Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman

Riyadh executed more people in 2022 than the two previous combined, 81 of which were executed in a single day last March, "the largest mass execution in Saudi Arabia's history," said the European Saudi Human Rights organization (ESOHR) in a report.

The report published on Tuesday said the death penalty sentences in the Kingdom between 2020 and 2022 hiked by 444% as the gulf country continues with its "arbitrariness in issuing sentences, contradicting official promises, in parallel with complete disregard for international recommendations and criticism."

Citing the official Human Rights Commission, the organization noted that "27 [death] sentences were executed in 2020, and 67 were carried out in 2021."

#SaudiArabia goes on with its unlawful executions; 2 months after the last mass executions that shocked the whole world, Sadiq Majid Thamer and Jaafar Muhammad Sultan now face a death sentence for allegedly smuggling explosives.#Bahrain pic.twitter.com/xcP8jvrpR3
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) May 22, 2022

According to data released by the Saudi Interior Ministry, the nationalities of 147 executions last year were mostly Saudis (114), followed by 9 Yemenis, and 6 Syrians, in addition to 3 Pakistanis, Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Jordanians.

The execution toll also included two Indonesians and two Nigerians, in addition to one Palestinian and one Myanmarese.

"In light of the lack of transparency in the official handling of the death penalty, and the absence of any role for civil society, it is difficult to track the cases and therefore also the violations that detainees are exposed to," said ESOHR.

The organization's monitoring, however, tracked "a pattern of violations, starting from arrest, and ending with the implementation of sentences and refusal to return the bodies of those killed."

Tracked cases also revealed that "detainees have been deprived of their basic rights, including the right to self-defense and to communicate with the outside world."

Coerced confessions and no last goodbye to families

ESHOR revealed, according to case documents, that prisoners complained to judges that they "were subjected to torture and ill-treatment and that confessions were extracted from them under torture."

"Judges relied on coerced confessions in issuing death sentences," the report added.

However, the trial violations were not the only process Saudi Arabia was breaking.

In addition to violations documented in the execution process, ESOHR said that Riyadh "continued to deny families their right to say goodbye," with the executions performed in secret and the time and method of the sentencing not disclosed to their families.

"Families were subsequently denied the right to burial and to hold public funeral ceremonies, as Saudi Arabia continued a policy of holding bodies after execution," added the report.

In addition to the record numbers and the systematic policies that perpetuate violations in the course of Saudi practices in 2022, there is a continuance of the arbitrary and political use of the death penalty, as demonstrated by the reality of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s control over the judiciary.

Mohammed bin Salman's broken promises

In an interview for The Atlantic on March 3, 2022, Bin Salman said Saudi Arabia abandoned the death penalty, except when it came to penalties such as Qisas, which is limited to cases of murder and threatening the lives of other people.

The Crown Prince also said the Kingdom is working to ensure that prosecutions are lawful, adding that sentences delivered by judges by discretion or the Tazir ruling will be ended within two to three years.

This statement came after a series of promises of reform over the past years.

"The course of executions, the numbers and quality, especially in 2022, reveal the false nature of these promises and their use in Saudi attempts to polish its image," the report said commenting on bin Salman's claims.

Mass massacre

Saudi Arabia, on March 12, 2022, carried out the largest mass execution in its history, delivering the death sentence to 81 people, including seven Yemenis.

The Saudi Interior Ministry claimed in a statement that “they [executed] embraced deviant ideology, curricula, and deviant beliefs with external loyalties and hostile parties, and pledged allegiance to them on corruption and misguidance, so they committed terrorist acts, such as spilling blood, violating sanctities, and targeting places of worship, government headquarters, and vital places.”

However, documents seen by ESOHR on some of the executions on that day revealed that the trials included "heinous violations of justice, including torture, ill-treatment, and deprivation of the right to self-defense."

"Approximately 41 of those executed faced charges related to participation in demonstrations and expression of opinion, and most were non-lethal charges," said the organization in the report.

Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, commented then on the massacre, saying, “Saudi Arabia’s mass execution of 81 men this weekend was a brutal show of its autocratic rule, and a justice system that puts the fairness of their trials and sentencing into serious doubt."

“The shocking callousness of their treatment is compounded by the fact that many families found out about their loved ones’ deaths just like the rest of us, after the fact and through the media,” Page added.

In June 2021, Saudi Arabian authorities executed Mustafa Al-Darwish while he was handcuffed, and then they disposed of his body in an undisclosed location for "crimes" he committed as a minor, which include "participating in armed rebellion," and "sowing discord".

