Saudi Arabia executes 17 people in 12 days; UN terms it ‘deeply regrettable’

“The resumption of executions for drug-related offences in Saudi Arabia is a deeply regrettable step, all the more so coming just days after a wide majority of States in the UN General Assembly called for a moratorium on the death penalty worldwide. Imposing the death penalty for drug offences is incompatible with international norms and standards,” read a statement by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The statement further said that reports claim a Jordanian man Hussein abo al-Kheir may be at risk of imminent execution and urged the Saudi government to halt the action.

In March this year, Saudi authorities had executed 81 men in one day, its largest mass execution in years despite recent promises to curtail its use of death penalty, according to the Human Rights Watch. The number of executed even surpassed the toll of a January 1980 mass execution of 63 militants convicted of seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979, the worst-ever militant attack to target the kingdom and Islam’s holiest site.

In 2018, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had said that the country was overhauling its justice system and limiting its use of death sentence. He had said that his administration was looking at implementing capital punishment for those guilty of murder or manslaughter.