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Thread: Saudi Arabia Capital Punishment News

  1. #111
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Saudi execution spree continues as fears rise for Jordanian on death row

    Patrick Wintour
    The Guardian

    David Davis asks foreign secretary and Saudi ambassador to intervene in reprieve for Hussein Abo al-Kheir

    Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed two more Saudi citizens for drug offences, taking the total number of executions in the past fortnight to 17.

    The kingdom had previously given a commitment it would not impose the death penalty for drug offences, but has suddenly gone back on its word, executing seven Saudi and 10 foreign nationals. Saudi Arabia has already executed 130 people this year.

    The spate of executions, as the kingdom celebrates its victory over Argentina in the World Cup, has prompted the former Conservative cabinet minister David Davis to write to the UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, and the Saudi ambassador in the UK to ask them to intervene to reprieve Hussein Abo al-Kheir, a Jordanian man.

    In his letter to Cleverly, Davis says: “Hussein was born into a poor family and, prior to his arrest, worked low-paid jobs to support his eight children: as a taxi driver, bus attendant and fruit and vegetable vendor. It remains absurd that this impoverished father of eight could ever have been a drug ‘kingpin’; he had neither the money nor connections to buy large quantities of drugs in Jordan to sell in Saudi Arabia.”

    Kheir, who is represented by the campaign group Reprieve, was moved to a death row cell on Friday.

    He was arrested in 2014 for smuggling narcotics when crossing the Jordan border into Saudi, and says he only confessed when he was tortured, including being suspended from his feet and beaten on his stomach and legs. An appeal court lifted a guilty verdict in March 2017, but the government ordered a retrial six months later, leading to him being re-sentenced to death in November 2017.

    The UN working group on arbitrary detention in October said his arrest has been arbitrary, and he should be released immediately.

    The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, told media in previous interviews: “Regarding the death penalty we are getting rid of it in its entirety,” adding this would be except in circumstances where “someone has killed another person or threatens the lives of many people”.

    Taha al-Hajji, a former capital defence lawyer who now works at the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, said: “There is no logical explanation for its return to executions.

    “But I think the pause coincided with the global criticism of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. The executions returned after the media and human rights campaigns slowed down.”

    Kheir rang his sister in Canada on Monday night effectively to say goodbye. His sister quoted him as in despair saying: “Sister, it has been nine years, they have not released me nor have they killed me, they can do whatever they want to do with me now. They just do whatever they want now.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...n-on-death-row
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #112
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Saudi death penalty use has almost doubled under rule of Mohammed bin Salman: Report

    ByGuy Davies
    ABC News

    LONDON -- The use of the death penalty under the rule of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father, King Salman, has almost doubled annually since they rose to power, according to a new report seen by ABC News.

    The report, published on Tuesday by the non-profit European Saudi organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) and the anti-death penalty charity Reprieve, titled “Bloodshed and Lies: Mohammed bin Salman’s Kingdom of Executions,” says that the average number of executions has risen 82% under their rule, even as the country has projected a modernizing image to the outside world.

    The number of executions annually has risen from an average of 70.8 between 2010-2014, to 129.5 per year since 2015, when the current king and crown prince came to power. Despite official claims that the death penalty does not apply to minors, at least 15 child defendants have been executed in the Kingdom since 2010, according to the data published by the human rights groups. Over 1,000 executions have been carried out in Saudi Arabia since 2015, the report said.

    The report also looked into the increasing use of mass executions, such as the record number of 81 people executed on a single day in March of last year on a range of charges, including terrorism. The UN’s High Commissioner Human Rights groups condemned the mass execution, saying that the regime had implemented “an extremely broad definition” of terrorism that includes non-violent acts.

    “The explosion in the number of executions in Saudi Arabia under Mohammed bin Salman is a crisis the international community cannot continue to ignore,” Reprieve Director Maya Foya shared in a statement. “Every data point in this report is a human life taken … And all while MBS lies to the world that he has reformed the system to reduce the number of people executed. When the US, UK and EU go along with these lies, it makes the next mass execution more likely.”

    Human rights groups have long expressed concerns that the kingdom’s human rights record has been overlooked by the international community in favor of geopolitical and economic interests. The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

    However, the BBC received a statement from the Saudi Embassy in London in response to an investigation into the death penalty, which said other countries around the world use the death penalty at their own discretion.

