia. So this is the first slander against these people executed in Saudi Arabia,” he told Press TV on Saturday.

The 56-year old cleric was executed along with 46 prisoners for terrorism offenses on January 7.

Nimr's execution is viewed as part of a heavy-handed crackdown on the Shia minority living in the country’s Eastern Province.

In 2014, a Saudi court sentenced him to death, provoking widespread global condemnation. The sentence was upheld last March by the appeal court of Saudi Arabia.

Appearing on the BBC's Today program, Hammond also revealed that he had been aware of the mass execution and  had called on Riyadh not to go ahead with the planned killings.

Maya Foa, head of the death penalty team at Reprieve, accused Hammond of repeating the Saudi crown prince’s line from an interview with the Economist where he described all those killed as “terrorists”.

“By refusing to condemn these executions and parroting the Saudis’ propaganda, labelling those killed as 'terrorists', Mr Hammond is coming dangerously close to condoning Saudi Arabia’s approach,” she was quoted as saying by the Independent.

Meanwhile, David Mepham, the UK director of Human Rights Watch, said “British policy on Saudi Arabia has reached a new low”.

“It is appalling that Phillip Hammond refused to condemn the mass beheadings that took place in Saudi on January 2, including the execution of the prominent Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Yet pressed on the case in this morning’s BBC interview, the Foreign Secretary chose not to criticize Saudi executions but rather to contextualize, explain and seemingly excuse them,” he told the Huffington Post.

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