Activists Protest Domestic and Yemen Abuses at Saudi Arabian Embassy on Saudi National Day

Press Release

September 29, 2015

Contact: Michaela Anang, 432 934 5715, Michaela@codepink.org

Alli McCracken, 860 575 5692, Alli@codepink.org

Activists Protest Domestic and Yemen Abuses at Saudi Arabian Embassy on Saudi National Day

When: 6 pm, Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Where: Outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy, Washington, DC at corner of 24th and Virginia NW near Watergate Hotel

Visuals: bloody sheets/dolls representing Yemen bombing of wedding party, visualization of crucifixion/beheading

Washington, DC-- On Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 6:00 pm, CODEPINK and other activists will hold a protest at the Saudi Arabian Embassy to call out Saudi Arabia for its brutal bombing campaign of Yemen and its ongoing human rights abuses. The protest is timed to coincide with a party planned for Saudi National Day, which will be attended by diplomats and embassy officials.

Activists deplore the use of American-made weapons bought by the Saudi government to carry out the bombing of Yemen, which has left thousands of innocent people dead and countless injured. On September 28, the Saudi government bombed a wedding party in Yemen, killing 38 people.

Activists also condemn the Saudi government’s crackdown on political dissidents, such as blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to imprisonment and flogging for simply criticizing the government. Twenty-one year-old Ali al-Nimr, arrested at age 17 for participating in anti-government demonstrations, has been sentenced to execution by beheading and crucifixion –– after he was tortured in prison and coerced into confession.

“While the Saudis and their friends are dining and celebrating the monarchy, we will be outside showing the horrors of the Saudi regime’s bombing of Yemen, including the recent tragic attack on a wedding party,” says CODEPINK’s Medea Benjamin.

“It is ironic that the US government has been so critical of Iranian abuses, but silent about the abuses by its ally Saudi Arabia, which includes sentencing a young man to a medieval form of torture--crucifixion!” says Ali al-Ahmed of the Gulf Institute.

Saudi Arabia was recently appointed by the United Nations to head the Human Rights Council, despite its crushing of democratic uprisings in neighboring Yemen and Bahrain, and its rampant domestic human rights abuses. A US coalition of human rights activists has recently formed to pressure the U.S. to stop allying with this repressive regime. More info here: www.saudius.org