For posting on social media, authorities arrested human rights campaigners, public intellectuals, and nonviolent dissidents and condemned others to decades in prison. Torture and mistreatment, extended arbitrary incarceration, and asset confiscation without a clear legal process are only a few examples of the widespread abusive behaviors that continue to occur in detention facilities. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, is the de facto ruler, and his extensive repression seriously undermines announced legislative changes. Despite recent pledges to reduce its use of the death sentence, Saudi authorities carried out the greatest mass execution in decades on March 12, the killing of 81 prisoners.
Trust at stake in bilateral ties
As Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka celebrate 50 years of diplomatic connections, Omar Lebbe Ameer Ajwad, the ambassador of Sri Lanka to Riyadh, stated his desire to take bilateral relations to new heights, but he has some trust difficulties. “Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, but it is seen as difficult due to human rights violations,” Ajwad stated in an exclusive interview. “Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia have a very long history of ties,” he continued. The history books state that it began in the seventh century when King Aggrabodhi III of Sri Lanka sent a team to Saudi Arabia to gather information at the request of the Arab residents of Sri Lanka at the time. For opposing the government or calling for political and human rights changes, many of Saudi human rights defenders and campaigners were still serving lengthy prison terms. Even after serving his unfair 10-year prison sentence, blogger, activist, and 2015 Sakharov Prize recipient Raif Badawi is still prohibited from traveling.
Strained relations with Saudi Arabia
Over time, long-standing trade and interpersonal ties between Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka grew stronger. In 1974, the two formally established diplomatic ties. In August 1977, Saudi Arabia nominated its first ambassador to Sri Lanka. In 1983, the Sri Lankan mission was founded in Jeddah. With M.R.M. Thassim as the first accredited ambassador, the Sri Lankan Embassy was first founded in Jeddah before moving to Riyadh in 1985.
“We intend to start the first political consultation between the foreign ministries of both countries after the commemorative year, finalize the roadmap for economic cooperation between the Saudi Ministry of Economy and Planning and the relevant ministry in Sri Lanka, and activate the Memorandum of Understanding on foreign investment signed this year between Sri Lanka and the Saudi Ministry of Investment.”
he continued. The ambassador stated:
“We are very closely working on all aspects of diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia.”
He went on to say that the General Cooperation Agreement between the two nations, which was signed in 2003, established the Saudi-Sri Lanka Joint Committee.
Sri Lanka’s diplomatic concerns
Saudi authorities are increasingly targeting social media users, both Saudi and non-Saudi, for peaceful online expression and punishing them with sentences that last for decades. Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi doctorate student at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, was sentenced to 34 years in jail on August 9 by an appeals court for “disrupting the order and fabric of society,” ostensibly based only on her Twitter activity. Nourah bin Saeed al-Qahtani was given a heavy 45-year prison sentence by Saudi courts that same day for “using the internet to tear the country’s social fabric.” At least 80 apparent civilian deaths, including three children, and 156 injuries, including two children, were caused by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates carrying out three attacks in Yemen in January 2022, ostensibly in breach of the laws of war. The coalition strikes appeared to be a response to the Houthi attacks on the Abu Dhabi International Airport and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in the United Arab Emirates on January 17.
Challenges in cooperation
Although there are no written rules in Saudi Arabia pertaining to sexual orientation or gender identity, courts apply uncodified Islamic legal principles to punish those suspected of engaging in extramarital and gay sex as well as adultery. Judges and prosecutors use ambiguous portions of the nation’s anti-cybercrime statute that penalize online behavior that violates “public order, religious values, public morals, and privacy” when people are having these kinds of relationships online. The committee met for the first time in Riyadh in 2023. Tharaka Balasuriya, a former minister of state for international affairs, led the Sri Lankan delegation, while Dr. Abdullah Nasser Abu Thnain, the deputy minister of human resources and social development, led the Saudi delegation.