Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

is a legal penalty. Death sentences are almost exclusively based on the system of judicial sentencing discretion (''

tazir In Islamic Law, ''tazir'' (''ta'zeer'' or ''ta'zir'', ar, تعزير) refers to punishment for offenses at the discretion of the judge (Qadi) or ruler of the state.hudud ''Hudud'' (Arabic: ''Ḥudūd'', also transliterated ''hadud'', ''hudood''; plural of ''hadd'', ) is an Arabic word meaning "borders, boundaries, limits". In the religion of Islam it refers to punishments that under Islamic law (sharīʿah) are ...

)'' penalties when possible. In recent decades, the government and the courts have increasingly issued these sentences, reacting to a rise in violent crime during the 1970s. This paralleled similar developments in the U.S. and Mainland China in the late 20th century. The country executed at least 158 people in 2015, at least 154 in 2016, at least 146 in 2017, 149 in 2018, 184 in 2019, 69 in 2020, and at least 116 in 2022. The drastic reduction in 2020 was due to a moratorium on death penalties for drug-related offenses as Saudi Arabia proposed ending the death penalty for these and other nonviolent offences. Additionally, on 26 April 2020, a royal decree ended the execution of people who were juveniles when they committed their crime. (Saudi Arabia had previously executed these people despite having signed the

Convention on the Rights of the Child The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Co ...

.) Nonetheless, there were 67 executions in 2021, more than doubling the previous year's, according to the

European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) ( ar, المنظمة الأوروبية السعودية لحقوق الإنسان) is a Europe-based human rights organisation for documenting and promoting human rights in Saudi Arabia. ...

. In January 2022, at least 43 detainees, including 12 minors, were threatened with execution. On March 12, 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 81 people, seven of whom were Yemenis and one of whom was a Syrian, in the largest known mass execution in the history of the country.

Method

Saudi Arabia has a criminal justice system based on a form of

Shari'ah Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and th ...

reflecting a particular state-sanctioned interpretation of Islam. Execution is usually carried out by beheading with a sword and

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

but may occasionally be performed by shooting or

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are ...

. Saudi Arabia performs public executions. Sentences are primarily given on confession. Human Rights Watch says the majority of people are tortured to obtain confession and courts have not investigated it. As of April 2020, minors who commit crimes will no longer face execution when they turn 18, and would instead face a maximum of 10 years in juvenile detention facility. A 2018 report by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) asserts that the number of beheadings in the kingdom during the first quarter of 2018 rose by over 70 percent compared to the same period in 2017. A public beheading will typically take place around 9 a.m. The convicted person is walked to a courtyard near the courthouse and kneels in front of the executioner. A police official announces the crimes committed by the person and the beheading takes place. The executioner uses a sword known as a sulthan to remove the condemned person's head from his or her body at the neck. After a medical examiner inspects the body and then pronounces the convict dead, a police official announces the crimes committed by the beheaded convict once again and the process is complete. Professional executioners have beheaded as many as 10 people in a single day. Crucifixion of the beheaded body is sometimes ordered in cases where the person was a child molester or a rapist. For example, in 2009, the ''

Saudi Gazette Saudi Gazette is an English-language daily newspaper launched in 1976 and published in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is only available online, as the print version was discontinued in 2019. It is the second English-language daily newspaper in Saud ...

'' reported that "an

Abha Abha ( ar, أَبْهَا, ') is the capital of 'Asir Region in Saudi Arabia, with a population of 1,093,705 as of 2021. It is situated above sea level in the fertile Asir Mountains of south-western Saudi Arabia, near Asir National Park. Abh ...

court had sentenced the leader of an armed gang to death and three-day crucifixion (public displaying of the beheaded body) and six other gang members to beheading for their role in jewelry store robberies in

Asir The ʿAsir Region ( ar, عَسِيرٌ, ʿAsīr, lit=difficult) is a region of Saudi Arabia located in the southwest of the country that is named after the ʿAsīr tribe. It has an area of and an estimated population of 2,211,875 (2017). It is ...

