DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Executions in Saudi Arabia surged final yr to a report excessive, Amnesty Worldwide stated Monday, as activists more and more warn in regards to the kingdom’s use of the demise penalty in nonviolent drug circumstances.
Saudi Arabia executed 345 individuals final yr, the best quantity ever recorded by Amnesty in over three a long time of reporting. Within the first six months of this yr alone, 180 individuals have been put to demise, the group stated, signaling that report seemingly will once more be damaged.
This yr, about two-thirds of these executed had been convicted on non-lethal drug expenses, the activist group Reprieve stated individually. Amnesty additionally has raised related issues about executions in drug circumstances.
Saudi Arabia has not supplied any touch upon why it more and more employs the demise penalty within the kingdom. Saudi officers didn’t reply to detailed questions from The Related Press in regards to the executions and why it’s utilizing the demise penalty for nonviolent drug circumstances.
Nonetheless, it conflicts with feedback from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s day-to-day ruler, who in 2022 highlighted he restricted its use to simply murder circumstances.
“Effectively in regards to the demise penalty, we removed all of it, aside from one class, and this one is written within the Quran, and we can not do something about it, even when we wished to do one thing, as a result of it’s clear educating within the Quran,” the prince instructed The Atlantic.
Saudi Arabia is considered one of a number of international locations within the Center East, together with Iran, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, that may levy the demise penalty on drug-related expenses. However the kingdom stays one of many world’s high executioners behind solely China and Iran — and its use of executions in drug circumstances seems to be fueling that.
Amnesty documented the circumstances of 25 international nationals who’re at present on demise row, or had been just lately executed, for drug-related offenses. In these circumstances, Amnesty stated the inmates on demise row weren’t accustomed to the authorized system nor their rights, and had restricted to no authorized illustration. Overseas nationals confronted further challenges when attempting to safe a good trial, Amnesty stated. Greater than half of these executed this yr within the kingdom had been international nationals, in line with Reprieve.
One such nationwide, Egyptian Essam Ahmed, disappeared in 2021 whereas engaged on a fishing boat in Sinai. A month later, his household obtained phrase he had been detained in Saudi Arabia and sentenced to demise for drug trafficking. Ahmed claims he was pressured by the boat’s proprietor to hold a bundle for him at gunpoint.
“We’re residing in terror, we’re scared each morning,” stated a member of the family of Ahmed’s, who spoke to the AP on situation of anonymity fearing his feedback may impression the case. “Each morning till 9 a.m., we’re afraid that they took considered one of them for execution with out us understanding.”
The member of the family added: “We don’t have emotions. We’re useless. Dying can be simpler. … They didn’t even give me an opportunity to defend him and I don’t know what to do.”
Human rights teams for years have been vital of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. There even have been speedy societal adjustments in Saudi Arabia below King Salman and the crown prince. Whereas pushing for ladies to drive, the dominion has overseen the arrest of ladies’s rights activists. Whereas calling for international funding, Saudi Arabia additionally has imprisoned businessmen, royals and others in a crackdown on corruption that quickly resembled a shakedown of the dominion’s strongest individuals.
In 2021, as a part of the crown prince’s prison justice overhaul, Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Fee introduced a moratorium on drug-related executions. The moratorium, nevertheless, remained in place for just below three years, earlier than it was scrapped with out a proof.
The executions additionally come as the dominion continues to undertake daring reforms to diversify its financial system as a part of its “Imaginative and prescient 2030” initiative.
Jeed Basyouni, who directs Britain-based authorized nonprofit Reprieve’s Center East and North Africa program, insisted Prince Mohammed may change Saudi Arabia’s execution coverage quickly if he needed.
“He may do mass pardons. He may insist on rewriting legal guidelines in order that they’re consistent with worldwide legislation,” Basyouni stated. “The billions spent on so-called reforms, designed to advertise a extra tolerant and inclusive kingdom below the crown prince’s rule, masks an authoritarian state the place each day executions for drug crimes are actually the norm.”