The Eighty-One Executions by Saudia Arabia and Bahrain

As indicated by the British non-benefit Reprieve, Saudi Arabia has done in excess of 800 executions up until this point. In 2019, 184 executions were completed in the country. Rights organizations have over and again reprimanded Saudi Arabia for its record on basic liberties, stifling freedom of expression, stifling affiliation and mass gatherings, and putting a stop to dissent. 

          About the new 81 executions, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said that every one of the sentences included those indicted under charges for terrorism and capital wrongdoings. The press office additionally said that the people were indicted for wrongdoings including killing men who were honest and innocent, and swearing loyalty to unfamiliar fear based foreign terrorist organizations including ISIS, al-Qaeda and the Houthis. 

          Other than this, the convictions incorporate wrongdoings of kidnapping, torment, assault, pirating arms and bombs into Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom will keep on taking a severe and unflinching position against illegal intimidation and extremist belief systems that undermine the stability of the whole world (SPA). 

          The mass execution of 81 people, Saudi and non-Saudi residents, on Saturday, Match 12th 2022, signals a shocking heightening in Saudi Arabia’s utilization of capital punishment, the death penalty, carrying the nation’s count of executions to 92 so far in 2022 alone.  

          The Ministry of Interior on Saturday, 12th March 2022, reported the execution of 81 individuals, every one of whom had been indicted for a wide scope of offenses, including “terrorism”- related wrongdoings, murder, equipped theft and arms smuggling. Some of those executed were likewise indicted for charges like, disturbing the social texture and public union and taking part in and impelling demonstrations and protests which portray acts that are safeguarded by the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. 41 of those executed on Saturday are from Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a minority, deeming this the most recent exhibition of Saudi Arabia’s politicized utilization of capital punishment to eliminate dissent in the Eastern Province. 

          As indicated by Amnesty International’s documentation, two of the 81 men who were executed on Saturday had been condemned to death in the wake of being indicted for violations connected with their cooperation in violent anti-government protests. The quantity of people executed for comparative charges could be higher. 

          The Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) condemned Mohammad al-Shakhouri ridiculously on 21 February 2021 for supposed vicious offenses connected with his cooperation in anti-government protests. He had no admittance to lawful portrayal during his detainment and cross examination and his family was only allowed to visit eight months after his capture. Al-Shakhouri told the court he experienced swelling and serious pain in his back, ribs and mouth subsequent to being tortured. He lost the majority of his teeth after security officials punched him in the face multiple times, yet he was denied medical care. Al-Shakouri denied his admission of guilt as it was pulled out from him through torturet, so the adjudicator gave over a discretionary death sentence. 

          In a comparative case, As’ad Ali, also executed on Saturday, had been condemned to death by the SCC on 30 January 2021 for comparable offenses. He told the court he had experienced physical and mental torment while being examined in isolation and that his admission of guilt had likewise been extracted through torture. Ali said he was denied clinical treatment regardless of experiencing intense agony. 

          In March 2022, Abdullah al-Huwaiti, a youngster who was 14 at the hour of his supposed wrongdoing, was condemned to death following a re-trial, after his initial death sentence was toppled in November 2021. He was re-condemned to death for charges of homicide and equipped burglary. As per court records, he was kept in isolation for quite some time all through his cross examination, which was done without the presence of his folks or attorney. 

          Toward the end of March 2022, Saudi Arabian scholarly Hassan al-Maliki is planned to show up before the SCC, in a resumption of his trial where he could confront a capital punishment on charges relating to his freedom of expression. The 14 charges incorporate “insulting the rulers and council of senior scholars of this country”; “conducting media interviews with Western newspapers and channels that are hostile [to the Kingdom]”; “authoring a number of books and research papers … and publishing them outside of the Kingdom” and “possessing 348 books that are unauthorized by the competent authority”. 

          In a comparative case, Salman Alodah, a religious cleric, faces capital punishment likewise before the SCC for charges connected with his supposed help of detained dissidents and the Muslim Brotherhood, a prohibited political group. Alodah was held in isolation for the initial five months of his detainment, in breach of international standards such as the Nelson Mandela Rules, with no contact permitted with his family or a legal advisor and only granted one brief call a month after his capture. 

