[13][14][15] On 15 October 2014, Nimr al-Nimr was sentenced to death by the Specialised Criminal Court for "seeking 'foreign meddling' in Saudi Arabia, 'disobeying' its rulers and taking up arms against the security forces".

[16] Said Boumedouha of Amnesty International stated that the death sentence was part of a campaign by the authorities in Saudi Arabia to crush all dissent, including those defending the rights of the Kingdom's Shi'a Muslim community.

[17] The head of Iran's armed forces warned Saudi Arabia that it would "pay dearly" if it carried out the execution.

Around May 2017, Saudi authorities erected siege barricades in Awamiyah and attempted to bulldoze the al-Musawara residential area.

Streets of Awamiyah were described by The Independent as "covered in rubble and sewage" and "[looking] more like a scene from Syria than an oil-rich Gulf city.

[4] In early December 2017, Israa al-Ghomgham and her husband Moussa al-Hashem were arrested in their home[10][26] and detained in the Dammam al-Mabahith prison.