    "As we respect their right to determine their own laws and customs, we hope that others will respect our sovereign right to follow our own judicial and legislative choices," the statement said.

    The judicial system that convicts defendants for capital crimes is shrouded in secrecy, according to the report, with the government often not notifying the defendants’ families and returning their bodies.

    “This report provides a glimpse at what Saudi justice looks like now that MBS has been emboldened by Western governments that have failed to hold him accountable for the killing of Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as numerous other crimes and abuses including Yemen war,” Abdullah al Oudah, whose father currently faces a death sentence, said in a statement shared with ABC News. “My father is possibly facing the death penalty any moment just because he called for peace and tweeted for reforms.”

    https://abcnews.go.com/International...ry?id=96785686
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  3. #113
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    Saudi Arabia says it executed U.S. national convicted of killing and torturing his father

    CBS News

    Saudi Arabia on Wednesday executed a U.S. national convicted of torturing and killing his father, state media reported, bringing to at least 19 the number of foreigners put to death this year.

    The death sentence for Bishoy Sharif Naji Naseef was carried out in the Riyadh region, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

    The Gulf Kingdom is frequently criticized for its prolific use of capital punishment, which human rights groups say undermines its bid to soften its image through a sweeping "Vision 2030" social and economic reform agenda.

    A court found that Naseef, whose age was not given, beat and strangled his Egyptian father to death and mutilated him after he died, and that he also used drugs and attempted to kill another person, SPA said.

    The mode of execution was not specified, but Saudi Arabia has in the past often used beheading when implementing the death penalty.

    A State Department spokesperson told CBS News on Wednesday that the U.S. "are aware of reports of the execution of a U.S. citizen in Saudi Arabia."

    The spokesperson added that "We are monitoring the situation and have no further comment at this time."

    Saudi Arabia was the world's third most prolific executioner last year, Amnesty International has said.

    More than 1,000 death sentences have been carried out since King Salman assumed power in 2015, according to a report published earlier this year by the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights and the Britain-based group Reprieve.

    A total of 91 people — 19 of them foreigners — have been executed so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on state media reports.

    As well as the U.S. national, those put to death came from countries including Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Jordan, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Yemen.

    Last year's announced figure of 147 executions was more than double the 2021 figure of 69.

    Executions for drug crimes resumed in 2022, ending a moratorium that lasted for almost three years.

    The 2022 total included 81 people put to death on a single day for offenses related to "terrorism," an episode that sparked an international outcry.

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, King Salman's son and the de facto ruler, has said on multiple occasions that the kingdom was reducing executions.

    In a transcript of an interview with The Atlantic magazine published by state media in March 2022, Prince Mohammed said the kingdom had "got rid of" the death penalty except for cases of murder or when someone "threatens the lives of many people."

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saudi-a...ng-his-father/

  4. #114
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Saudi Arabia executed 100 people since Jan 2023

    The authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have executed at least 100 people since the beginning of 2023, according to a report by Amnesty International.

    Amnesty International described it as a “relentless killing spree” despite the monarchy’s promises to examine the application of the death penalty.

    “In clear contrast to Saudi Arabia’s repeated promises to limit its use of the death penalty, the Saudi authorities have already executed 100 people this year, revealing their chilling disregard for the right to life,” Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa director said in a statement on Friday.

    It added that this new wave of executions “raises serious concerns for the lives of young people on death row who were under the age of 18 at the time of the crimes.”

    Amnesty International has also stated that it had documented several cases in which the authorities sentenced people to death “for anything from a few tweets on Twitter (currently X) to drug-related crimes, following grossly unfair trials that did not live up to international standards for human rights.”

    In August alone, Saudi Arabia executed an average of four people per week, including one Pakistani man who was executed for drug smuggling.

    The organization said its tally comes from reports published by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), underlining that “the real number of executions may be higher.”

    In 2022, Saudi Arabia ranked third in the world for the number of executions carried out. The number of recorded executions tripled from 65 in 2021 to 196 in 2022 in the Kingdom.

    More than 1,000 death sentences have been carried out since King Salman took power in 2015, according to a report published earlier this year by the British-based Reprieve and the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights.

    https://www.siasat.com/saudi-arabia-...-2023-2690127/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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