          In August 2018, Salman Alodah was brought to trial before the SCC in a session not known publicly, where he was charged on 37 counts, including calling for freedom of speech and political reforms in Saudi Arabia. In May 2019, after another under the wraps hearing, his legal advisor relayed to his family that the investigator had sought the death penalty. He remains on trial awaiting a verdict. 

          Hassan al-Maliki and Salman Alodah ought to be right away and genuinely released. No one ought to confront capital punishment for simply practicing their right to freedom of expression and free speech. The state’s utilization of executions as a political instrument to smother critics is a rampant miscarriage of justice. 

          In all cases recorded by Amnesty International, individuals were condemned following horribly out of line trials, enormous quantities of which were harmed by instances of torture during confinement, which the arraignment failed to analyze dismissing Saudi Arabia’s international commitments. 

          A Royal Order released in 2020 reported an end to the utilization of capital punishment against individuals beneath the age of 18 at the hour of the wrongdoing, and only in discretionary cases not involving the counter-terror law. It didn’t indicate in the event that the declaration stretched out to minors condemned for hadd wrongdoings (those with fixed and extreme reprimands under Shari’a) or violations deserving of qisas (counter arguments). The Royal Order misses the mark regarding Saudi Arabia’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

          In mid 2021, the Saudi Arabian authorities reported changes corresponding to capital punishment, including a ban for executions for drug-related violations, which are death penalties handed down at the judge’s discretion rather than those mandated under Sharia law.  While this ban seems to have been carried out, it still can’t seem to be formalized and stays informal insofar as narcotics laws carry the death penalty and individuals previously sentenced to death for drug-related crimes remain on death row. 

          Besides, courts kept on executing people for different violations where judges can give a capital punishment at their discretion. Ja’far Sultan and Sadiq Thamer, the two Bahraini residents, were given discretionary capital punishments on 7 October 2021 over “terrorism”-related charges, including the smuggling of explosives, receiving military training in Iran, and “participating in protests in Bahrain that called for the government to be overthrown.” Their conviction was maintained by the Appeals Court in January 2022 but could still be overruled by the Supreme Court. 

          Saudi Arabia is drawing global criticism for killing 81 individuals in a single day. Iran emphatically denounced Saudi Arabia’s mass execution of sentenced criminals throughout the weekend, saying the move disregards essential standards of human liberties and international law. In an explanation late Sunday, Foreign Ministry representative Saeed Khatibzadeh said the mass execution carried out on Saturday by Saudi specialists of 81 men apparently indicted for psychological warfare and capital wrongdoings was done “without observing fair judicial processes.”   

          In a solid dissent, Khatibzadeh said the executions and viciousness “were not a solution to the crisis of their own making,” blaming the Saudi government for concealing political and legal strife and curbing its people. The assertion came hours after Iran briefly suspended a fifth round of pressure facilitating talks with Saudi Arabia brokered by Iraq which were set to continue Wednesday after the executions, after a long respite. While it refered to no good excuse for the one-sided choice, spectators accept the executions might have been a trigger. 

          The two Persian Gulf neighbors fell out in January 2016 following attacks on two Saudi diplomatic missions in the cities of Tehran and Mashhad which were triggered by Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shia cleric and activist Sheikh Baqir Nimr al-Nimr. Efforts to repair the ties started in April 2021, with four rounds of talks taking place so far brokered by Baghdad.  

         While Iran has transparently denounced these executions there is excruciating silence on the West. The executions occurred as the West was wanting to persuade the Kingdom to increment oil production. Western states are occupied, without a doubt, with the circumstances in the Ukraine. What’s more, they truly need assistance from Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, to create all the more right now to to sort of offset some of the losses from the situation with Russia. This could demonstrate an explanation on the US’s quietness on these executions.The worldwide reaction may henceforth be fairly tempered on account of the global circumstances at the present time 

          Capital punishment is a definitive horrible, brutal and debasing discipline, and an infringement of the right to life. All of us should follow in Amnesty International’s footsteps and approach the Saudi Arabian authorities to put a quick end to executions, lay out an authority ban on all executions and start regulation that would absolutely cancel capital punishment for all violations. Saudi Arabia should likewise guarantee that no “confessions” or different proclamations acquired through torture or other vile treatments are conceded by courts, and all protests of misuse are speedily and effectively investigated by an independent body.