." (This practice resembles

gibbeting A gibbet is any instrument of public execution (including guillotine, executioner's block, impalement stake, hanging gallows, or related scaffold). Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of crimi ...

, in which the entire body is displayed.) In 2003, Muhammad Saad al-Beshi, whom the BBC described as "Saudi Arabia's leading executioner", gave a rare interview to

Arab News ''Arab News'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. It is published from Riyadh. The target audiences of the paper, which is published in broadsheet format, are businessmen, executives and diplomats. At least as o ...

. He described his first execution in 1998: "The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the sword I severed his head. It rolled metres away... People are amazed how fast he swordcan separate the head from the body." He also said that, before an execution, he visits the victim's family to seek forgiveness for the criminal, which can lead to the criminal's life being spared. Once an execution goes ahead, his only conversation with the prisoner is to tell him or her to recite the Muslim declaration of belief, the ''

Shahada The ''Shahada'' ( Arabic: ٱلشَّهَادَةُ , "the testimony"), also transliterated as ''Shahadah'', is an Islamic oath and creed, and one of the Five Pillars of Islam and part of the Adhan. It reads: "I bear witness that there i ...

''. "When they get to the execution area, their strength drains away. Then I read the execution order, and at a signal I cut the prisoner's head off," he said.

Capital offences

Saudi law theoretically allows the death penalty for a variety of crimes: *

Apostasy Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that ...

Treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

Homosexuality Homosexuality is Romance (love), romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romant ...

Espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tang ...

Murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

Rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

Terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

Drug smuggling The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...

Armed robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

Blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religio ...

Burglary Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murd ...

if aggravated circumstances, including recidivism *

Adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...

(unmarried adulterers can be sentenced to 100 lashes, married ones can be sentenced to stoning.)Penalty for adultery: * * *

Sorcery Sorcery may refer to: * Magic (supernatural), the application of beliefs, rituals or actions employed to subdue or manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces ** Witchcraft, the practice of magical skills and abilities * Magic in fiction, ...

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

BBC News, "Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'", 14 February 200
BBC NEWS
/ref> * Waging war on

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

Murder

Murder is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. If a murderer pays a family of the victim

blood money Blood money may refer to: * Blood money (restitution), money paid to the family of a murder victim Films * Blood Money (1917 film), ''Blood Money'' (1917 film), a film starring Harry Carey * Blood Money (1921 film), ''Blood Money'' (1921 film ...

, and the family approves of the choice, the murderer will not be executed. The criminal justice system waits until the family makes a decision on whether the family of the victim will accept blood money Mackey, p. 270. or if the family of the victim will choose to have the murderer executed, or to completely forgive the perpetrator.

Other offences

Sharia background

The Saudi judiciary can impose the death penalty according to three categories of criminal offence in

Sharia law Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

: *

Hudud ''Hudud'' (Arabic: ''Ḥudūd'', also transliterated ''hadud'', ''hudood''; plural of ''hadd'', ) is an Arabic word meaning "borders, boundaries, limits". In the religion of Islam it refers to punishments that under Islamic law (sharīʿah) are ...

: Fixed punishments for specific crimes. Hudud crimes which can result in the death penalty include apostasy, adultery, and sodomy although requirement of evidence is high and is usually based on confession. Punishment for adultery and sodomy is stoning. No stoning has taken place in Saudi Arabia in the last decades. *

Qisas ''Qisas'' or ''Qiṣāṣ'' ( ar, قِصَاص, Qiṣāṣ, lit=accountability, following up after, pursuing or prosecuting) is an Islamic term interpreted to mean "retaliation in kind",Mohamed S. El-Awa (1993), Punishment In Islamic Law, Amer ...

: ''Eye-for-an-eye'' retaliatory punishments. Qisas crimes include murder. Families of someone murdered can choose between demanding the death penalty or granting clemency in return for a payment of

diyya ''Diya'' ( ar, دية; plural ''diyāt'', ar, ديات) in Islamic law, is the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage by mistake. It is an alternative punishment to ...

, or blood money, by the perpetrator. The amount of blood-money requested can be quite considerable: a recent report mentions a sum of $11 million demanded in exchange for clemency. *

Tazir In Islamic Law, ''tazir'' (''ta'zeer'' or ''ta'zir'', ar, تعزير) refers to punishment for offenses at the discretion of the judge (Qadi) or ruler of the state. # An affirmation or denial by oath can be required. Giving an oath is taken particularly seriously in a religious society such as Saudi Arabia's, and a refusal to take an oath will be taken as an admission of guilt resulting in conviction.

Adultery

In order for an individual to be convicted in a Saudi sharia law court of adultery, he/she must confess to the act four times in front of the court; otherwise four pious male Muslims or two pious men and two women who witnessed the actual sexual penetration must testify in front of the court. If the witnesses were spying on the defendants or intentionally watched the defendants commit adultery, their uprightness would be called into question and a conviction for adultery would not take place. According to the Islamic sharia law, the burden of proof is on the accuser; and if only one of those witnesses retracted his/her testimony then the accused will be acquitted and the remaining witnesses will be prosecuted for perjur
Quran 24:4
The execution method for adultery committed by married men and women is stoning (see Capital offences). If the conviction was established through confession, a retraction of the confession or the defendant leaving the pit while stoning is taking place results in the penalty being stayed. If the conviction was established through the testimony of four witnesses, the witnesses must initiate the stoning, and failure to do so results in the execution being stayed. Sandra Mackey, author of ''The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom'', stated in 1987 that in Saudi Arabia, "unlike the tribal rights of a father to put to death a daughter who has violated her chastity, death sentences under Qur'anic law or adulteryare extremely rare." Mackey, p. 271. Mackey explained that " arges of adultery are never made lightly. Since the penalty is so severe, women are protected from unfounded accusations of sexual misconduct". During a human rights dialogue with European jurists that took place several years before 1987, a Saudi delegate acknowledged that it is difficult to have a person convicted of adultery. According to Mackey, in a 20-year period ending in 1987, one woman "is acknowledged to" have been executed by stoning for adultery. Princess Misha'al was shot several times in the head for adultery in 1977; investigation revealed she never faced a trial and was executed extrajudicially; scholars have termed her execution as honor killing.

Witchcraft

Muree bin Ali bin Issa al-Asiri, who was found in possession of

talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

s, was executed in the southern Najran province in June 2012. A Saudi woman, Amina bin Salem Nasser, was executed for being convicted of practising

sorcery Sorcery may refer to: * Magic (supernatural), the application of beliefs, rituals or actions employed to subdue or manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces ** Witchcraft, the practice of magical skills and abilities * Magic in fiction, ...

and

in December 2011 in

Al Jawf Region Al-Jawf Province ( ar, ‫منطقة الجوف‬ Minṭaqat al-Jawf pronounced lˈdʒoːf, also spelled Al-Jouf, is one of the provinces of Saudi Arabia, located in the north of the country, containing its only international border with Jor ...

, and a Sudanese man (Abdul Hamid Bin Hussain Bin Moustafa al-Fakki) was executed in a car park in

Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...

for the same reason on 20 September 2011. In 2014, Mohammed bin Bakr al-Alawi was beheaded on 5 August for allegedly practicing black magic and sorcery.

Mass executions

2016

On 2 January 2016, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution of 47 imprisoned civilians convicted for

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

in 12 different

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

. Forty-three were

beheaded Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the au ...

and four were executed by firing squads. Among the 47 people killed was

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mos ...

Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

Nimr al-Nimr Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr ( ar, نمر باقر النمر, Nimr Bāqir an-Nimr, Bakir al-Nimr, al-Nemr, al-Namr, al-Nimer, al-Nemer, al-Namer; 21 June 1959 – 2 January 2016), commonly referred to as Sheikh Nimr, was a Shia sheikh in ...

.Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr: Saudi Arabia executes top Shia cleric
BBC News (2 January 2016). The execution was the largest carried out in the kingdom since 1980. These executions were the first to be carried out in 2016, with rights groups claiming that Saudi Arabia had executed at least 157 people in the year prior. In 2015, it was said that this year holds the greatest number of executions since 1995.

2019

On 23 April 2019, the Saudi Interior Ministry stated that the Kingdom carried out a mass execution of 37 imprisoned civilians who had been convicted, mostly on the basis of confessions obtained under torture or written by the accused's torturers, for terrorism-related allegations in 6 provinces in the country. Fourteen of the people executed had been convicted in relation to their participation in the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests in Qatif, mostly on the basis of torture-induced confessions. The executions were carried out by

beheading Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

, and two of the bodies were publicly

hung Hung may refer to: People * Hung (surname), various Chinese surnames * Hùng king, a king of Vietnam People with the given name Hung include: * Hung Huynh, Vietnamese-American chef, winner of the third season of the television show ''Top Chef'' ...

from a pole. According to Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry the convicts were all Saudi nationals. Thirty two of those executed belonged to the country's Shia minority. One of the thirty-two, Abdul Kareem Al Hawaj, was 16 years old at the time of his alleged crime; executions for crimes committed by those under 18 are violations of international law. According to Reprieve, two others were also under 18 at the time of their alleged crimes, Mujtaba al-Sweikat and Salman Qureish. The bodies of at least 33 out of these 37 people executed were not handed back to their respective families. The Saudi government did not publicly explain why, and had not handed back the corpses of those executed as of 8 April 2020. It is thought that they fear it would lead to protest by their Shia minority.

2022

In March 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 81 people, transcending the 67 people executed in 2021. The men executed which included 37 Saudi nationals, some Yemenis and Syrians, were allegedly convicted of several criminal offenses such as the murder of innocent men, women, and children, as per the official statement issued. Rights groups accused the government of imposing restrictive laws against religious expression and political views and criticized its use of the death penalty, including those arrested as minors, and cited the execution as a violation of human rights. However, the government of Saudi Arabia denied the accusations of human rights abuse and claimed that the said laws were imposed to protect its national security. In November 2022, Saudi Arabia killed nearly 17 men, who were imprisoned and later sentenced to death over non-violent drug charges. It included 7 Saudis and 10 foreign nationals from Pakistan, Serbia, and Jordan. The authorities didn’t return bodies of the dead to their families. The executions were carried out in secret, and mostly included beheadings by sword. Others were killed by shooting. It brought the total executions of 2022 to at least 137, which were recorded as more than the combined numbers of 2020 and 2021. Executions in Saudi Arabia increased despite the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 2018 promise to minimise the use of death penalty.

Criticism

The use of public beheading as the method of capital punishment and the number of executions have attracted strong international criticism. Several executions, particularly of foreign workers, have sparked international outcries. In June 2011, Ruyati binti Satubi, an Indonesian maid, was beheaded for killing her employer's wife, reportedly after years of abuse. Her execution drew extensive criticism from Indonesian press, government and human rights groups. In September 2011, a Sudanese migrant worker was beheaded for

, an execution which

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

condemned as "appalling". Amnesty International said that Saudi Arabia doesn't have a formal law on Sorcery but some conservative clerics call for strictest punishment possible. In January 2013, a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n maid named

Rizana Nafeek Rizana Nafeek ( si, රිසානා නෆීක්, ta, ரிசானா நபீக்; 4 February 1988 – 9 January 2013) was a Sri Lankan woman convicted and subsequently executed in Saudi Arabia for the murder of four-month-old Naif ...

