Human rights advocates want President Barack Obama to denounce Saudi Arabia’s jailing and lashing of a pro-democracy blogger and the possible beheading followed by crucifixion of a young protester when he visits the U.S.-allied monarchy next month.

Advocates say it would be perfectly logical -- though perhaps unlikely -- for Obama to do so after speaking publicly about human rights, freedom of speech and the value of free elections in Cuba during a visit to the authoritarian island this week.

“Given President Obama’s comments in Cuba, it would be extraordinarily ironic if he was unwilling to speak in a similarly blunt fashion in regards to a major U.S. ally,” says Sunjeev Bery, Middle East and North Africa advocacy director at Amnesty International USA.

“It’s time for President Obama to call on his allies in the Saudi government to release prisoners of conscience and those whose only ‘crime’ is to ask for human rights reforms,” Bery says.

Still, it's not clear that Obama would be willing to advocate publicly for the men or others like them.

“There unfortunately is a political element to the countries with which the U.S. gets tough on human rights,” says Human Rights Watch’s Saudi Arabia researcher Adam Coogle, who has worked with sources inside Saudi Arabia to document the high-profile Raif Badawi and Ali al-Nimr cases.

But Coogle believes Obama should use his last year in office to be more frank.

“It would sort of break all precedent,” he says. “There is no doubt that publicly naming Badawi, al-Nimr, or the over a dozen human rights activists currently behind bars following preposterously unfair trials would send a clear message to the Saudis that there is a cost to such abuses.”

Badawi founded a website called “Saudi Arabian Liberals” that hosted criticism of religious leaders and alleged insults to Islam, and in 2014 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. Al-Nimr was arrested at age 17 following 2012 protests in Saudi Arabia’s Shiite-majority Eastern Province and was sentenced to beheading followed by crucifixion of his corpse.

Al-Nimr’s uncle Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shiite religious leader and critic of the Saudi government, was beheaded Jan. 2, setting off protests and international condemnation. Ali al-Nimr’s supporters say he has been dealt with unfairly because of his uncle’s political views, and deny accusations the young protester possessed weapons or threw molotov cocktails.

The two cases easily are among the most prominent rights cases in Saudi Arabia. But they’re far from the only ones. Badawi’s defense attorney, Waleed Abu al-Khair, reportedly is serving a 15-year sentence for crimes that include "antagonizing international organisations against the kingdom" and "incitement of public opinion against authorities." And Saudi Arabian journalist Alaa Brinji reportedly is on trial for tweets that could fetch the death penalty for apostasy.

On Tuesday Obama openly broached the touchy subject of political rights during his visit to Cuba, where he appeared to criticize the Castro family government, saying free speech and the ability to protest are universal rights.

“I believe citizens should be free to speak their mind without fear, to organize and to criticize their government and to protest peacefully,” Obama told a Cuban audience, after protesters were arrested by local police. “The rule of law should not include arbitrary detentions of people who exercise those rights.”

It's unclear if Obama will make public statements or take questions from reporters during an April 21 visit to Saudi Arabia for a meeting of Persian Gulf monarchies.

Coogle, who’s based in Jordan, says “there’s always that hypocrisy with the U.S., they tend to be much more critical of human rights abuses in countries that are not allies,” adding that “there are domestic political reasons why President Obama would want to be strong in his statements on Cuba.”

Coogle says that historically, Badawi and Ali al-Nimr would stand a good chance of a pardon after a few years behind bars, with international outrage already appearing to blunt their punishments -- Badawi’s lashings were postponed indefinitely after an initial installment of 50 and Ali al-Nimr’s execution did not occur after his appeals were exhausted.

“[But] it’s difficult to predict anything now that they executed Nimr al-Nimr,” he says. “The rules have changed.”

Under Saudi King Salman, who took power last year, the number of executions has soared. In 2015, 157 people are believed to have been executed, a steep increase. As of early March, 70 had been executed in 2016.

The U.S. government does sometimes condemn sentences in Saudi Arabia. In a strongly worded statement last year, the State Department weighed in on Badawi, saying the United States “calls on Saudi authorities to cancel this brutal punishment and to review Badawi’s case and sentence.” But months later a spokesman pleaded ignorance about Ali al-Nimr and at the same press conference said the U.S. government “welcome[d]” the recent selection of Saudi Arabia for a leadership role on the U.N. Human Rights Council. “We’re close allies,” he explained.

The Saudi Arabian court system is administered by clerics who adhere to a harsh reading of Islamic law and outsiders generally learn of shocking decisions -- such as the death sentence for a TV personality accused of sorcery, later vacated -- through people inside the country who provide court records to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other international rights advocates. Since the rise of the Islamic State group, Saudi Arabia's political and criminal systems often have been compared unfavorably with the jihadi organization.

Though he hopes Obama will comment publicly, Coogle says he’s doubtful Saudi leaders, currently conducting a U.S.-backed bombing campaign in Yemen that routinely kills civilians, would listen. They're quick to perceive insult, he says, and have internal pressures against clemency.

Standing in the way of Badawi’s release, he says, are more conservative leaders who view the case as a symbolic cultural fight. And al-Nimr faces an uphill climb for his family's Shiite affiliation.

Bery says, however, the Saudi government derives legitimacy from its close ties with the U.S. and that “it’s quite clear if the Obama administration were to use its voice to publicly condemn Saudi Arabia’s horrific human rights violations, those behaviors would start to change.”

Obama’s trip comes as a documentary is released on American and British television channels showing Saudi executions, including the public display of five headless corpses from a grisly clothesline suspended by cranes.