"The mass massacre is the third that was carried out during the reign of King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his son. Saudi Arabia carried out a massacre in January 2016 that affected 47 people, and in April 2019 Saudi Arabia massacred 37 people in one day," added ESOHR.

Last November, a UN official said Saudi Arabia has been accused of using the World Cup as a diversion after it beheaded 17 people in the last 12 days [during November 2022], despite the nation's leaders vowing not to use the death penalty.

At a press conference in Geneva, UN human rights office spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell described then the death penalty as "deeply regrettable".

Drug-related executions? Other promises gone with the wind

In November 2022, Riyadh returned to carrying out death sentences on drug-related charges, after a two-year pause since 2020.

"From 10 November to 23 November, Saudi Arabia executed 20 people for drug crimes, of different nationalities, at an average of 1.5 executions per day," said the ESOHR report, citing officially published data.

The re-implementation of the execution sentences on drug-related crimes has broken a vow made earlier by the former head of the Human Rights Commission, Awwad Al-Awwad, that the Kingdom had suspended the implementation of death sentences for drug convictions and that it aims to grant "individuals facing non-violent charges a second chance.”

Currently, there is no official data on the number of detainees facing a death sentence on drug-related charges in the country, "but information confirms that there are dozens, at least, of different nationalities facing this punishment and therefore their lives are in danger," said the report.

Secret executions

"Setting a dangerous precedent in the carrying out of executions, and days after the [Saudi] Ministry of Interior stopped publishing any statement related to the execution of death sentences, ESOHR received information from several sources confirming the implementation of secret executions in prisons, without announcing them through the usual official channels," the report noted.

"The information indicated that detainees in different prisons of several nationalities were executed, including detainees facing drug-related charges in Tabuk prison," it said.

Two detainees, Muhammad Moqbel Al-Wasel and Shaja’a Salah Jamil, called their families on December 29, 2022, to inform them that they are at the execution site and a death sentence is about to be carried out against them.

"Al-Wasel had traveled to Saudi Arabia to work at the age of 15, and the family did not know any details about the reasons for his arrest and the course of his trial," ESHOR reported, citing his family.

The Saudi government refused to disclose information about the "circumstances of the execution and that they had not received any information about their wills, personal belongings, or the fate of their bodies," the families of the two men confirmed, as per the organization.

The Saudi Interior Ministry did not publish a statement or official information regarding the two executions, "which portends a change in the Saudi government's usual practice of publishing the executed sentences," said the report.

Execution sentences not sparing even children

Lack of transparency and hindered access to information regarding the trials of detainees makes the exact number of people facing the death sentence in the country "not possible to know."

However, despite the obstacles, the organization's "follow-up confirms that there are dozens of different nationalities facing execution on drug-related charges."

ESOHR "monitored 61 cases in which people face the death penalty, distributed over various levels of procedural posture. Among those at imminent risk are two Bahraini citizens, Sadiq Thamer and Jaafar Sultan, whose death sentences were approved by the Supreme Court as a Tazir (discretionary) sentence."

At least 8 children are now threatened by executions, the report said.

"Abdullah al-Howaiti, Abdullah al-Derazi, and Jalal Labad, who are facing approved rulings from the appeal and awaiting the ruling of the Supreme Court, and Hassan Zaki al-Faraj, Youssef al-Manasif, Jawad Qureiris, Ali Hassan al-Subaiti, Mahdi al-Mohsen, who have been sentenced to death."

In addition to minors, "dozens are facing Tazir (discretionary) death sentences, including charges related to participating in demonstrations, chanting slogans, and other charges that are not considered among the most serious in international law."

ESOHR "believes that in 2022 Saudi Arabia has blatantly and bloodily shown the reality of its abuse of the death penalty, breaking previous promises, laws, and royal orders in the whitewashing and improving of the country’s image," the organization said in the report.

The crown prince is fully responsible

The current judiciary process regarding the death penalty in Saud Arabia confirms that "children are still threatened with death, that those accused of crimes that are not considered among the most serious are not exempt from the death penalty, and that Saudi Arabia does not care about justice and its conditions for issuing sentences that end the lives of individuals."

ESOHR "considers that the executions, which ignored international laws, criticism, and legal analysis, show the complete control of Mohammed bin Salman over this type of punishment, and its political use to intimidate those in Saudi society away from any dissent."