Push to Execute Saudi Clerics Rattles Kingdom’s Power Structure

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Push to Execute Saudi Clerics Rattles Kingdom’s Power Structure

Prosecutors seek death sentences for influential imams, challenging alliance behind monarchy

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, shown here in Moscow in June, has sought to reshape Saudi society and the kingdom’s economy.

DUBAI—Saudi authorities are seeking the death penalty for three prominent clerics, rights activists and a government official said, testing the unwritten code that has kept the kingdom’s rulers in power.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father, King Salman, have jailed activists, businessmen and government officials as part of their efforts to reshape Saudi society and economics. But Saudi clerics have long been a power unto themselves, with fame and influence beyond that of others caught up in recent crackdowns.

The jailed clerics are among Saudi Arabia’s best-known and most popular Sunni Muslim religious figures: Salman Al-Odah, who has more than 14 million Twitterfollowers; Awad al-Qarni, a popular and outspoken cleric; and Ali Alomari, a TV preacher.

Ali Alomari, shown in an image posted on his Facebook page in May, 2017, is a TV preacher who was arrested one year ago in a Saudi roundup of imams with large followings. 

They were arrested a year ago in a roundup of imams with large followings for not openly supporting the government’s pressure campaign against Qatar, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing rights activists.

They are now facing trials in a national-security court on charges that include conspiring against the monarchy and supporting terrorism, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, said relatives, activists and the government official.

A senior Saudi official said the clerics are “under investigation for constituting a danger to society because they belong to terrorist organizations.” The senior official said Saudi prosecutors and judges were independent and that the crown prince would play no role in a verdict or punishment, if any. 

“Nobody in Saudi Arabia is being investigated because of their political views,” the senior official said. “The arrests of these individuals and others is in line with the kingdom’s keenness with the international community to exert efforts to combat the extremism that the world suffers from and to combat terrorism in all its forms,” the official said.

The senior official denied the men were originally arrested over their views on Qatar. The men have access to attorneys and the right to appeal any sentence, the official said.

The prosecutions are among the riskiest pieces of 33-year-old Prince Mohammed’s efforts to consolidate power since June 2017, when he pushed aside another royal to become crown prince. 

Moving against clerics could turn public opinion against the kingdom’s rulers and strengthen elements of the royal family who oppose them.

The House of Saud has remained the country’s ruling family for over eight decades through an alliance with imams who adhere to a strain of Islam known as Wahabbism. The partnership has provided largely stable leadership and resulted in one of the world’s most religiously conservative societies—one in which clerics have significant influence over public opinion.

With the trials, Prince Mohammad is putting the clerics “on notice that the rules have now changed,” said Ali Shihabi, founder of the Arabia Foundation, a Washington think tank that often supports the Saudi government.

Mr. Shihabi said he doubted the government would follow through and execute clerics. “This is messaging more than substance,” he said.

Mr. Odah faces 37 charges for alleged crimes including spreading discord, incitement against the ruler, and being active in the Muslim Brotherhood, his son said. The senior Saudi official cited Mr. Odah’s position in the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which he said has ties to al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.

His son, Abdullah Odah, a senior fellow at Georgetown University, called the charges absurd. “They don’t have any rules, they broke all traditions of authority, religion, politics, culture and everything in the country so we really don’t know what is next,” he said.

Cleric Salman Al-Odah, now on trial in Saudi Arabia, has more than 14 million Twitter followers—though his tweets ended with his arrest last September on charges his son said are “absurd.” Here he is shown in a meeting in 2012. Photo: Emad Alhusayni

Clerics haven’t always supported Prince Mohammed as he pursued a series of changes that include allowing women to drive, fashioned a more muscular foreign policy, and moved to diversify the oil-dependent economy by making Saudi Arabia more attractive to foreign investment and tourism.

He has also sought to turn Saudi Arabia—home to Islam’s holiest cities of Mecca and Medina—into a center of a more moderate form of Islam.

Saudi authorities have sought in part to remake the country through prosecutions. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for several activists who campaigned for minority Shia Muslim rights; activists who campaigned for women’s right to drive and other freedoms have been jailed; and dozens of businessmen and government officials remain detained on undisclosed charges 10 months after the start of the corruption crackdown.

“Since MBS could well be in power for 50 years, there is a strong case for pushing through with the most controversial changes now, before MBS assumes the throne and must accept full blame,” said Jim Krane, a Middle East fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, using a common nickname for the crown prince. 

Mr. Odah, 61 years old, was once a hard-core Islamist who led the antimonarchy “Islamic Awakening” movement in the 1990s, which criticized Saudi Arabia’s decision to allow the U.S. military into the country to protect it from a potential Iraqi invasion. He went to prison for five years and embraced more moderate views after his release, becoming an advocate for social and political reform.

Rights activists and relatives said the clerics have been charged retroactively for belonging to organizations that weren’t banned at the time of their arrests.

Abdullah Odah said his father is accused of belonging to the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which wasn’t named as a terrorist organization by Saudi authorities until November, two months after his arrest.

Mr. Alomari faces 30 charges related to terrorism, including allegedly forming a terrorist youth organization, according to rights activists. Mr. Alomari’s family or legal representatives couldn’t be reached for comment.

According to rights activists, Mr. Qarni is charged with supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups in Saudi Arabia designated as terrorist organizations. He is also accused of the crimes of stirring public discord, conspiring against the kingdom’s leaders, and sympathizing with those arrested in security cases.

Rights groups have protested the treatment of the imams. “Saudi’s alleged efforts to tackle extremism are all for show if all the government does is jail people for their political views,” said Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch. 

At least 15 other Saudi figures arrested in the same roundup that caught up the three imams last year are also being tried in nonpublic cases at the Specialized Criminal Court, which hears national security and terrorism cases. Prosecutors are asking for 20-year sentences and over $100 million in fines, according to rights activists and the Saudi official.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/push-to-execute-saudi-clerics-rattles-kingdoms-power-structure-1537097475