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Updated: Jun 08, 2017 00:08 IST

Saudi Arabia plans to execute 14 citizens, all Shias, after a “grossly unfair trial” linked to political protests, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, which has one of the highest rates of executions in the world, has witnessed protests and clashes with police in its mainly Shiite eastern province since 2011.

Court documents obtained by the two human rights groups showed that a total of 38 defendants, including the 14 sentenced to death, were convicted of charges linked to demonstrations in the eastern province 2011 and 2012.

Most had been held in pretrial detention for more than two years, many of them in solitary confinement, the groups said.

“The rise in death sentences against Saudi Arabian Shiites is alarming and suggestsThe ministries of televangelist Benny Hinn rake in some $100 million a year. Hinn claims all that money goes into his healing services, but he does own a private jet.

In 1994, boxing champion Evander Holyfield stood in front of a crowd who had gathered to witness the miracles of televangelist Benny Hinn. Before Hinn and the crowd, Holyfield begged for God’s healing. He had just been diagnosed with a condition in which the left ventricle of his heart could not work properly and so his blood struggled to pump.

A wave of Hinn’s hand did what countless heavyweights had been unable to do and knocked Holyfield to the ground. Holyfield reported a warm feeling flood his chest as he collapsed. He heard Hinn turn to the cheering crowd: “The