SOL 8 | Saudi Arabia executes a person every two days so far in 2024
Human rights NGO says the surge indicates the government's commitment to extensive use of the death penalty
Saudi Arabia has executed 100 people since the beginning of 2024 through to 15 July, the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) said on Monday.
According to the rights group, which monitors executions in the kingdom, the rate amounts to an execution nearly every two days, representing a 42 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023, which recorded 172 executions.
ESOHR said that the surge indicates an “insistence on using the death penalty extensively, in violation of international laws and its official commitments.”
Despite the rise in execution numbers, the group said that they had identified only three individuals facing imminent execution, indicating that many executions are taking place in secret.
According to Reprieve, which documents death penalty cases in the kingdom, in many cases the families of the victims are not aware they were on death row.
ESOHR noted that in 19 of the cases they monitored, the type of sentence and the court that issued it are often concealed in official reporting.
They added that this lack of transparency is “a new form of manipulation by Saudi Arabia to evade its commitments and continue using the death penalty as a tool”.
Public beheading by the sword in KSA
In 2023, a joint report by ESOHR and Reprieve revealed that Riyadh's execution rate has almost doubled since King Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman came to power in 2015. Between 2015 and 2022, executions surged by 82 percent.
In February this year, seven Saudi men were killed in a mass execution, the highest number put to death in one day since 81 were killed in March 2022.
According to the report, Saudi authorities routinely used the death penalty to quash political dissidents, in contravention of international law which stipulates it should only be used for the most serious crimes.
According to Reprieve, foreign nationals, including female domestic workers and drug offenders, are “disproportionately” targeted.
Despite the crown prince’s pledge in a 2018 interview that he would minimise executions, the country remains one of the world’s most prolific executioners.
Source: middleeasteye.net, Staff, July 16, 2024
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Evil. Abhorrent at anytime but especially in this day and age. Physical and mental abuse throughout Saudi and other Gulf States no need for this sht
ReplyDelete👍Couldn't agree more.
DeleteFYI: Another lethal-injection execution is scheduled to be carried out in Huntsville, Texas, tonight (Tuesday) at 6:00 pm. BPP denied clemency, Governor will follow suit. (Ruben Gutierrez, Law of Parties).
Last execution in Texas was carried out on June 27, 2024. Ramiro Gonzales.
UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for Ruben Gutierrez 20 minutes before he was to receive a lethal injection Tuesday evening. The inmate has long maintained DNA testing would help prove he wasn’t responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery decades ago. The high court’s brief order, released about 5:40 p.m. CDT, said its stay of execution would remain in effect until the justices decide whether they should review his appeal request. If the court denies the request, the execution reprieve would automatically be lifted. (The Associated Press, July 17)
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