British Prime Minister David Cameron urged Middle East ally Saudi Arabia on Sunday not to go ahead with the execution of a Shia Muslim sentenced to death over his role in anti-government protests
“Don’t do it,” Cameron said when asked about the case of Ali al-Nimr, who was handed the death penalty after taking part in demonstrations in Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing Eastern Province, Reuters reported.
Cameron said that although Britain and Saudi Arabia worked closely on issues such as national security, the British government had raised its concerns about Nimr’s case and general human rights in the country.
“We never stint in telling them that we don’t agree with them on this human rights issue,” he said on the first day of his Conservative Party’s annual conference in the northern city of Manchester.
Nimr was convicted of sedition, rioting, protesting and robbery in the Eastern Province district of Qatif, home to many of the Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom’s minority Shia, who say they face entrenched discrimination.
Jeremy Corbyn, the newly elected Labour leader, in a letter to Cameron a week ago had raised the case of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who could be executed at any time after he was convicted.
Cameron must intervene to press his Saudi counterparts to halt the planned beheading and crucifixion of a protester, Jeremy Corbyn has said.
Corbyn told Cameron that al-Nimr had exhausted all his appeals and warned there was little time left to try to prevent a “grave injustice”.
