A reporter asked Price if the U.S. condemns the mass execution. He did not condemn it, instead of saying that the Biden administration continues to raise its concerns about the Saudi judicial system with Riyadh.
“We continue to raise with Saudi Arabia the need to ensure fair trial guarantees, freedom from arbitrary and extrajudicial detention, transparency, the rule of law, and freedom of religion of belief,” Price said.
At that point, The Associated Press’ Matt Lee interjected, “So that’s it? You don’t have anything else to say about 81 people just being summarily executed?”
“We have been clear about our concerns about the lack of respect for fair trial guarantees in Saudi Arabia, we’ve documented this in our human rights reports, we’ve raised these concerns with the Saudi government, we’ll continue to do so,” Price answered. “What we want to see, and we’ve made this very clear to our counterparts in Riyadh, is for all governments, including our Saudi partners, to respect and protect human rights and to ensure a fair and transparent judicial process.”
via joemiller