Highest Execution Toll in Decades As Saudi Authorities Put to Death Over 300 People in 2024

Saudi Arabia's use of the death penalty has reached a significant high in 2024, with 303 executions carried out so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on state media reports.

The latest executions, reported on December 3, involved three individuals convicted of drug smuggling and one for murder, according to the Saudi Press Agency, citing the interior ministry.

The Gulf monarchy had enacted the de@th penalty 200 times by the end of September, according to the same tally of official data, indicating a rapid rate of executions in recent weeks.

Saudi Arabia executed the third-highest number of prisoners in the world in 2023 after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International

Previously the record number of executions in a single year in the country had stood at 196 in 2022, said the London-based human rights group, which began recording the annual figures in 1990.
 
Taha al-Hajji, legal director of the Berlin-based European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR), condemned the 'rocket speed' of executions in 2024, calling it 'incomprehensible and inexplicable'.

The Kingdom has also been criticised for cracking down on free speech after Saudi artist Mohammed al-Hazza, 48, was recently sentenced to more than two decades in prison over political cartoons that allegedly insulted the Gulf kingdom's leadership.

Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi judiciary in the past two years has 'convicted and handed down lengthy prison terms on dozens of individuals for their expression on social media', human rights groups Amnesty International and ALQST said in April.

Saudi officials say the accused committed terrorism-related offences.

'The case of Mohammed al-Hazza is one example of the suppression of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia, which has not spared anyone, including artists,' Sanad operations manager Samer Alshumrani told AFP.

'This is supported by the politicised, non-independent judiciary in Saudi Arabia.'

Al-Hazza's sentence came days after Saudi Arabia was denied a seat on the UN's Human Rights Council in October.

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Posted: at 4-12-2024 06:29 AM (1 month ago) | Addicted Hero

Crime is at an all time high in Nigeria today because there are no consequences for actions. A lady poisoned God knows how many people to death in edo just recently, nothing has been done. Bandits and terrorists kill every now and then, and whenever they like, they'll surren̈der and be granted amnesty maybe with scholarship. In Saudi, everyone knows if you kill you'll be killed. If you push drugs you'll be killed. Before you commit any crime in the Kingdom, you'll think a million times. You can't keep pampering criminals and expect crime to reduce.

Posted: at 4-12-2024 10:20 AM (1 month ago) | Hero