Amnesty: Saudi Law Labels Peaceful Dissent Terrorism

Amnesty International released a report criticizing a draft law in Saudi Arabia that would allow “peaceful acts of dissent” to be prosecuted as “terrorist crime.” The report, entitled Saudi Arabia: Repression in the Name of Security, writes that “hundreds of people have been arrested for demonstrating, while the government has drafted an anti-terror law that would effectively criminalize dissent as a ‘terrorist crime’ and further strip away rights from those accused of such offences.” AlJazeera reports, “Amnesty International criticised what it called Saud Arabia’s ‘vague and broad’ definitions of terrorism, ranging from ‘destabilising society’ to ‘harming the reputation of the state.’” The report reads, “This opaqueness could be exploited to charge peaceful meetings of a group of people who make political demands or even engage in academic discussions with a ‘terrorist crime’ under this draft law.” The report also condemns Saudi Arabia for a general policy of repression in response to pro-reform protests.