Death Penalty News

The rate of executions in Saudi Arabia has almost doubled since King Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman came to power in 2015, as revealed in a new report by Reprieve and ESOHR . Read on to find out how the death penalty is used in Saudi Arabia and how it has drastically increased under Mohammed bin Salman. Does Saudi Arabia have the death penalty? Saudi Arabia is known to be one of the world’s most deadly executioners. Between 2010-2021, at least 1,243 people were executed. In 2022, at least 147 people were executed.

NEW YORK CITY — The newly released UN Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran condemned Iran’s lethal homophobia in connection with a Jerusalem Post exposé on Tehran’s public hanging of man based on an anti-gay charge. According to Javaid Rehman, the UN Rapporteur who released his report on Monday to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, “The death penalty continues to be applied for a wide range of offences, in contravention of article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which notes that States parties that have not yet abolished the death penalty should only impose it for the most serious crimes. “ He added that “The Islamic Penal Code does not limit the application of the death penalty to such cases. The death penalty may be applied for example in some cases of adultery, for certain cases of consensual same-sex intercourse between men or for offences that are not well-define...

Introduction The Iranian regime is a theocratic state based on the principle of velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule). The authoritarian rulers of Iran violently clamp down on popular demands, including calls for greater personal freedoms and equality.

Four decades of the clerical regime’s rule in Iran has left thousands of victims through widespread practice of torture and ill-treatment with impunity. Torture has been institutionalized in the regime’s punishment laws and is sanctioned by the Judiciary as well as the regime officials. Hadi Sadeghi, Deputy Chancellor of the Judiciary was quoted by the state-run ISNA news agency on May 30, 2018, as saying, “There is no precepts of imprisonment in Islam, so we need to seek alternative punishments. Physical punishment is much more effective than imprisonment, and the punishment of flogging is much more effective in Islam. But, the human rights agencies do not have a good idea on this matter.” The state-run Fars news agency cited Judiciary spokesperson Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, on January 17, 2018 as stressing on cross amputation for offenders where their opposite hand and foot are amputated. “Other punishments we have in mind for those who create insecurity in the ...

Cairo, Egypt Egypt MPs said the death penalty cannot be abolished because doing so would contradict Islamic Sharia The human rights committee of Egypt's parliament said it will never recommend that the death penalty be abolished, responding to repeated calls from foreign rights groups to end capital punishment. "Western human rights organisations that lobby for the abolition of the death penalty should know that this goes against both Islamic Sharia and the country's constitution," read a statement by the human rights committee on Sunday. Alaa Abed, head of the committee, told reporters that the abolition of the death penalty would violate Islamic Sharia, which is based on the "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" doctrine. "As long as Egypt's constitution states that Islamic Sharia represents the main source of legislation in Egypt, parliament can never accept that the death penalty be abolished," he said. "...

Darkness at noon: Public beheading in Saudi Arabia Rising Arrests, Prosecutions (Beirut) – Saudi Arabia has stepped up arrests, prosecutions, and convictions of peaceful dissident writers and human rights advocates in 2017, Human Rights Watch said today. In January, a Saudi court sentenced two prominent activists to long jail terms, accusing them of being in contact with international media and human rights organizations. The authorities jailed two others, one of whom remains in detention while under investigation. Saudi courts have convicted at least 20 prominent activists and dissidents since 2011. Many faced sentences as long as 10 or 15 years on broad, catch-all charges such as “breaking allegiance with the ruler” or “participating in protests” that do not constitute recognizable crimes. “Saudi Arabia is trying to silence and lock away anyone who doesn’t toe the official line or dares to express an independent view on politics, religion, or human rights,” said Sar...

"Not all human rights principles are necessarily universal." "Not all human rights principles are necessarily universal." -- Kazem Gharibabadi, International Deputy for the Iranian High Council for Human Rights. The Iranian government plans to host an international human rights conference in the city of Qom in August to discuss Islamic Human Rights principles, which will exclude LGBT rights and other issues “that are based on Western cultural standards and lifestyle,” as well as issues that ” are not universally accepted.” The announcement about the upcoming conference was made [June 29] by Mr. Kazem Gharibabadi, the International Deputy for the Iranian High Council for Human Rights, affiliated with the Iranian Judiciary. During his comments, Mr. Gharibabadi’s was specifically critical of the inclusion of LGBT rights in various human rights treaties: “Some countries refuse to acknowledge that the principles of human rights should be, at times, imple...