Saudi Arabia has executed 48
people in the past four months, half on non-violent drug charges, Human Rights
Watch said, urging the kingdom to improve its “notoriously unfair” criminal
justice system. “Saudi Arabia has executed 48 people since the beginning of
2018,” the US-based rights group said in a report published late Wednesday.
“Many more people convicted of drug crimes remain on death row following
convictions by Saudi Arabia’s notoriously unfair criminal justice system.”
The ultra-conservative kingdom
has one of the world’s highest rates of execution, with suspects convicted of
terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking facing the death
penalty. Rights experts have repeatedly raised concerns about the fairness of
trials in the kingdom, governed under a strict form of Islamic law. The
government says the death penalty is a deterrent for further crime.
“It’s bad enough that Saudi
Arabia executes so many people, but many of them have not committed a violent
crime,” said HRW’s Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson. “Any plan to limit
drug executions needs to include improvements to a justice system that doesn’t
provide for fair trials.” HRW says Saudi Arabia has carried out nearly 600
executions since the beginning of 2014, more than a third of them in drug
cases. Last year, nearly 150 people were put to death in the kingdom, where
convicts are beheaded using a sword.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman, next in line to the throne, this month suggested the kingdom would
consider changing the penalty from death to life in certain cases except murder
in an interview with Time Magazine.
The powerful prince is
spearheading a drive to soften the kingdom’s image as it looks to diversify its
oil-dependent economy and attract international investors.
AFP
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