In a speech before the Human Rights Council, the Vice-President of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Adil Al-Saeed, confirmed that human rights in Saudi Arabia are witnessing unprecedented deterioration.
In a joint speech by ESOHR and Reprieve, on September 26, 2022, during the discussions of the fourth item of the Human Rights Council at its fifty-first session, Al-Saeed said that Saudi Arabia had recently issued harsh sentences, some of which amounted to 90 years, distributed between imprisonment and travel bans against activists for Expressing their opinion.
Al-Saeed pointed out that harsh sentences did not reduce the issuance and execution of death sentences. Since the beginning of 2022, Saudi Arabia has executed 120 people, which represents an 80% increase in overall executions throughout 2021. Al-Saeed explained that among those executed, 72 people faced exemplary death sentences, which are sentences that are issued without a legal text and based on the opinion of the judge, and they are The same provisions that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had promised to limit.
In addition to the implementation, the two organizations confirmed that Saudi Arabia has proceeded to issue and ratify new death sentences, including those against minors. According to the monitoring of ESOHR, at least 8 minors face the death penalty, as Abdullah al-Hwaiti, Abdullah al-Derazi, and Jalal al-Labad were sentenced, while the Public Prosecution is calling for the killing of other minors, including Hassan Zaki al-Faraj and Youssef al-Manasif.
The word considered that the lack of transparency prevents access to accurate figures. However, the monitoring confirms that there are at least 34 people currently facing the death penalty, including those facing charges related to the exercise of legitimate rights, such as researcher Hassan al-Maliki and Sheikh Salman al-Awda.
Al-Saeed ended the speech by noting that Saudi Arabia continues to violate international law in its implementation and issuance of death sentences after unfair trials, considering that the international community must take clear measures against these violations so that human rights are always a priority.