Saudi Arabia: Sharp Rise in Executions
Saudi Arabia has executed 198 people so far this year, more than in any year since 1990. The human rights organization Amnesty International announced the death toll on Saturday.
According to Amnesty, the number of executions for drug offenses has risen sharply in 2024. Already this year, 53 people have been killed for drug-related offenses – in July, an execution was carried out every two days on average. By comparison, in all of 2023, only two people were executed for drug-related offenses.
Amnesty writes that the state has also “weaponized the death penalty to silence political dissent, punishing citizens from the country’s Shi’a minority who supported ‘anti-government’ protests between 2011 and 2013.” Saudi authorities have also “routinely” failed to adhere to international standards for fair trials and protections for defendants.
“The death penalty is an abhorrent and inhuman punishment which Saudi Arabia has used against people for a wide range of offenses, including political dissent and drug-related charges following grossly unfair trials,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Saudi authorities have repeatedly promised to limit the use of the death penalty. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced in March 2022 that the country had “got rid of” the death penalty, except in cases where the penalty is mandated under Sharia. Amnesty dismisses such promises as no more than an “empty-worded campaign to rebrand” the country’s image.
The organization demands that Saudi Arabia immediately impose a moratorium on executions. The authorities must “order re-trials for those on death row in line with international standards without resorting to the death penalty.”
Fabricated charges
As an example of the use of the death penalty against government critics, Amnesty cites the case of retired traffic police officer Abdulmajeed al-Nimr. The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) announced al-Nimr’s execution on August 17, reporting that he was accused of having joined Al-Qaeda. According to Amnesty however, Al-Nimr’s court documents “tell another story.” The charges against the retired police officer were in fact “related to his alleged support for ‘anti-government’ protests in Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a majority Eastern Province.”
The Specialized Criminal Court had originally sentenced Al-Nimr to nine years in prison in October 2021 for “seeking to destabilize the social fabric and national unity by participating in demonstrations,” as the court put it. He had also “[dissented] against the decision to arrest and prosecute wanted individuals.”
On appeal, Al-Nimr’s sentence was increased and the death penalty was imposed. “The Specialized Criminal Court did not make a single reference to Al-Nimr’s involvement with Al-Qaeda,” Amnesty reports. “The discrepancy in the charges announced by the Saudi Press Agency and Al-Nimr’s court documents shows a striking lack of transparency in judicial proceedings of death penalty cases.”
Al-Nimr was denied access to a lawyer for two years. He spent three months in custody without having been informed of the reasons for his detention. Al-Nimr’s conviction, Amnesty writes, citing court documents, “was based solely on a ‘confession’ he said was obtained under duress.”
Detained without rights
Death penalties for drug-related offenses were meted out in large part to foreign nationals, Amnesty reports. Men from Egypt, Syria and Niger are among those who have been executed this year. Many on death row have been in prison for years without being informed of the status of their case. An Egyptian man who was sentenced to death for drug-related offenses and is currently detained in Tabuk Prison told Amnesty, “I’ve been on death row for seven years for the possession of eight grams of hashish. I was also convicted of the intent to receive drugs, which I didn’t confess to and have denied. Where else in the world is someone sentenced to death for this?”
The man was sentenced in 2019 and since then has asked “all governmental entities” about the status of his case – “from the Ministry of Interior to the Supreme Judicial Council.” None of these authorities has been able to give him an answer. He and three other men have been denied legal representation as well as the right to file an appeal, Amnesty reports.
More executions worldwide
The actual number of executions in Saudi Arabia could be even higher, Amnesty warns. The Saudi Press Agency under-reported the number of executions in 2022. That year, by the official count, 196 people were executed – then the highest annual number documented by Amnesty in 30 years.
In 2023, the number of people executed worldwide was higher than in any year in almost a decade. In its annual report, Amnesty documented 1,153 executions in 16 countries. The organization assumes that the actual number is higher, given that no information is available in some countries – including China, where more people are likely executed than in any other country. According to the report, the number of documented executions worldwide rose 31 percent from the previous year, 2022, when Amnesty documented 883 executions.
Saudi Arabia was responsible for 15 percent of the executions recorded by Amnesty in 2023. That year, the country carried out 172 executions. (hcz)