On Sunday, a Saudi Arabian court has delivered verdicts against 69 Palestinians and Jordanians, some of whom were sentenced to up to 22 years in prison, while others were acquitted, according to Al Jazeera.
According to a 2020 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the group was detained in March 2018 after a wave of arrests by Saudi authorities of a group of long-term Palestinian and Jordanian residents in the Kingdom on suspicion of links with an unknown “terrorist” group.
The Saudi government has yet to respond to the verdicts handed down on Sunday.
“Saudi Arabia’s long record of unfair trials raises concerns that Jordanians and Palestinians will be railroaded on serious charges and face severe penalties even though some have alleged serious abuses,” Michael Page, HRW’s deputy Middle East director, said in a statement last year.
Since February 2019, a number of Palestinians have been detained and are awaiting prosecution before a Saudi terrorism court.
Meanwhile, Hamas has slammed the Sunday sentences, calling them “unjust” and claiming that those jailed had done nothing to harm Saudi Arabia.
“We were shocked… by the rulings issued by the Saudi judiciary against a large number of Palestinians and Jordanians residing in the Kingdom. We deplore the harsh and undeserved sentences against most of them. All they did was support their cause and their people, to which they belong, without any offense to the Kingdom and its people,” said Hamas in a statement.
In a statement, Hamas welcomed the acquittal of some of the inmates and urged Saudi authorities to immediately free them and put an end to their and their families’ misery.”
