Saudi Arabia does U-turn, executes 12 drug-offence convicts in 10 days

Saudi Arabia has reportedly executed 12 people in 10 days for drug-related offences. According to a report by US-based human rights organisation Reprieve, most of these executions were beheadings done with a sword.

The recent spate of executions come after a record 81 by the monarchy in March. According to an AFP report, the total number of people executed this year has now reached at least 132, exceeding 2020 and 2021 figures put together.

Hope of change after Khashoggi murder

According to Reprieve, as reported by The Telegraph, the executions point to a worrying trend despite Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s promise in 2018 to “minimise” capital punishment and only execute people found guilty of murder.

“His Majesty, the King, doesn’t wake up and just sign whatever he wants to sign. He works by the law, by the book,” Time Magazine had quoted him as saying.

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Even in 2020, Saudi Arabia had proposed to change the law to end the death penalty for non-violent offences like those related to drug. This came after the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. The CIA concluded Prince Mohammed likely ordered the killing.

After mounting global pressure on the kingdom to revise its outlook on capital punishment following Khashoggi’s murder, there was a let-up in executions. Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission claimed that the lowest number of executions (27) in decades was recorded in 2020, down by 85% from the previous year.

Another execution imminent?

However, the kingdom has made a U-turn with the recent beheadings. In March, 81 people were executed for offences ranging from “terrorism” to murder to robbery to arms smuggling. The latest executions were not even related to violent crimes.

The 12 convicts executed recently include three Pakistani nationals, four Syrians, two Jordanians, and three Saudi citizens, according to The Telegraph. Another Jordanian man will reportedly be executed on Friday.

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Maya Foa, director of Reprieve, told The Telegraph: “Mohammed bin Salman has repeatedly touted his vision of progress, committing to reducing executions and ending the death penalty for drug offences. But as a bloody year of executions draws to a close, the Saudi authorities have begun executing drug offenders again, in large numbers and in secret.”

(With agency inputs)