Ruminations: Capital Punishment in Saudi Arabia -- Decapitation

"Over the last two weeks executions have been taking place almost daily in Saudi Arabia after the authorities ended a 21-month unofficial moratorium on the use of the death penalty for drug-related offences."
"Those executed to date are four Syrians, three Pakistanis, three Jordanians, and seven Saudis."
"[These executions are] deeply regrettable."
Elizabeth Throssell, spokesperson, UN human rights

"While all eyes are on the football, Saudi Arabia is carrying out a horrifying execution spree, killing people like Hussein, an innocent man who was tortured by Saudi police to 'confess'."
Maya Foa, director, Reprieve human rights organization

Hands on rusty cage bars. © Getty Images.

“Saudi Arabia’s mass execution of 81 men this weekend [March 2022] was a brutal show of its autocratic rule, and a justice system that puts the fairness of their trials and sentencing into serious doubt.”
“The shocking callousness of their treatment is compounded by the fact that many families found out about their loved ones’ deaths just like the rest of us, after the fact and through the media.”
Michael Page, deputy Middle East director, Human Rights Watch

Despite promising to stop using the death penalty for punishment of non-violent crimes Saudi Arabia now stands accused of carrying out executions almost daily in the past two weeks. Seventeen men were executed in Saudi Arabia since November 10 for drug and contraband offences, the latest three executions carried out on Monday, according to a UN human rights spokesperson.

Most executions of the total of 144 executions carried out in 2022 believed to be beheadings although circumstances surrounding such executions are "often surrounded in secrecy". Exact numbers of people incarcerated on death row in Saudi Arabia is unclear. Only execution numbers can be verified, according to the commissions' Elizabeth Throssell, at a Geneva press briefing.

She addressed the specific case of Hussein Abu al-Kheir, a 57-year-[old father of eight who "may be at risk of imminent execution", the UN believes. Amphetamine drugs were planted in al-Kheir's car while parked outside his home in Jordan, according to human rights groups. He was forced to confess to drug=related charges, under torture.