Saudi Arabia executed an average of one person in two days: report

Riyadh: In a shameful revelation for the Arab country, a report by the Amnesty international has said that an average of one person was put to death every two days in Saudi Arabia since last August, and that foreign nationals formed a large chunk of those executed.

In its report titled 'Killing in the name of justice,' the organisation hit out at the justice system of Saudi Arabia, which it claims is riddled with loopholes. Even juvenile offenders and people with mental disabilities have been awarded capital punishment, and nearly half of those executed since 1985 were foreign nationals, the report noted.

At least 175 people were executed between August 2014 and June 2015, and most executions are done by beheadings. The high rate of executions also prompted the Kingdom to issue a morbid advertisement earlier this year seeking to fill the position of an executioner.

Furthermore, the defendants were denied access to legal aid and in some cases they were convicted on the basis of ‘confessions’ obtained under torture. And in recent years, more number of people are being executed for non-lethal crimes.

At least 2,208 people executed between January 1985 and June 2015 and often, families of prisoners on death row are not notified of their execution. They only learn of the execution after they have been put to death, and sometimes through media reports.

Saudi Arabia follows the Shari’a, or the Islamic law based justice system and lacks clear definitions of criminal acts, leaving much of crimes and punishments vague and open to interpretation. The system also gives judges power to use their discretion in sentencing, and for certain crimes, suspicion alone is enough for a judge to invoke death penalty.