Deprivation of the Right to Pardon: Saudi Arabia's Path to Escalating Executions

International laws and treaties impose obligations on countries that still implement the death penalty to ensure that individuals facing this punishment are granted their full rights, including the right to seek pardon.

Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states: "Anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. Amnesty, pardon, or commutation of the sentence of death may be granted in all cases." The Arab Charter on Human Rights, in its Article 6, confirms that every person sentenced to death has the right to seek pardon or to have the sentence commuted to a lesser penalty.

In Saudi Arabia, the King holds full authority to grant pardons in cases of public rights, which are cases where the state or society is the aggrieved party, rather than an individual. However, in cases of private rights, pardons cannot be granted without the consent of the rightful owner or the heirs of the victim. Article 23 of the Saudi Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that public criminal cases can be dismissed under specific conditions, including a pardon from the ruler.

On special occasions, the King may announce a royal pardon, such as during the month of Ramadan. Typically, royal pardons come with specific conditions and exclusions, often excluding crimes that threaten state security. The criteria for receiving a pardon often include good behavior in prison and the length of the sentence, among other factors.

In Saudi Arabia, judicial rulings are divided into three categories:

Hudud: These are punishments for crimes considered transgressions against the limits set by God, which include various types, such as drinking alcohol, adultery, and banditry.
Qisas: In Islamic jurisprudence, it is a punishment that requires the offender to be punished in the same manner as the crime committed
Ta’zir: It is a punishment imposed by the judge and not mentioned in the law and Sharia.

Regarding death sentences, the right to pardon also depends on the type of ruling issued. Hudud sentences are not subject to pardon, and in Qisas sentences, the right to pardon belongs to the victim's family as it falls under private rights. Consequently, the King has the right to pardon in Ta'zir rulings.

Saudi Arabia claims to base its death sentences on Islamic Sharia law, beginning announcements of executions with Quranic verses and reiterating its commitment to applying a moderate interpretation of Islam and eliminating extremist rulings. This approach is intended to be reflected in judicial rulings based on interpretations of Quranic verses and Hadiths.

However, a review of several judgment documents and the tracking of certain cases, especially involving political detainees, reveals that religious texts and statements from hardline clerics are selectively used to justify unjust rulings and impose harsher penalties on victims. Many clear texts that encourage and promote pardon are often ignored.

Application of Pardons in Saudi Arabia:

According to monitoring by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, although an annual royal pardon is issued for prisoners of public rights, it does not include detainees facing the death penalty.

A person sentenced to death has the right to seek a pardon from the relevant party. In Ta'zir sentences, where individuals face charges related to public rights, there is often no victim or victim's family. The only authority empowered to grant a pardon is the "Wali Al-Amr," meaning the King. The Royal Court is considered the sole means of communication between citizens and the King and his Crown Prince.

In addition to the lack of any pardons in these cases in recent years, there is no clear mechanism for seeking a pardon, and the only known mechanism is to submit a request to the Royal Court. Nevertheless, the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights received information confirming that the General Investigation Directorate summoned a member of a family of individuals sentenced to death in a political case, warning them against submitting similar requests to the Royal Court again, considering that the family does not have the right to submit a pardon request to the Court, and that it only has to submit a request to the specialized criminal court in Riyadh that issued the judgment.

ESOHR believes that the right to seek a pardon is a fundamental right for every person facing a final death sentence. In cases where there is no victim and the charges are political, and the judgment is based on the judge's discretion, the party directly responsible for implementation or pardon is the King, and not the court, whose role is limited to issuing the judgment

ESOHR sees the use of the available royal pardon as a clear way to reduce the increasing numbers of executions, which contradict official promises to mitigate the use of this punishment. ESOHR points out that the repeated promises of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to halt death sentences in cases permitted by Islamic law primarily involve the King's use of pardon as a means to stop the implementation of death sentences that currently threaten at least 70 individuals, many of whom do not face charges of the utmost seriousness, including 8 minors.

ESOHR also emphasizes that depriving individuals facing punitive sentences of their right to seek pardon is a violation of international laws and a clear indication of Saudi Arabia's insistence on expanding the arbitrary use of the death penalty.

Source: esohr.org, Staff, May 22, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Facebook | Telegram | Contact Us

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000. Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city. The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said. 'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog