Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

is a legal punishment. Most executions in the country are carried out by decapitation (beheading). Saudi Arabia is the only country that still uses this method. Capital punishment is used both for offenders of lethal crimes and non-lethal crimes, as well as juvenile offenders. Among those executed are individuals charged with non-lethal terrorism, a charge that has been used against individuals who participated in protests against the authoritarian regime in Saudi Arabia. Death sentences are almost exclusively based on the system of judicial sentencing discretion (''

tazir In Islamic Law, ''tazir'' (''ta'zeer'' or ''ta'zir'', ) lit. scolding; refers to punishment for offenses at the discretion of the judge (Qadi) or ruler of the state.hudud ''Hudud'' is an Arabic word meaning "borders, boundaries, limits". The word is applied in classical Islamic literature to punishments (ranging from public lashing, public stoning to death, amputation of hands, crucifixion, depending on the c ...

)'' penalties when possible. In response to a 1970s rise in violent crime, these sentences increased. This paralleled similar developments in the U.S. and mainland China in the late 20th century. A central square in the Kingdom's capital,

Riyadh Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...

, became known in the West as " Chop-Chop Square" due to public executions there. The kingdom 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, 196 in 2022, 172 in 2023 and 345 in 2024. In 2022, Saudi Arabia executed more people than in any year over the previous three decades. The largest known mass execution in the country's history was carried out on March 12 that year, when 81 people were executed, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian. In 2024, executions reached a new high of 345, almost exactly doubling the 172 executions carried out in 2023.

Method

Saudi Arabia has a criminal justice system based on

Shari'ah Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...

. Execution is usually carried out by beheading with a sword, but may occasionally be performed by shooting or

firing squad Firing may refer to: * Dismissal (employment), sudden loss of employment by termination * Firemaking, the act of starting a fire * Burning; see combustion * Shooting, specifically the discharge of firearms * Execution by firing squad, a method of ...

. 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. 2024 was the year with the highest number of beheadings in several decades (330).

Use of public executions

Saudi Arabia performed

public executions A public execution is a form of capital punishment which "members of the general public may voluntarily attend." This definition excludes the presence of only a small number of witnesses called upon to assure executive accountability. The purpose ...

until recently, but it is unclear if this practice continues. In 2022, no public executions were recorded; as of 2024, despite the increased number of executions,

Deera Square __NOTOC__ Deera Square (), also known as Justice Square () or Safa Square () is a public space in the al-Dirah neighborhood of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, located adjacent to the al-Hukm Palace compound and Imam Turki bin Abdullah Grand Mosque in th ...

- the former site of public beheadings - had become "dominated by cafes and restaurants with almost no sign of its bloody past". Public beheadings typically take (or took) 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 (, ') is the capital of Asir, Asir Province in Saudi Arabia. It is situated above sea level in the fertile Asir Mountains of south-western Saudi Arabia, near Asir National Park. Abha's mild climate makes it a popular tourist destination fo ...

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 Asir, officially the Aseer Province, is a province of Saudi Arabia in southern Arabia. It has an area of , and an estimated population of 2,024,285 (in 2022). Asir is bounded by the Mecca Province to the north and west, al-Bahah Province to the ...

." In 2003,

Muhammad Saad al-Beshi Muhammad Saad al-Beshi (Arabic: ''محمد سعد البيشي;'' born 1961) has been an executioner for the government of Saudi Arabia since 1998. He has been described as "Saudi Arabia's leading executioner". Beshi claims to have executed ten ...

, whom the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

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 businesspeople, executives and diplomats. At least as ...

. 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'' ( ; , '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 is no Ilah, god but God in Islam, God ...

''. "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 technically allows the death penalty for a variety of crimes: *

Apostasy Apostasy (; ) is the formal religious disaffiliation, 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 is contrary to one's previous re ...

Treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

Homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

Espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

Murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

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

Terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

Drug smuggling The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking 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 ...

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

Blasphemy Blasphemy refers to an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of Reverence (emotion), reverence concerning a deity, an object considered sacred, or something considered Sanctity of life, inviolable. Some religions, especially Abrahamic o ...

Burglary Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime involving the illegal entry into a building or other area without permission, typically with the intention of committing a further criminal offence. Usually ...

if aggravated circumstances, including recidivism *

Adultery Adultery 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 consequences, the concept ...

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

Sorcery Sorcery commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), the application of beliefs, rituals or actions employed to manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces ** Goetia, ''Goetia'', magic involving the evocation of spirits ** Witchcraft, the ...

