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Three men from the Howeitat tribe have been ‘sentenced to death for refusing to leave their homes’ to make way for the new £450 billion megacity of Neom.
Shadli, Atallah and Ibrahim al-Howeiti are members of a tribe that has been forcibly displaced to make way for the project.
The three men were arrested in 2020 for resisting deportation and Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court sentenced them to death on Oct. 2, according to the United Kingdom-based human rights group Alqst.
In a tweet, the rights group said: “The family members were detained in 2020 for resisting eviction to make way for #Neom.
“We condemn the sentences and call for their release.”
Shadli’s brother Abdul Rahim, a 43-year-old, was shot dead by Saudi forces in April 2020 after protesting the displacement of residents of Tabuk province. middle eastern eye reported.
Three men were arrested in 2020 for resisting deportation and Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court sentenced them to death on Oct. 2, according to UK-based human rights group Alqst.
Shadli, Attalah and Ibrahim al-Howeiti are members of a tribe that has been forcibly evicted to make way for the new £450 billion megacity of Neom
Abdul regularly shared videos of his protests on YouTube.
This is because members of the Howeitat tribe claim that the campaign to evict them from their land for the megacity – which will be the site of the 2029 Asian Winter Games – had escalated.
Abdulilah and Abdullah Dukhail – relatives of the three men – were sentenced to 50 years in prison and a 50 year travel ban for supporting their relatives’ position.
Salma al-Shehab, a Leeds University student and mother of five, Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani, was also given lengthy prison terms for tweets criticizing the Saudi Arabian government.
Salma was sentenced to 34 years in prison, while Nourah was sentenced to 45 years.
Alqst said writer, translator and computer programmer Osama Khaled has been sentenced to 32 years in prison on “charges involving the right to free speech.”
Pictured: Shadli’s brother Abdul Rahim was shot dead by Saudi troops in April 2020, aged 43, after protesting the relocation of residents of Tabuk province.
The proposed industrial district, dubbed Oxagon, is billed as “a comprehensive cognitive city” that will leverage robots and AI and act as an industrial port hub for the country’s newest region to the northwest – Neom.
Neom, the flagship project of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is a planned city-state that would cover 10,000 square miles of Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk province, near the borders with Jordan and Egypt.
Neom is a combination of the Greek word neos, or “new,” and mustaqbal, Arabic for “future.”
It is part of an ambitious plan to rid Saudi Arabia of its oil dependency and turn the country into a tech hub like Silicon Valley, while also incorporating cities, research centers, education zones and tourist attractions.
But constructors have yet to reveal how much the project will cost or how Oxagon will float.
Plans for Neom show it will grow 33 times the size of New York City and have a ‘smart’ city in its center, also known as Neom
Neom, the flagship project of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is a planned city-state that would cover 10,000 square miles of Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk province, near the borders with Jordan and Egypt.
The project is funded by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, chaired by the Crown Prince.
“Neom is an accelerator of human progress and a vision of what a new future might look like,” said a January 2021 release.
“It will be a destination and home for people who dream big and want to be part of building a new model for exceptional liveability, creating thriving businesses and reinventing environmental conservation.”
The stark landscape of the region would be transformed by cloud seeders, the world’s largest coral garden, glow-in-the-dark sand and a giant artificial moon that lights up at night.