On 31 October 2022, Saudi Arabia implemented the 1,000th sentence under King Salman bin Abdulaziz, which began in January 2015.
The lack of transparency in the Saudi government’s handling of the execution file, the intimidation of families and the prevention of any civil society activity, prevents access to the actual threatened figures, and therefore, the majority of the executed sentences were not previously monitored by human rights organizations and their fairness was not checked. Despite this, the details regarding the 1,000 executions show just how bloody they were.
Among the executions, 165 were carried out in 3 mass executions, in January 2016, April 2019 and March 2022. According to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights monitoring, 496 of the executed death sentences, 49%, were carried out with punitive Taazir death sentences, which depend on the judge's opinion.
The monitoring of ESOHR shows that trials in Saudi Arabia lack any conditions of justice, and many of the convicts were subjected to torture and ill-treatment at different stages of the trial.
In addition, out of the 1,000 executions, 12 were of minors, most of them carried out after the endorsement of the Juvenile Law in August 2018, which prohibits the execution of anyone facing charges that occurred while he was a minor.
In addition to the high number of executions carried out, Saudi Arabia has taken a new approach to detaining the executed, as the organization's documentation confirmed that at least 132 families were deprived of their right to burial. Among them, are the bodies of minors, and this is a constant torture for families.
During the years that witnessed the implementation of the thousand executions, many statements were issued. Saudi Arabia promised to reduce the number of executions carried out, but the numbers contradicted all those promises. Among these promises are what Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made in April 2018 and March 2022 in two media interviews, in addition to a royal order that claimed to stop the death sentences against minors in March 2020.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights confirms that the 1,000 executions carried out by Saudi Arabia during the seven years of the reign of King Salman bin Abdulaziz show unprecedented bloodshed. The organization expresses its fears of continuing this bloody path, especially with the organization monitoring at least 53 new death sentences, including 8 minors at risk of death.