According to a human rights organization, the number of executions in Saudi Arabia increased dramatically last year, and the international community must hold the Saudi government accountable.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency International Group, the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights (esohr) in a report on the high number of executions in Saudi Arabia and wrote that in 2021 compared to the previous year, the number of executions in this country increased by 148 percent.
According to the report, 67 executions took place in 2021, up from 27 the previous year, indicating that the Saudi government does not value human blood, especially in the case of exports. Death sentences are carried out in an illegal process without a fair trial and have no conformity with internationally accepted laws.
The human rights organization also stressed that the reduction in executions in 2020 was not because the Saudi rulers were paying attention to the need to respect human rights, but because Muhammad bin Salman was trying to restore his image in the international community, as the number of executions in Saudi Arabia since Salman took office Ibn Abdulaziz, King of Saudi Arabia, had risen significantly, and Riyadh needed to reduce criticism.
In this regard, it should be said that in 2019, 186 executions were carried out in Saudi Arabia and raised the voices of many human rights organizations.
Executions in Saudi Arabia escalate as Muhammad bin Salman promised to significantly reduce executions in an interview with the Times in April 2018. However, 387 death sentences have been carried out since then.
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In July 2020, a member of the Saudi Advisory Council called for the abolition of the death penalty and its replacement by other sentences imposed by the judge.
According to the human rights organization, at least 42 people are still awaiting execution, but since many families of those sentenced to death are afraid of being informed, it is very likely that the number of those awaiting execution will be higher.
Also, out of 67 executions in 2021, one was a woman and the rest were a man, 51 were Saudi nationals, seven were Egyptians, four were from Yemen, two were from Pakistan, one was from Chad, one was from Nigeria and one was from Sudan. Eight of them were executed for political reasons.
In this regard, on Tuesday, the Saudi Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence of two young Bahrainis. These two people are named “Jafar Sultan” and “Sadegh Thamer” who are residents of “Dar Kalib” area. Sultan and Thamer were arrested in 2015 on charges of trying to blow up the King Fahd crossing, which connects Saudi Arabia to Bahrain.
Repression of dissidents, from princes to Shiite dissidents in eastern Saudi Arabia, has been a dominant feature of the Saudi government since the coronation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017. Shiite dissidents, meanwhile, are permanent members of all execution lists. In May 2009, 37 Saudi Shiite dissidents were executed. The execution of Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr and the brutal assassination of Jamal Khashgechi in recent years have painted a bloody picture of the young Saudi Crown Prince.