Czech Former Premier Criticizes Western Countries’ Silence over Human Rights Violations in Saudi Arabia

PRAGUE, (ST)-Czech Former Premier Jiri Paroubek has criticized the double standard policy adopted by western countries towards human rights files, stressing that these countries are keeping silent over the wide range of human rights violations in Saudi Arabia while putting focus on this issue in other countries

In an article published by the “Czech CZ” website on Tuesday, Paroubek said “it is not possible to talk about the existence of any religious freedom in Saudi Arabia where there is no church and where the applied legal system contradicts all western values, yet the West keeps completely silent about this.”

“Even the investigative journalism and the European and American courage, which are used to be like this in other places, keep silent towards Saudi human rights violations,” Paroubek added, clarifying that the reason behind this behavior is the trade interests and deals these western countries have with Saudi Arabia.

According to analysts and observers, the kingdom of Al Saud is one of the worst countries of the world in terms of commitment to human rights protection, yet no sanctions or even no kind of international isolation was adopted against the Saudi regime. On the contrary, the United States and western countries are considering Saudi Arabia as important regional ally.

The international silence over the blatant violations of human rights in Saudi Arabia has encouraged the Saudi regime to persist in suppressing continuous peaceful demonstrations calling for social equality and justice.

Hamda Muatafa