This is the lowest figure on record since ESOHR and Reprieve began monitoring executions in 2013. The decline can partly be attributed to the COVID-19 lockdown from February to April, when the government carried out no executions due to restrictions to control the virus.
It may also reflect an unofficial de facto moratorium on executions for certain non-violent offences. On January 14, it will have been a full year since the last execution for a discretionary ta'zir offence in the Kingdom. (Executions for qisas and hudud offences, for which set punishments are defined in Sharia law, have continued).
However, there is reason to believe that the number of executions will rise in 2021. The government recommenced executions at an increased rate in the final quarter of 2020: approximately one-third of all executions last year were carried out in December alone.
ESOHR is actively monitoring the cases of 80 people facing the death penalty at various stages of trial. Many face death sentences for crimes related to protected human rights, or have alleged substantial violations of their due process rights at trial, including that their confessions were coerced through acts of torture. Their executions would be illegal under international law.
In April, Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Commission announced a royal decree that would eliminate capital punishment for certain childhood crimes with retroactive effect, but the decree remains unpublished and juveniles on death row such as Ali al-Nimr, Dawood al-Marhoon, and Abdullah al-Zaher have not been resentenced.
Reprieve director Maya Foa said: “The apparent progress being made in Saudi Arabia is clearly driven by a desire to clean up its international image, but the gap between public relations and binding legal changes remains potentially deadly. If Mohammed Bin Salman is serious about reform, Saudi Arabia should release the young men sentenced to death for childhood crimes, and publish laws protecting vulnerable drug mules from execution.”
James Suzano, ESOHR legal director said: "The fact that the Saudi government has carried out zero ta'zir executions over the course of a year is promising, and should be recognised. We hope that that number remains zero in 2021. That said, Saudi Arabia still has a lot of work to do if it hopes to fulfil its obligations under international law. It can start by publishing the 2020 royal decree and officially recognising its de facto moratorium on ta'zir executions, and continue that work by withdrawing the death penalty against anyone accused of a ta'zir offence."
Source: Reprieve, Staff, January 18, 2021
Saudis vowed to stop executing minors; some death sentences remain, rights groups say
The state-backed HRC in April cited a March royal decree by King Salman stipulating that individuals sentenced to death for crimes committed while minors will no longer face execution and would instead serve prison terms of up to 10 years in juvenile detention centers.
The statement did not specify a timeline, but in October, in response to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), it said the decree had come into force immediately upon announcement.
The decree was never carried on state media nor published in the official gazette as would be normal practice.
In December, state news agency SPA published a list of prominent "events" of 2020 featuring several royal decrees, but the death penalty order was not included.
Organisations including anti-death penalty group Reprieve, HRW and the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) as well as a group of U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns that loopholes in Saudi law could still allow judges to impose the death sentence on juvenile offenders.
1 of the 5 has appealed and 8 face charges that could result in execution, said the groups, who follow the cases closely.
Reuters established the status of 3 of the 5 individuals through HRC statements but could not independently verify the other 2.
The government's Center for International Communications (CIC) dismissed the concerns, telling Reuters that the royal decree would be applied retroactively to all cases where an individual was sentenced to death for offenses committed under the age of 18.
"The Royal Order issued in March 2020 was put into effect immediately upon its issuance and was circulated to the relevant authorities for instant implementation," the CIC said in an emailed statement.
The HRC declined to comment.
ALL EYES ON RIYADH
Saudi Arabia, whose human rights record came under global scrutiny after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, is one of the world's top executioners after Iran and China, rights groups say.
Its de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known internationally as MbS, enjoyed strong support from U.S. President Donald Trump.
But President-elect Joe Biden, who takes over in the White House later this week, has described the kingdom as a "pariah" for its rights record and said he would take a tougher line.
Six U.S. senators wrote to the Saudi embassy in the United States in October urging the kingdom to review all ongoing death penalty cases to identify individuals convicted for crimes committed when they were children, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters.
One of the signatories, Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski, told Reuters in December that if the kingdom were to follow through on the execution of juvenile offenders, "it would make it even harder for Saudi Arabia to return to the kind of relationships that it wants with the United States."
He added that Biden would be looking at the kingdom's human rights policies "very differently to Trump".
Biden officials declined to comment for this article, but referred Reuters to an earlier statement saying the new administration would reassess U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia.
DISPUTED FIGURES
Ali al-Nimr and Dawood al-Marhoun were 17 when they were detained in 2012 on charges related to participating in widespread protests in the Shi'ite-majority Eastern Province. Abdullah al-Zaher was 15 when he was arrested.
The three, who are among the five juvenile offenders whose death penalties have yet to be revoked, were sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court and faced beheading, although the public prosecutor ordered a review of their sentences in August.
The CIC said the royal decree would be applied to their cases.
Their lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.
In 2018, after assuming his post in a palace coup that ousted the previous crown prince, MbS pledged to minimise the use of the death penalty as part of sweeping social reforms.
But in 2019, a record number of about 185 people were executed, according to the rights groups.
Reuters could not independently confirm the figures. The CIC did not comment when asked whether this figure was accurate.
TEST CASE?
In an article published last April, state-linked newspaper Okaz confirmed the existence of the royal decree, but said that the abolishment only applied to a lesser category of offence under Islamic law known as "ta'zeer".
These crimes are not clearly defined in the Koran or accompanying Hadiths and so punishments are left to judges' discretion, and can amount to death.
Saudi Arabia has no civil penal code that sets out sentencing rules, and no system of judicial precedent that would make the outcome of cases more predictable based on past practice.
Judges could still sentence child offenders to death under the other two categories, according to Saudi Arabia's interpretation of sharia: "houdoud", or serious crimes which carry a prescribed punishment, including terrorism, and "qisas", or retribution, usually for murder, two lawyers and the rights groups said.
Asked why the royal decree was never published and whether it only applies to the "ta'zeer" category of offense, the CIC declined to comment.
Some defendants in protest cases have been prosecuted on terror charges.
In a case watched closely by the rights groups, 18-year-old Mohammad al-Faraj was facing the death penalty even though he was 15 at the time of his arrest in 2017 for charges including participating in protests and attending related funerals, one when he was aged 9.
Ahead of his next hearing scheduled for Jan. 18, a source close to one of the defendants in Faraj's case said the demand for a "houdoud" death sentence had recently been withdrawn and prosecutors were instead seeking the harshest punishment under "ta'zeer".
The CIC said the royal decree would apply retroactively to Faraj's case. ESOHR expressed concern that without a published decree, the risk of capital punishment cannot be ruled out.
ESOHR said Faraj was only granted a state-appointed lawyer in October, was not brought to court and was tortured in detention, allegations the CIC denied.
Since the start of the pandemic, Faraj has been allowed one weekly 15-minute call to his parents, with in-person visits cancelled, a source close to the family said.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the specifics of his case.
Source: Reuters, Staff, January 18, 2021
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde