LONDON, October 18, 2007  –  Students – and others – are set to demonstrate outside the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia tomorrow lunchtime (October 19) over the reported 7,000 lashings each that were ordered for two gay Saudi men.

On October 2, two young men in the Saudi Arabian city of Al-Bahah were reportedly convicted of “sodomy” and sentenced to 7,000 lashes.  In Saudi Arabia same-sex relations are illegal and the maximum penalty is death.

7,000 lashes is a form of torture, calculated to cause maximum, prolonged suffering – so many lashes can be fatal, depending on how many are delivered at any one time, the students say.

The protest outside the Saudi Embassy in London, is being organised by the National Union of Students LGBT and is supported by LGBT human rights group OutRage!

Peter Tatchell will be a guest speaker.

The protest comes ahead of the State Visit to the UK of King Abdullah bin Abdul Azaz al Saud, on October 30.

“We call on individuals and groups, LGBT or otherwise, to protest against the continued criminalisation, imprisonment, torture and murder of LGBT people in Saudi Arabia,” said Scott Cuthbertson, NUS LGBT Officer.

“We will be handing a letter of protest to the Saudi Ambassador, HRH Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, calling on his Government to respect the human rights of its own LGBT citizens.  Please join us in the struggle for Love without Borders – LGBT rights around the world – and make your views known to the Saudi Ambassador tomorrow.”

This year NUS LGBT Campaign is campaigning for ‘Love without Borders.

“Around the world, LGBT people are persecuted, imprisoned and even murdered in state-sponsored homophobia,” said Claire Anderson, another NUS LGBT Officer.

“We live in a global community and no longer can we stand by while LGBT people are persecuted.  Now is the time to use our freedom to fight for the rights of others across the globe.  When abuses of human rights take place we must not be silent, she added.

Mr Tatchell pointed out that both the British and US governments supported “the despotic, corrupt” Saudi regime.

“As well as flogging and executing gay people, the Saudi leaders are guilty of detention without trial, torture and the public beheading women who have sex outside of marriage.

“Migrant workers are de facto slaves.  The media is heavily censored.  Trade unions, political parties and non-Muslim religions are banned. The country is a theocratic police state,” Mr. Tatchell pointed out.

■  Where and when:

Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, 30 Charles Street, Mayfair, London W1J 5DZ (click HERE for map)

Nearest  underground:  Green Park (Piccadilly, Jubilee and Victoria lines) and Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly line). 

Friday October 19, 1:30pm - 2.30pm

LINK

website

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.  

Posted: 18 October 2007 at 15:00 (UK time)