USADaily -
Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, bragged this morning on CNBC about how there wasn’t a single protester throughout their entire trip in Saudi Arabia.
“There was not a single hint of a protester anywhere there during the whole time we were there. Not one guy with a bad placard.”
And there’s a reason for that. It’s a serious crime to protest in Saudi Arabia.
Via the Guardian, we learn just how illegal it is to protest in Saudi Arabia. You could go to jail for ten years, simply for holding a political protest:
Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, said “anyone who follows the situation in Saudi Arabia will not be surprised at all” by the lack of protesters.
“Protesting is a serious offence in Saudi Arabia. It’s been de facto criminalised for many, many years, and specifically criminalised since 2011,” Coogle said.
“The stakes for protesting are extremely high. No one wants to sit in jail for ten years because they protested Trump.”
A 2016 US state department report on “human rights practices” in Saudi Arabia specifically notes that the “government categorically forbids participation in political protests or unauthorized public assemblies”.
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