Saudi journalist faces certain execution
Malaysia is to blame for deported Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari’s fate, who faces certain execution in his home country.
(Free Malaysia Today) – The blood of deported Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari is on Malaysia’s hands.
According to Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson, Malaysia did not give Kashgari access to his lawyers or to the United Nations refugee agency, and speedily sent him on a plane back to Saudi Arabia.
Because of this, Kashgari would most likely face an almost certain death at the hands of his government.
“Malaysia’s action to deport Kashgari to Saudi Arabia sets all new lows in the Malaysian government’s failure to respect human rights standards, and if he faces execution back in Saudi Arabia, the Malaysian government will have blood on its hands,” he said in a press statement.
He added that the Malaysian government did not allow Kashgari access to his lawyers for days, and prevented the United Nations from meeting him.
“But on Sunday, the police told those lawyers that Kashgari was still being held after he already had been forced on a plane,” he said.
The lawyers then fought to get a court injunction to prevent Kashgari’s deportation, but were too late. The Saudi journalist was already on his way home.
This was despite the claim that Malaysia did not have a formal extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia.
“By its actions, the Home Ministry once again showed that it believes rule of law is whatever it says and that it is more than willing to be totally opaque in its operations to maintain its flexibility to do what it wants when it wants,” he said.
Kashgari fled to Malaysia after his tweets triggered outrage in the hardline Islamic state.
He supposedly tweeted: “I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don’t understand about you. I will not pray for you.”
