On the sidelines of the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights and Reprieve held a seminar on 8 March 2023 under the title: Execution in Saudi Arabia.
The researcher at the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Duaa Dhainy, opened the seminar by pointing out that since 2015 until today, the regime in Saudi Arabia has changed and the Saudi official handling of the file of human rights in general and the death penalty in particular has changed. She explained that this change can be seen in the corridors of the Council, in the words of the official head of the Human Rights Commission, Hala Al-Tujiri, last week, for example, and in the official engagement and response to messages.
Dhainy indicated that the change is in fact an attempt to paint a new image for Saudi Arabia, but with regard to the execution, these years have witnessed nothing but confusion and more violations. She explained that since 2015, the highest rate of executions in decades has been recorded, including 3 mass massacres of minors, accused of demonstrating, and other individuals who were denied a fair trial.
Dhainy considered that, unfortunately, in reality, death sentences continued on non-serious charges, and Saudi Arabia returned to executing death sentences for drug crimes in November 2022. Then, information about secret executions without an official announcement about them was received, and on March 1, a few days ago, Saudi Arabia announced carrying out death sentences.
She explained that there are currently dozens threatened with death, according to the organization's monitoring. Among them are minor demonstrators, clerics and others. She pointed out that the seminar is to point out the reality of execution in Saudi Arabia, with all the changes and promises, and the alarming numbers. It also tries to analyze these numbers, and identify the possibilities of advocating for victims and seeking to reduce these violations.
Head of the Middle East and North Africa Office at Together Against the Death Penalty, Julia Pounce-Bourbon, noted that the process of abolishing the death penalty varies from country to country, with the participation of national authorities, parliamentarians, national human rights institutions and civil society tending to play a crucial role. While international pressure and some countries wishing to present the image of a country that respects human rights and is open to democratic values has led to results, the participation of some countries in international conferences, namely the United Nations and the European Union, has led to a promise to abolish punishment and to support the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming to abolish the death penalty.
Bourbon pointed out that the Organization of the Islamic Conference is an intergovernmental organization consisting of fifty-seven member states, including 22 member states of the League of Arab States, and it is the largest international organization after the United Nations. She explained that the position of the member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference regarding the implementation or abolition of the death penalty does not depend only on the political aspects in terms of governance and image on the international stage, but rather involves religious aspects, as Islamic law tends to be a major source of legislation. However, differences in the interpretation and ambiguity of Islamic law lead to different attitudes by country, which is why several countries have either abolished or suspended the death penalty.
Bourburn explained that the legal and substantive provisions led to a significant decrease in the number of executions and contributed to the creation of Islamic legal precedents, which made them more just and better in combating crime. She indicated that a number of legal provisions, including corporal punishment, were suspended in most Islamic countries.
She indicated that there is a global trend towards the abolition of the death penalty, which can be observed in all international and regional organizations, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Of the 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, 20 have abolished the death penalty, 12 have suspended its execution, and 25 are still continuing to implement it.
She stressed that Saudi Arabia remains among the countries that use the death penalty the most in the world, as it continues to impose a very strict interpretation of Islamic law, which has led to countless executions in the name of Islam. The intervention indicated that Saudi Arabia did not codify an objective penal code or laws that define general crimes, and judges reserve wide powers to determine behavior that may constitute a criminal offense and the resulting punishment. She indicated that in 2021, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the legalization of the Penal Code, after decades of criticism that the lack of a clearly defined criminal law creates a state of legal uncertainty, and the issuance of arbitrary sentences, but until today this law has not been issued.
Bourburn concluded that abolitionist processes are slow, difficult, and can be fraught with danger. However, there are many reasons for hope, especially when you see the increasing number of countries that have abolished the death penalty. It is essential to continue to document the situation, and to campaign vigorously. and consistently.
The legal director of the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Taha Al-Hajji, pointed out that those who follow the file of executions in Saudi Arabia notice the absence of vision, due to the great contradictions, moods, and the lack of recourse to laws. Al-Hajji considered that the turmoil in Saudi Arabia's behavior is unacceptable and unjustified. Despite the laws and royal orders, Saudi Arabia still legalizes the killing of minors and their trial in non-specialized courts.
There is also turmoil in cases that are not among the most serious, such as discretionary rulings and drug cases. After the official Human Rights Commission announced it, and after a year and 10 months of stopping executions for drug cases, Saudi Arabia resumed its implementation in November 2022, and the organization also monitored secret executions. This turmoil is accompanied, according to al-Hajji, with physical violations, including the secrecy surrounding how the sentence was executed, its time and the fate of the bodies.