was beheaded after she was convicted of murdering a child under her care, an event which she attributed to the infant's choking. The execution drew international condemnation of the government's practices, and led Sri Lanka to recall its ambassador. These are not isolated cases. According to figures by Amnesty International, in 2010 at least 27 migrant workers were executed and, as of January 2013, more than 45 foreign maids were on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution ...

awaiting execution. In practice, capital punishment has also been used to sentence political protesters. Ali al-Nimr and

Dawoud al-Marhoon Dawoud al-Marhoon is a Saudi Arabian protester who participated in the Saudi Arabian protests during the Arab Spring as a teenager. He was arrested on May 22, 2012 and was sentenced to death in September 2014, after which he was held in prison ...

were both arrested at the age of 17 in 2012 during Arab Spring protests in the Eastern Province, tortured, forced to confess, and sentenced to decapitation in 2014 and 2015. Sheikh Nimr al Nimr, an independent sheikh critical of the Saudi government and popular among youth and Ali al Nimr's uncle, was also arrested in 2012 and sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court in 2014 for his role in encouraging political protests. Nimr al Nimr was executed on 2 January 2016, along with 46 other people, mostly terrorists arrested in the 2000s. From the available sources about the Nimr al-Nimr case it seems that Saudi officials use the term "

" as cover label for "thought crimes" which in other countries would be considered normal work of an opposition politician. On 20 October 2020,

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

revealed that Saudi authorities were seeking the death penalty against eight men from Saudi Arabia who were charged with protest-related crimes. Some of the alleged crimes were committed when they were children, between the ages of 14 and 17. One of them, charged for a non-violent crime, allegedly committed it at the age of 9. All men who were at risk of capital punishment were in pretrial detention for nearly two years. In March 2021,

claimed that a Saudi man, Abdullah al-Huwaiti, could face execution for an alleged murder and robbery he committed when he was 14 years old. Disregarding the 2020 ruling abolishing the death penalty for juveniles, al-Huwaiti faces execution following an unfair trial. On 15 June 2021, the Ministry of Interior of Saudi Arabia announced that it executed Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish (26), who was allegedly charged for forming a terror cell and trying to carry out an armed revolt at the age of 17. He was detained since May 2015 for participating in anti-government protests. For years, he was placed in

solitary confinement Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...

and was brutally beaten several times. During the trial, Al-Darwish told the court that he was

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

d to confess the charges against them. Despite all the facts, he was sentenced to death and was ultimately beheaded. On 8 June 2021,

had urged the Saudi authorities to “immediately halt all plans to execute Mustafa al-Darwish”, stating that the “death penalty is an abhorrent violation of the right to life in all circumstances”. On 15 December 2013, another Saudi citizen, Aqil Al-Fararj, was arrested due to a discrepancy in the chassis number of the vehicle he was driving. After his arrest, several charges were brought against him, including participation in the formation of a terrorist cell affiliated with a secret armed organization that aims at armed revolt against the ruler, destabilizing internal security, killing security men, concealing arms, and drug dealing. On 1 June 2021, the Court of Appeal ratified the Taazir death sentence issued against him, which means that only the approval of the Supreme Court and the signature of the King before execution remained.

Extrajudicial executions

Saudi Arabia does not tolerate dissidents and it can impose penalties on such people. Saudi Arabia is also responsible for extrajudicially killing Saudi-American journalist,

Jamal Khashoggi Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (; ar, جمال أحمد خاشقجي, Jamāl ʾAḥmad Ḵāšuqjī, ; 13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for ''Middle East Eye'' and ''The Washington Post'', and a ge ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

. As he entered a Saudi consulate in Turkey, a group of Saudi assassins arrived in Turkey. He never made it out of the consulate.

References

Sources

* Mackey, Sandra. ''The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom''. Updated Edition. Norton Paperback.

W.W. Norton and Company W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton An ...

, New York. 2002 (first edition: 1987). pbk. *

Citations

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Capital Punishment In Saudi Arabia

Murder in Saudi Arabia Law of Saudi Arabia Human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia Controversies in Saudi Arabia