RIYADH (Dispatches) – An international human rights organization has expressed grave concern over the alarming surge in executions in Saudi Arabia in the first half of the current year, saying the figure is almost twice the number during all of last year.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) said executions in the oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom jumped to 120 during this period, with the country poised to surpass its 2019 record of executions, the Arabic-language Arabi 21 online newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The new statistics fly in the face of commitments given by Saudi authorities to curb their use of the death penalty.
Last year, a total of 65 people were executed in the kingdom – a drop from the 2020 mark that ESOHR said was partially due to coronavirus restrictions.
“If Saudi Arabia continues to execute people at the same rate during the second half of 2022, then it will exceed the record of 186 executions in 2019,” the ESOHR said.
The group also found breaches of fair trial standards in multiple cases, saying this poses questions about the fairness of the process for death penalty trials in general.
The ESOHR said it identified the use of torture and revealed how those accused do not have access to a lawyer before court sessions begin, making it harder for them to fight their case.
Some of those sentenced to death are facing execution for matters related to participation in pro-democracy protests and expression of views, it said.
State news agency Saudi Press Agency said on March 12 that authorities had executed 81 people in one day on a variety of offences.
Of the 81 people, 73 were Saudi citizens, seven were Yemeni and one was a Syrian national.
Back in early January 2016, Saudi authorities also executed 47 people, including prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, who had vociferously called for democracy in the kingdom and advocated anti-regime protests. Nimr had been arrested in Qatif, Eastern Province, in 2012.
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has reportedly executed more than 900 prisoners in an increasing rate. In 2019 alone, Saudi Arabia set a record number of executions after authorities executed 184 people, despite a general decrease in the number of executions around the world.