Capital punishment in Saudi Arabia

Human Rights Watch says the majority of people are tortured to obtain confession and courts have not investigated it.

[18] A 2018 report by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) asserts that the number of beheadings in the kingdom during the first quarter of 2018 rose by over 70 percent compared to the same period in 2017.

"[24] In 2003, Muhammad Saad al-Beshi, whom the BBC described as "Saudi Arabia's leading executioner", gave a rare interview to Arab News.

The Saudi judiciary can impose the death penalty according to three categories of criminal offence in Sharia law:[38] A conviction requires proof in one of three ways:[43] Giving an oath is taken particularly seriously in a religious society such as Saudi Arabia's,[43] and a refusal to take an oath will be taken as an admission of guilt resulting in conviction.

[45] Sandra Mackey, author of The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom, stated in 1987 that in Saudi Arabia, "unlike the tribal rights of a father to put to death a daughter who has violated her chastity, death sentences under Qur'anic law [for adultery] are extremely rare.

[46] During a human rights dialogue with European jurists that took place several years before 1987, a Saudi delegate acknowledged that it is difficult to have a person convicted of adultery.

[50][51] In 2014, Mohammed bin Bakr al-Alawi was beheaded on 5 August for allegedly practising black magic and sorcery.

[52] On 2 January 2016, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution of 47 imprisoned civilians convicted for terrorism in 12 different provinces.

[60][61] Fourteen of the people executed had been convicted in relation to their participation in the 2011–12 Saudi Arabian protests in Qatif, mostly on the basis of torture-induced confessions.

However, the government of Saudi Arabia denied the accusations of human rights abuse and claimed that the said laws were imposed to protect its national security.

[71] In late December, the human rights organization Reprieve reported that Saudi Arabia had executed 330 people that year, the highest annual number in decades.

[11] The use of public beheading as the method of capital punishment and the number of executions have attracted strong international criticism.

In June 2011, Ruyati binti Satubi, an Indonesian maid, was beheaded for killing her employer's wife, reportedly after years of abuse.

[75] In September 2011, a Sudanese migrant worker was beheaded for sorcery,[76] an execution which Amnesty International condemned as "appalling".

[77] Amnesty International said that Saudi Arabia does not have a formal law on sorcery but some conservative clerics call for strictest punishment possible.

In January 2013, a Sri Lankan maid named Rizana Nafeek was beheaded after she was convicted of murdering a child under her care, an event which she attributed to the infant's choking.

The execution drew international condemnation of the government's practices,[78] and led Sri Lanka to recall its ambassador.

Ali al-Nimr and Dawoud al-Marhoon were both arrested at the age of 17 in 2012 during Arab Spring protests in the Eastern Province, tortured, forced to confess, and sentenced to decapitation in 2014 and 2015.

[85] From the available sources about the Nimr al-Nimr case it seems that Saudi officials use the term "terrorism" as cover label for "thought crimes" which in other countries would be considered normal work of an opposition politician.

[87] In March 2021, Human Rights Watch claimed that a Saudi man, Abdullah al-Huwaiti, could face execution for an alleged murder and robbery he committed when he was 14 years old.

Disregarding the 2020 ruling abolishing the death penalty for juveniles, al-Huwaiti faces execution following an unfair trial.

[88][89] On 15 June 2021, the Ministry of Interior of Saudi Arabia announced that it executed Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish (26), who was allegedly charged for forming a terror cell and trying to carry out an armed revolt at the age of 17.

[91][92] On 8 June 2021, Amnesty International had urged the Saudi authorities to “immediately halt all plans to execute Mustafa al-Darwish”, stating that the “death penalty is an abhorrent violation of the right to life in all circumstances”.

[93] On 15 December 2013, another Saudi citizen, Aqil Al-Faraj, was arrested due to a discrepancy in the chassis number of the vehicle he was driving.