Essay: Saudi Arabia’s Death PenaltyBarbarism in the Kingdom of the Future
*Written by X
A violent arrest, followed by no legal representation, a flawed trial, and no right to appeal, culminating in a death sentence – the truthful employment of executions in Saudi Arabia as a means of oppression.
Under the leadership of Mohammed bin Salman and King Salman, Saudi Arabia has witnessed rapid growth in executions, with its six bloodiest years all occurring since 2015. In 2020 Saudi Arabia instituted a moratorium on executions for drug-related offences, resulting in an 85% reduction in executions compared to 2019. Nevertheless, any advances should not to be seen as final – executions for drug crimes quickly resumed in 2022. Nota bene that the official numbers unfailingly misrepresent the true tally.
But why exactly is the case of Saudi Arabia so shocking?
That the kingdom employs the death penalty as a tool to suppress political opposition and protesting voices is axiomatic of such dictatorships. Denials, such as MBS’s assurances that executions are reserved solely for murder cases, should be seen as part of this parcel. Typically these executions brutalise a minority, in this case the Shia minority. As Amnesty International’s Beirut office put it: “the death penalty is being deployed as a political weapon to punish them [Shia] for daring to protest against their treatment and to cow others into silence”.
What sets Saudi Arabia apart is its cavalier, almost indulgent, administration of capital punishment. Wielding total control over the political, legal, religious and social organs of the kingdom – Saudi Arabia’s elite could well do away with the death penalty, or at least curb its worst excesses. The irony cannot be lost on these men, and they are only men. Whilst they schmooze at the UN (whose Commission on the Status of Women is now chaired by the kingdom, marking the true death of satire in our age) or the launch of another mega city, child defendants like Abdullah Al-Derazi are tortured, no end of non-violent offenders like Hussein Abu al-Khair (also, like Abdullah, tortured at least until confessing) are sentenced to death, and innocent people are executed (by the sword we should remember) for such grave transgressions as ‘witchcraft and sorcery’.
Soaked in irony, Saudi Arabia’s 2030 vision claims to have “being conscientious of human rights” as one of its “principles”. MBS would find this admirably humanitarian claim difficult to defend were he to actually spend a little time in the kingdom he lords over. In reality rights abuses, of the death penalty variety, are burgeoning in Saudi Arabia. It has the third-highest execution rate worldwide, almost doubling within his reign. International law such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights dictates that usage of the death penalty must be restricted to extreme circumstances. The brutality and opacity of Saudi Arabia’s capital punishment regime demonstrates systemic injustice that makes a mockery of these standards. In 2019, the majority of the 184 executed were sentenced for drug-related offences, which even under Shari’a law one could argue doesn’t justify capital punishment, particularly when carried out inhumanely by public beheadings or firing squads.
Perhaps the most shocking demonstration of Saudi Arabia’s barbarity and violation of international law (e.g. the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which they are a signatory) is its continued execution of those convicted as minors. In 2020, a royal decree pushed Saudi Arabia to adopt a ‘modern penal code’, banning execution for those arrested as children. Yet many young men remain at risk. Mohammed Al Faraj was only 15 when arrested for an alleged crime committed when he was 9 - the ‘crime’ of attending his uncle’s funeral. Despite his age, he was transferred to an adult prison where he faced days of solitary confinement, years of physical torture and the unforgivable loss of his childhood. He was only set free in April 2023, thanks to the intervention of NGO Reprieve, demonstrating the difficulty even for child defendants of escaping capital punishment. Since 2011, 15 men convicted of childhood ‘crimes’ have been executed under Shari’a law - often coerced into confessing through torture.
The unfortunate reality is that the death penalty is used not to impart justice but to serve political purposes and intimidate the public. The execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr demonstrates this well. A prominent dissident, he is one of the many assassinated for advocating causes ranging from women’s rights to mistreatment of workers. Shia Muslims continue to be a minority, making up 10% of Muslims worldwide and roughly 10-15% in Saudi Arabia. They are often subjected to systematic discrimination and faced with inequalities in employment and education. In the mass execution of 81 citizens in 2022, over half were Shia Muslims. Mustafa al-Khayyat, one of the victims putting a name to this tragic statistic, last spoke to his parents when entering prison. His family were never given a body, a grave, or notice of his assassination. People are being sentenced and killed in silence, tortured into confessions to egregious crimes, all whilst their families learn the news through social media. When Saudi’s de-facto ruler is pushing for human rights reform, why is this opaque, barbaric practice still being carried out throughout the kingdom?
To answer this let us pick but one year, 2022, during which Saudi Arabia carried out 196 executions. The usual broadside from the international human rights community followed, led by the UN who called on “the Government of Saudi Arabia to fully abolish the death penalty.” So how likely is Saudi Arabia to respond to this, now or in the future? The reality is such calls seem perennially hamstrung – primarily by the prescriptions of Shari’a law. Whilst there have been recent developments which lean positive, such as phasing out the death penalty for those under the age of 18, it would be wrong to assume that efforts will continue.
Two of the key principles in Shari’a law: ta’azir and qesas crimes, are core to the tenacity of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. The former concerns lesser crimes, the punishment for which is determined by the arbiter. The latter, concerning more serious crimes such as murder and physical injury, operates on a retaliatory “eye for an eye” principle. Both give a totalitarian state like Saudi Arabia great flexibility, allowing them to justify death sentences in any case they so please. For instance, in March 2022 (as aforesaid), in the span of 24 hours, 81 individuals were executed for links to terrorist organisations, when in reality they had spoken out against the regime and thereby disrupted the “social fabric”. This is clear evidence of Shari’a law’s political instrumentalization so as to silence dissent. It will go on like this, so long as the kingdom’s monarchs hold a monopoly on force and Islamic law alike.
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