Saudi Arabia has put over 300 people to death in 2024, according to an AFP tally, after four executions announced on Tuesday brought the kingdom’s total to a level far outstripping the highest known annual figures.
The death penalty was carried out against three people convicted of drug smuggling and another for murder, the official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing the interior ministry.
It brings the total number of executions for the year to 303, according to the tally based on state media reports.
The Gulf monarchy had enacted the death penalty 200 times by the end of September, according to the same tally of official data, indicating a rapid rate of executions in recent weeks.
Saudi Arabia executed the third highest number of prisoners in the world in 2023 after China and Iran, according to Amnesty International.
Previously the record number of executions in a single year in the country had stood at 196 in 2022, said the London-based human rights group, which began recording the annual figures in 1990.
Taha al-Hajji, legal director of the Berlin-based European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR), condemned the ‘rocket speed’ of executions in 2024, calling it ‘incomprehensible and inexplicable’.
Human rights activists had previously warned Saudi Arabia could exceed 300 executions this year, with one execution being recorded almost every day.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has overseen more than 1,450 executions since taking on the role in 2015
Saudi Arabia executed the third highest number of prisoners in the world in 2023 after China and Iran , according to Amnesty International (a man kneels moments before being beheaded in Saudi Arabia)
The Kingdom has also been criticised for cracking down on free speech after Saudi artist Mohammed al-Hazza, 48, was recently sentenced to more than two decades in prison over political cartoons that allegedly insulted the Gulf kingdom’s leadership.
Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi judiciary in the past two years has ‘convicted and handed down lengthy prison terms on dozens of individuals for their expression on social media’, human rights groups Amnesty International and ALQST said in April.
Saudi officials say the accused committed terrorism-related offences.
‘The case of Mohammed al-Hazza is one example of the suppression of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia, which has not spared anyone, including artists,’ Sanad operations manager Samer Alshumrani told AFP.
‘This is supported by the politicised, non-independent judiciary in Saudi Arabia.’
Al-Hazza’s sentence came days after Saudi Arabia was denied a seat on the UN’s Human Rights Council in October.
The Saudi Arabian government has continued to attempt to present itself as a reformed country that has made progress on gender equality and human rights despite the shocking rate of executions and free speech crackdowns.
Since taking on the role of Crown Prince in 2015, Salman has overseen more than 1,450 executions and, despite a mortarium on the use of the death penalty for minor offences in 2020, the instances of capital punishment reached a monthly record high of 41 in August.
The brutal regime has also served lengthy prison sentences to several women, often during secret trials, after they were caught using social media to advocate for more rights and freedoms for women.
One such woman, Manahel al-Otaibi, 30, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for ‘terrorist offences’ after the Saudi Arabian fitness instructor posted messages about female empowerment online.
Manahel al-Otaibi, 30, was jailed for 11 years after posting about female empowerment on social media
Saudi Arabia has a shocking record on gender equality (File image)
In October, Manahel told her family she had been stabbed in the face with a sharp pen and required stitches – but when her family attempted to report the attack to the Saudi government’s Human Rights Commission, they were allegedly ignored.
Yet Saudi Arabia was chosen in March to chair a UN commission that is meant to promote gender equality and empower women.
To the dismay of human rights groups across the globe, Saudi Arabia’s envoy to the UN, Abdulaziz Alwasil, was elected as chair of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in a completely unopposed race at the group’s annual meeting in New York.
He was even endorsed by a group of Asia-Pacific states on the commission, despite his nation’s notorious record on gender equality, which human rights groups were quick to point out.
Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, said at the time: ‘Saudi Arabia’s election as chair of the UN Commission on the Status of Women shows shocking disregard for women’s rights everywhere.
‘A country that jails women simply because they advocate for their rights has no business being the face of the UN’s top forum for women’s rights and gender equality.
‘Saudi authorities should demonstrate that this honor was not completely undeserved and immediately release all detained women’s rights defenders, end male guardianship and ensure women’s full rights to equality with men.’
Saudi lawmakers passed a law in 2022 that claims to have increased the ‘personal status’ of women in the nation.
But the law explicitly says that a woman has to obtain permission from a male guardian to marry.
It also says that a wife has to obey her husband in a ‘reasonable manner’, and states that her husband’s financial support depends on her ‘obedience.’
A husband can withdraw financial support for reasons including refusing to have sex with him, live in a marital home or travel with him without a ‘legitimate excuse.’
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
