Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPC) agents spent much of their time developing Islamic awareness campaigns, rather than their historic role of patrolling the streets and enforcing compliance with strict Islamic observance. According to Shia community members, the government allowed processions and gatherings to continue with greater coordination between the Shia community and authorities, and Ashura commemorations were marked by improved relations between the Shia and other communities and public calls for mutual tolerance. Authorities continued to permit public commemorations of Ashura and other Shia holidays in Qatif, home to the country’s largest Shia population. In practice, there was increased but still limited tolerance of private, non-Islamic religious gatherings and public displays of non-Islamic religious symbols, and religious practitioners at variance with the government-promoted form of Sunni Islam remained vulnerable to detention, harassment, and, for noncitizens, deportation. The government continued to prohibit the public practice of any non-Islamic religion. The government continued to imprison or detain Shia clerics, other Shia, and Sunni clerics on a variety of charges. The government also sought the death penalty against other Shia defendants whose trials, on charges ranging from terrorism to participating in demonstrations, had not started or which were ongoing. On March 14, Shia news website Shia Waves said the government refused to hand over the bodies of the 41 men to their families and banned their funerals. NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) said its analysis of the court rulings in the cases of 5 of the Shia defendants also noted due process deficiencies, including allegations of torture and forced confessions. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern that some of the trials did not meet fair trial and due process guarantees, and that the crimes of which the men were convicted did not meet the “most serious crimes” threshold for capital punishment in international law. The law criminalizes “anyone who challenges, either directly or indirectly, the religion or justice of the King or Crown Prince.” The law bans “the promotion of atheistic ideologies in any form,” “any attempt to cast doubt on the fundamentals of Islam,” publications that “contradict the provisions of Islamic law,” and other acts, including non-Islamic public worship, public display of non-Islamic religious symbols, conversion by a Muslim to another religion, and proselytizing by a non-Muslim.On March 12, the government executed 81 men, including 41 Saudi Shia, seven Yemenis and one Syrian, in the largest known mass execution carried out in the kingdom’s history. Freedom of religion is not provided for under the law. The legal system is based largely on sharia as interpreted by the Hanbali school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. According to the 1992 Basic Law of Governance, the country’s official religion is Islam and the constitution is the Quran and Sunna (traditions and practices based on the life of the Prophet Muhammad).
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