Under the following title: The Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia: A long Way to Go, the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) and Reprieve held a symposium on the sidelines of the 46th session of the Human Rights Council, in which experts, lawyers and victims’ families participated.
The symposium, which was held on 18 March 2021 via Zoom, shed light on the death penalty in Saudi Arabia and the continuing concerns over the lives of individuals despite recent official promises guaranteeing their safety. Journalists, representatives of human rights organizations, and states representatives participated in the discussion.
Baroness Helena Kennedy, Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), moderated the symposium and opened it with the following question: Are the recent steps taken by Saudi Arabia, including those related to women’s rights and the moratorium on the death sentences against minors, sufficient?
She explained that, for example, while the activist Loujain al-Hathloul has been released, she is still facing many restrictions, such as a travel ban, as well as the fact that many activists remain detained.
Kennedy indicated that it is not possible to grasp the extent of the seriousness of these steps if they are not reflected in a legal and serious manner. The baroness wondered what steps should be taken in order to protect individuals facing the death penalty.
The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Agnes Callamard, indicated that her work showed that Saudi Arabia practices execution without regard to the restrictions established by international law regarding countries that still carry out the death penalty. In terms of the execution of minors, Callamard noted that Saudi Arabia is still threatening several minors with death sentences despite its recent promises, and she explained that these small steps are far from being compliant with international human rights law. Callamard confirmed that the executions broadly affect everyone who faces charges related to expressing opinion, and are often brought about after they were tortured. She set an example with the case of Abbas Al-Hassan and the minor Mojtaba al-Sweikat, and mentioned those currently facing the same fate, such as Sheikh Salman al-Awda and the researcher Hassan al-Maliki.
Callamard also mentioned Saudi Arabia’s many executions on drug-related charges in recent years, as many of the executed were foreigners, who often do not know Arabic and are therefore unable to understand the legal proceedings against them, and just as often do not have a lawyer or any form of legal support. She also confirmed that the number of people facing execution on drug charges remains unknown due to the lack of transparency.
Zainab Abu al-Kheir, sister of the Jordanian detainee Hussein abo al-Kheir, who was sentenced to death, talked about the torture to which her brother was subjected, how he was forced to sign written and false confessions, and how he was ill-treated to an extent that his family was not informed that he was detained until months after his arrest. She also referred to the due process violations to which he was subjected, such as being denied access to a lawyer. Abu al-Kheir praised the role of human rights organizations, stressing that what is happening in Saudi Arabia is much more than we know, and the organizations reveal some of these violations. She expressed belief that a person is exposed to many types of human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, especially if this person is a foreigner, of a different religion, or a woman.
The participating executive director of Reprieve, Maya Foa, confirmed that Saudi Arabia is among the countries that implement the death penalty the most in the world, and that it executes persons who faces charges for expressing an opinion or participating in peaceful protests.
Foa spoke of Saudi Arabia’s promises to end the death penalty for children since 2018, but stated that it has carried out executions of a number of minors since. Likewise, nine months after announcing a moratorium on the death penalty against children through the Juvenile Law, Saudi Arabia executed children, and their bodies have not been delivered to their families to this day. Foa touched on the case of the minor Abdullah al-Huwaiti, who is still facing the death penalty for charges that occurred when he was 14 years old. She considered that this creates doubts and fears regarding Saudi promises.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Awda, son of Sheikh Salman Al-Awda, stated in his intervention that his father is being punished on unfounded charges related to tweets in order to justify the death penalty he faces. He explained that the Saudi government has not changed the execution request against his father despite all the promises that they have made to the contrary. Al-Awda indicated that Saudi Arabia wants to execute Sheikh al-Awda because of his long history of advocating democracy, protecting minorities, and women’s rights and freedoms.
The lawyer and legal advisor at the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), Taha al-Hajji, clarified in his intervention that the promises made by the Saudi government stating that it would protect all minors from execution did not address children who face execution under Qisas and Hudud. Al-Hajji noted that Saudi Arabia is expanding its use of the death penalty, that the reign of Crown Salman and his son witnessed 800 executions, and that the mass executions typical under King Salman had not been witnessed in reigns. He stressed that the Saudi government uses extremist understandings of Sharia, especially against prisoners of conscience, and that it uses Taazir punishments in which the judgment relies on the judge’s discretion in an arbitrary way. Al-Hajji affirmed that, in addition to death sentences, Saudi Arabia kills individuals and activists in other ways, including via extrajudicial killings and through neglect and torture in prisons, expressing his fear that this will be the fate of Sheikh Salman al-Awda. Al-Hajji noted that Saudi Arabia has always promoted at the international level that it does not execute children, and this is what makes the recent celebrations on the moratorium on the death sentences against minors suspicious. He concluded by stating that none of the recent Saudi promises can be trusted.
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