[3][4] At unannounced times, Saudi security forces and other officials clear the area to make way for executions to take place.

It is a crime to record, with photos or videos, the executions, despite the number of attendees witnessing such public events.

[5] Saudi Arabia remains the only country with legal capital punishment by decapitation (beheading)[6] – in 2022, recorded executions in Saudi Arabia reached 196, the highest number recorded in the country in 30 years – but beheadings are no longer carried out in public, with no public executions having been recorded in the country in 2022,[7] after Red Crescent criticism and comparison between Saudi Arabia's and the Islamic State's practices.

Corpses aren’t hung for display in the square as often, and beheadings drew much bigger crowds when they were a regular event, held on Fridays after noon prayers.

There was speculation that this was due to the international repercussion of public beheadings then carried out by the Islamic State, and the alleged "irony" of the fact that Saudi Arabia, being a key ally in the US-led coalition against the group, carried out the same sort of "brutal" punishments as the militant group.