Despite promises made by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to reduce the number of executions in the Kingdom, a new report revealed this Tuesday that currently, Riyadh hangs one person nearly every two days.
A new report by a human rights body revealed this Tuesday that since the start of this year to July 15, the government of Saudi Arabia has carried out execution of more than 100 people. “This means that the Kingdom has executed one person almost every two days,” the report, published by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), said.
The ESOHR is an independent civil institution concerned with human rights in Saudi Arabia. It consists of a group of activists, human rights defenders, and researchers, aspiring to promote justice and uphold human dignity in the Kingdom.
But what makes this number more frightening is that 100 executions in almost 6 months for Saudi Arabia represents a 42 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023. That year, the Kingdom executed 172 people in 12 months.
“The surge in executions indicates an insistence on using the death penalty extensively by Saudi Arabia, which is a move in violation of international laws and Saudi’s official commitments,” the report also said.
Executions happen in secret, the report says!
To make matters even worse, the report noted that despite the rise in execution numbers in the Kingdom, they had identified only three individuals facing imminent execution, indicating that many executions in Saudi Arabia are taking place in secret.
“In many cases, the type of sentence and the court that issued it are often concealed in official reporting and the families of the victims are not even aware they were on death row,” the report noted, adding also 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.”
MBS’s failed promise!
Saudi Arabia uses the death penalty mostly to quash political dissidents in contravention of international law. This is while back in 2018, the crown prince pledged during an interview for Time magazine that he would minimize executions. “My government is looking into reducing the number of executions and I believe it would take about one year to introduce reforms,” Bin Salman said then. The following year, however, saw no reductions in the number of executions and the country still remains one of the world’s most prolific executioners.
A report by the same organization back in early 2023 revealed that Saudi Arabia’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,” the report noted.
On march 2022, for example, the highest number put to death in one day in Saudi Arabia was reported when the Kingdom executed 81 people in one single day. Human rights group Reprieve condemned the executions back then and said it feared for prisoners of conscience, including individuals arrested as children, to be on Saudi death row.