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

* Waging war on

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

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 * A stream of revenue used by boarding masters for placing many seaman on ships * Money obtained from crime, especially at the cost of another's lif ...

, 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, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, inta ...

: *

Hudud ''Hudud'' is an Arabic word meaning "borders, boundaries, limits". The word is applied in classical Islamic literature to punishments (ranging from public lashing, public stoning to death, amputation of hands, crucifixion, depending on the c ...

: 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 is stoning. No stoning has taken place in Saudi Arabia in the last decades. *

Qisas ''Qisas'' or ''Qiṣāṣ'' () is an Islamic term interpreted to mean "retaliation in kind",Mohamed S. El-Awa (1993), Punishment In Islamic Law, American Trust Publications, "eye for an eye", or retributive justice. ''Qisas'' and ''diyya'' a ...

: ''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'' (; : ''diyāt'', ) 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 '' qisas'' (equal retaliation) ...

, 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'', ) lit. scolding; 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 or 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 or 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 Sandra Mackey (''née'' Sherman; September 13, 1937 – April 19, 2015) was an American writer on Middle Eastern culture and politics. Early life and education Mackey was born Sandra Sherman in Oklahoma City, the daughter of funeral directors Vel ...

, 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 Najran ( ') is a Southern Provinces of Saudi Arabia, province of Saudi Arabia. It has an area of 149,511 km². Its capital is Najran. Najran is inhabited by the Banu Yam, Yam tribe. A significant percentage of the province's inhabitants ar ...

in June 2012. A Saudi woman, Amina bin Salem Nasser, was executed for being convicted of practising

sorcery Sorcery commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), the application of beliefs, rituals or actions employed to manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces ** Goetia, ''Goetia'', magic involving the evocation of spirits ** Witchcraft, the ...

and

in December 2011 in

Al Jawf Region Al-Jawf Province, also known as Al-Jawf Region also spelled Al-Jouf ( Minṭaqat al-Jawf, ), is a province in Saudi Arabia, located in the north of the country, partially bordered by Jordan to the west. It is one of the earliest inhabited regions ...

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

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

for the same reason on 20 September 2011. In 2014, Mohammed bin Bakr al-Alawi was beheaded on 5 August for allegedly practising 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 violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

in 12 different

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

. Forty-three were

beheaded Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...

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

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

Sheikh Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...

Nimr al-Nimr Ayatollah Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr (21 June 1959 – 2 January 2016), commonly referred to as Sheikh Nimr, was a Saudi Shia sheikh from Al-Awamiyah in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. His arrest and execution were widely condemned by various ...

.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 The Ministry of Interior (MoI; Arabic language, Arabic: وزارة الداخلية) is one of the governmental bodies of Saudi Arabia responsible for national security, naturalization, immigration, and customs in Saudi Arabia. It was founded in ...

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 is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common ...

, and two of the bodies were publicly hung 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 families. The Saudi government did not publicly explain why, and had not handed back the corpses of those executed as of 8 April 2020.

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.

2023

Saudi Arabia carried out 172 executions in 2023. Among the executed included six women; an increase from the previous year.

2024

As of 9 October, Saudi Arabia has executed 213 people, the highest number of people executed by the kingdom in a single year on record. By 18 July, the Saudi government had already executed 106 people, seven of whom were executed for drug-related offenses. By that point in the previous year, the kingdom had executed at least 74 people. In late December, the human rights organization Reprieve reported that Saudi Arabia had executed 330 people that year, the highest annual number in decades. Over 150 of these executions were for non-lethal crimes.

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 Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worke ...

, 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 that it has more than ten million members a ...

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

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

n maid named Rizana Nafeek 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 executio ...

awaiting execution. In practice, capital punishment has also been used to sentence political protesters. Ali al-Nimr and Dawoud al-Marhoon 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 that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

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 minors, 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 (also shortened to solitary) is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single Prison cell, cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to ...

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 including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

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-Faraj, 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. 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 international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of ch ...

.) 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) () is a Europe-based human rights organisation for documenting and promoting human rights in Saudi Arabia. Aims and origin The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights has published re ...

. In January 2022, at least 43 detainees, including 12 minors, were threatened with execution.

Extrajudicial executions

Saudi Arabia is also responsible for the extrajudicial assassination of Saudi-American journalist

Jamal Khashoggi Jamal Ahmad Hamza Khashoggi (13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, Saudi dissidents, dissident, author, columnist for ''Middle East Eye'' and ''The Washington Post'', and a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab New ...

in 2018. He was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by a squad of Saudi assassins who had been sent to Turkey with the express purpose of entrapping and killing him.

References

Sources

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