Before the end of the first quarter of 2022, Saudi Arabia executed a hundred people. Days after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke of “getting rid of” capital punishment, the death penalty rate exceeded all the figures recorded for execution in the first quarter of the year in at least a decade.
According to official data, and in addition to the mass execution carried out by the Saudi government on March 12, 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 19 people. In addition to the Saudis, the victims had Egyptian, Jordanian, Palestinian, Yemeni, Syrian, and Indonesian nationalities.
The Information published by the Saudi Press Agency confirmed that the nineteen individuals had been charged with murder. The eight people who were executed after the mass execution were sentenced to the Ta'zir death penalty, while the sentences executed before the massacre was limited to Qisas death sentences. It is usual for people facing charges of murder to be sentenced to Qisas.
Days after Muhammad bin Salman promised to abolish death sentences that are not based on a text from the Qur'an: Taazir sentences, within two or three years, the death penalty rate increased dramatically. This sharp rise in executions confirms the fears of using the death penalty in a retaliatory manner on the one hand and the lack of any basis for justice on the other. While promises of reform confirm the shortcomings of the current laws, cases that affect the right to life must be frozen until the laws are decided upon, and it contradicts what the Saudi government has done.
In addition, despite the absence of any role for civil society and human rights defenders, the cases that the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights was able to document, confirm the lack of justice, and the various types of violations against detainees, including torture and ill-treatment and deprivation of legal self-defense.
ESOHR considers the death sentences that followed the mass execution is a challenge to the international community and international law, especially after the High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized the massacre. These figures also confirm that the risk of death for those still facing the death penalty is higher now, especially prisoners of conscience, political detainees, and minors.