Saudi Arabia: 100 Executions Since January 1
(Beirut) – Saudi
authorities have carried out 100 executions since January 1, compared
with 88 in all of 2014. Of the 2015 executions, 47 were for nonviolent
drug offenses.
“Saudi authorities have been on a campaign of death this year, executing
more people in six months than all of the previous year,” said Sarah Leah Whitson,
Middle East and North Africa director. “It’s bad enough that Saudi
Arabia executes so many people, but to execute people convicted in
nonviolent drug offenses shows just how wanton these executions are.”
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA),
Saudi Arabia’s state news agency, said in news releases that only 14 of
the 100 prisoners executed so far in 2015 were convicted of Hadd (“limit”)
crimes for which Islamic law mandates a specific punishment, including
the death penalty, while 30 were sentenced under the Islamic law concept
of Qisas, or eye-for-an-eye retribution for murder. Judges
based their sentences for the other 56, including the 47 for
drug-related crimes, on judicial discretion. Saudi Arabia has no penal
code; thus for many crimes for which people are convicted, what
constitutes a crime, the proof required to prove it, and the sentence it
carries are entirely up to a judge to decide.
Of the 100 executed, 57 were Saudi citizens. Pakistanis – 14 of them
convicted on heroin smuggling charges – formed the largest group among
the foreigners.
Saudi
Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (L) with his uncle King
Salman (R) at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, on January 27, 2015.
© 2015 Reuters
