Saudi Arabia is planning to execute at least 14 Shia protesters after a "grossly unfair trial", Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said.
The Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world and has witnessed protests and clashes in the Shia-populated eastern province since 2011.
The court documents of the protesters trial were obtained by two human rights groups, which showed a total of 28 defendants, including the 14 sentenced to death, were convicted on charges in connection with demonstrations in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia in the year 2011 and 2012.
The rights groups said most of the protesters had been held in pre-trial detention for more than two years, many were kept in solitary confinement during this period.
"The rise in death sentences against Saudi Arabian Shias is alarming and suggests that the authorities are using the death penalty to settle scores and crush dissent under the guise of combating 'terrorism' and maintaining national security," said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch, according to AFP.
Amnesty International's Lynn Maalouf said the death sentences handed down in 2016 were upheld last month.
"Death sentences based on coerced "confessions" violate international human rights law and are a repugnant yet all-too-common outcome in security-related cases in Saudi Arabia," added Maalouf. "These death penalty trials fail to meet even the most basic requirements for due process," she noted.
"The sentences should immediately be quashed," she added.
The human rights official said the verdicts of the defendants were based on "sham court proceedings ... that brazenly flout international fair trial standards."
