Saudi Arabia: Death-row Inmates sent to fight Assad in Syria
Saudi Arabia is one country in
the Middle East that is keen to see the Syrian crisis resolved. News
that the Saudis sent death-row prisoners to fight Assad forces in Syria
though cast more doubt over the rebels.
As John Kerry continues his
whirlwind diplomatic tour of Europe, the Secretary of State left Paris
earlier Sunday and is now in London. The mainstream media is full of
tales and counter-tales of atrocities in Syria but just who are the rebels?
In January 2013 Business Insider
published a report involving a leaked document. (1) It cited the
Assyrian International News Agency, AINA, which claimed that a secret
memo revealed prisoners on death-row in Saudi jails had been “recruited”
to fight against Assad’s forces in Syria.
The prisoners had reportedly been
offered a deal — stay and be executed or fight against Assad in Syria.
As part of the deal the prisoners were offered a “pardon and a monthly
stipend for their families, who were were allowed to stay in the Sunni
Arab kingdom”.
Translated the memo according to Business Insider said:A leaked internal memo shows how Saudi officials commuted 1,200 death row inmates under the condition they go and fight against Assad in Syria, according to the Assyrian International News Agency.
From the memo:
We have reached an agreement with them that they will be exempted from the death sentence and given a monthly salary to their families and loved ones, who will be prevented from traveling outside Saudi Arabia in return for rehabilitation of the accused and their training in order to send them to Jihad in Syria.
Saudi officials apparently gave them a choice: decapitation or jihad?
In total, inmates from Yemen, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria,
Jordan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, and Kuwait chose to
go and fight in Syria.
It involved around 1200 prisoners from countries including the Yemen,
Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Somalia, Afghanistan,
Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, and Kuwait.
USA Today claimed that Russia
were not happy with the Saudi prisoner program and vowed to bring it to
the attention of the United Nations.
In Desert Storm in 1991 Saudis
collaborated with Americans. Business Insider notes that such deals
sometimes include militant Islamist groups.
Who are the Syrian rebels or opposition?
This week the NYTimes published a report which dated back to 2012 and purported to detail the brutality of the rebels:
“The Syrian rebels posed casually, standing over their prisoners with firearms pointed down at the shirtless and terrified men. The prisoners, seven in all, were captured Syrian soldiers. Five were trussed, their backs marked with red welts. They kept their faces pressed to the dirt as the rebels’ commander recited a bitter revolutionary verse.“For fifty years, they are companions to corruption,” he said. “We swear to the Lord of the Throne, that this is our oath: We will take revenge.” The moment the poem ended, the commander, known as “the Uncle,” fired a bullet into the back of the first prisoner’s head. His gunmen followed suit, promptly killing all the men at their feet “
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