'Secret Saudi HR law to jail critics'

Press TV interviewed Syed Ali Wasif, President of the Society for International Reforms and Research and also Professor of International Law and Politics in Washington, about how the new Saudi's secret law could pose a serious threat to freedom of expression in the Kingdom.

Press TV: This draft law is in stark contrast with the so-called 'reforms' announced by the Saudi King- which were financial handouts- that were hailed by the West, isn't it?

Wasif: Well first of all, if you see this report, which has been leaked, is a self evident that how today Saudi regime is vulnerable.

Who [this report] might have leaked? You know the Saudi regime is a pretty close setup. The infrastructure does not allow outsiders, outside of the royal family, to intervene there. So this report might have been leaked by one of the members of the royal family.

They are having an in-flight today in the royal family, either to open up the society or to continue with its ongoing despotic policies.

The second is, of course whenever it comes to supporting a uniform reform, the West always have a double policy. It has a double standard. It closes its eyes when it comes to its allies, like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and others, and it tries to prosecute and purge those countries which have different policies not in line with the US or the western world.

So is the case with the human rights report, which Amnesty International somehow got it. The problem with this report is [that] this is totally in confrontation with international legal principles, with international human rights laws, with the convention against torture, with the universal declaration of human rights 1948, with the convention against the Sida for women. It is in contravention to other human rights conventions.

It is totally in contradiction to the established customary of human rights norms. I am surprised today to see this report and I have not seen any reaction whatsoever on behalf of the White House administration, or the 10 Downing Street administration, or the western world, or from Brussels for that matter, the EU, no reaction what so ever.

Press TV: Dr. Wasif, do you think that despite the release of this report Saudi Arabia will continue to be called an ally and a friend by the West, the US and the European Union as you just mentioned?

Wasif: Yes, it will be. This is their standard. This is the criminal practice of the West, and that has been going on for the last two centuries. So how could you expect a change, an overnight change? It is impossible.

The inhuman practices of the Saudi regime will continue unabated and will be backed and supported by the West unfortunately.

But this is no surprise to me. The only surprising thing is the silence or the criminal silence of the Human Rights Council, and the criminal silence of the United Nations General Assembly and the criminal silence of the office of the Human Rights Commissioner of the United Nations. They are not taking any action against such a report.

This is a human rights violation to an extent that it goes beyond the criminal procedures of international laws, beyond the accepted norms.

Press TV: Clearly, the introduction of this law goes to show how worried the government is about the uprisings and revolutions taking place in its own backyard, and even within its borders recently. Will this measure be enough to stifle any challenge and opposition to the authority of the Saudi regime?

Wasif: In the short term, yes. It will help Saudi Arabia to consolidate its despotic regime. But in the longer run, it is going to be the Saudi regime which is going to be the loser because it will be facing, sooner or later, international condemnation and international political pressure and pressure from within the royal family and the people of Saudi Arabia, who are trying to get rid of this despotic, dictatorial, Salafists regime.