Warning Saudi Arabia

One should be very shocked by the mass executions carried out yesterday by the Saudi Arabian authorities. In the eyes of today´s modern world, these killings have every hallmark of excessive punishment. They belong to another epoch and to a primitive way of dealing with human beings. And in the case of the well-known Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, the decision to carry the death sentence on him seems to be based on sectarian grounds as well as on a radical, unacceptable approach to dissent. It is furthermore an extremely aggravating factor to the existing dramatic divisions that the Middle East region is already experiencing.

Those in the West that have publicly expressed their deepest concerns regarding the executions did the noble thing. The regime in Riyadh should receive from each one of its Western allies a strong message of warning and condemnation. That´s the best way to help them to understand that it is time to move away from an outdated and unacceptable way of conducting justice and implementing human rights.