Al-Hajji indicated that there are several indications of this confusion. For example, in 2006, the press published the news of the arrest of a person who opened fire on the American consulate in Jeddah, and stated that it was a lone act and that the person was mentally ill and did not belong to any terrorist group. A few days ago, the death sentence was executed against him on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization, and it did not deny that he was mentally ill. Here it is not possible to trust or document due to the repression of civil society.
Al-Hajji believed that revealing the facts that Saudi Arabia is trying to hide by all means, including its activity in the Human Rights Council, is the basis for any change and real protection for the victims.
For her part, Sana Farrukh, Leader of the Policy and Advocacy Team at the Justice Pakistan Project JPP, considered it important to first appreciate the context in which the executions of foreigners are taking place in Saudi Arabia, and explained that there are nearly nine million Pakistanis working outside their homeland. According to Faroukh, Saudi Arabia is the chosen destination for the vast majority of workers. Despite the importance of these relations economically for the two countries, unfortunately there is a starkly disproportionate impact on the Pakistanis.
Farroukh explained that, according to a recent study, the probability that the death penalty will be imposed on Pakistanis is 4.3 times higher than that of Saudi citizens. Between 2016 and 2019, 102 Pakistanis were beheaded, which is 14% of all people executed in the period and 94% of all South Asians executed in the same period.
She explained that there are three major failures in the Pakistani recruitment system that leave low-wage migrant workers at risk of being forced to smuggle drugs into the Gulf and losing their lives.
The first is the illegal trade in work visas abroad known as “Azd visas.” The second is the inadequate enforcement of immigration requirements under Pakistani law, the third is the failure to regulate sub-agents and other actors in the Pakistani recruitment industry which leads to coercive and deceptive recruitment practices.
In addition to the failures at this domestic level, a second major factor leading to a disproportionate impact on Pakistanis is the lack of a consular protection framework that can guarantee due process rights to these vulnerable migrants, even though international law and domestic law in Pakistan promise to do so.
Farrukh explained that Pakistan has intensified its diplomatic efforts in recent years for its citizens detained abroad, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She indicated that between 2019 and 2022 no Pakistani citizen was executed, and many prisoner repatriations took place. However, in an abrupt departure from Saudi Arabia's commitments, in November 2022, 3 executions of Pakistani nationals were carried out, leaving the remaining Pakistanis on death row at imminent risk of execution.
Regarding the difficulty of accessing information about the number of foreigners sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, Farrukh indicated that they are stuck at the mercy of local courts without access to lawyers, impartial translators, or consular assistance from Pakistani diplomatic missions.
Farrukh explained that as of June 2021, there are 9,301 Pakistani prisoners languishing in foreign prisons, and out of these, 2,539 are imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. According to the information, approximately 52% of the Pakistani prisoners in Saudi Arabia are convicted prisoners and therefore entitled to be repatriated under the prisoner transfer agreement.
Farrukh concluded that there should be wisdom in their advocacy, for example, Pakistan does not execute women and does not execute them for drug crimes. However, Pakistanis, including women, are subjected to these penalties in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, with the prisoner transfer agreement, the minimum is to prevent the implementation of these provisions under the agreement.
Thuraya Bounce, Deputy Director of Reprieve Organization, indicated in her intervention that the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia since 2010 is 1,243, in a severe lack of transparency in the government's handling of the file.
Bounce explained that there are concrete examples confirming that Saudi Arabia has made promises of reform regarding the death penalty, such as the Juvenile Law of 2018 and the Royal Decree of 2020, although Saudi Arabia has not adhered to any of these promises. She pointed out that Saudi Arabia has executed 15 children since 2010, and now continues to threaten the lives of minors with execution, despite the law and the royal order.
While the seminar coincided with International Women's Day, Bounce explained that Saudi Arabia is still executing women, and indicated that the report of the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights and the report of Reprieve indicated the number of women executed in Saudi Arabia, and that most of them were migrant workers. She also confirmed that women are subject to execution on a discriminatory basis, and although there are no figures, it is likely that many women are now at risk of being killed.
Bounce ended her intervention by calling for a public investigation into all executions since 2010, and for compensation for the families of those executed illegally. She also called on the international community to urge Saudi Arabia to be transparent in the application of punishment, and to stress the importance of announcing all executions carried out and all figures for those on death row.