Public death penalty in Saudi Arabia. Shooting, noose, cutting off the balls (continued)

) punishment, following the classical principle that Hudud penalties should be avoided if possible. The rise in death sentences over recent decades resulted from a concerted response from government and courts to the rise in violent crime in the 1970s and paralleled similar developments in the US and China in the late 20th century.

method

Saudi Arabia has a criminal justice system based on a rigid and literal form of Sharia law that reflects a particular state-sanctioned interpretation of Islam.

This is usually performed in public by beheading with a sword. A recent report by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) shows that the number of beheadings in the kingdom during the first quarter of 2018 rose by more than 70 percent compared to the same period last year. Sometimes they can be performed shooting.

Public beheadings usually take place around 9 am. The condemned man entered the square and crouches before the executioner. The executioner uses a sword known as the Sulthan to remove the condemned man's head from his body at the neck. After the convicted person is declared dead, the police officer announces the crimes committed by decapitating the alleged perpetrator and the process is complete. The official may announce the same before the actual execution. This is the most common form of execution in Saudi Arabia, as it is specifically referred to as Sharia law. Professional executioners beheaded as many as ten people in one day.

The crucifixion of a headless body was sometimes prescribed. For example, in 2009 Saudi newspaper reported that "Abha court sentenced the leader of the gang to death and three days of crucifixion (a public display of the decapitated body) and six other gang members to beheading for their roles in the jewelry store robbery in Asir." (This practice is similar to gibbeting, which displays the entire corpus.)

• Hudud: Fixed Qur'anic punishment for specific crimes. Hudud crimes that can lead to the death penalty include apostasy, adultery and homosexuality.
• Kizas: an eye for an eye retaliatory punishments. Qisas crimes include murder. The families of someone killed can choose between demanding the death penalty or pardon in exchange for payment of diyya, or blood money, by the perpetrator. The trend has developed exorbitant blood-brain monetary demands: a recent report mentions the amount of $11 million demanded in exchange for a pardon.
• Tazir: a general category, including crimes defined by national law, some of which may be punishable by death, such as drug trafficking.

Conviction requires proof in one of three ways:

1. Unrelenting recognition.
2. The testimony of two male witnesses can lead to conviction. This excludes "Hudud crimes", in which case confession is also required.
3. The affirmation or denial of an oath may be required.

Taking an oath is especially taken seriously in a religious society like Saudi Arabia, and failure to take the oath will be taken as an admission of guilt resulting in conviction.

adultery

In order for any person to be convicted in the Saudi Sharia court of adultery, he/she must confess to the act four times before the court; otherwise, four pious Muslim men or two pious men and two women who witnessed the actual sexual penetration must testify before the court. If the witnesses spied on the defendant or deliberately watched the defendants commit adultery, their correctness would be called into question and a conviction for treason would not take place. According to Islamic Sharia law, the burden of proof lies with the accuser; and if only one of these witnesses retracted his/her testimony, then the accused will be acquitted and the rest of the witnesses will be prosecuted for perjury Koran 24:4.

Method of execution for adultery for men and women with stones. If the sentence was created on the basis of a confession, a retraction of the confession or the defendant leaving the pit while veneer pass results in a penalty time remaining. If a sentence was created based on the testimony of four witnesses, the witnesses must initiate the stoning, and failure to do so results in the execution being suspended. Sandra McKay, author Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom, stated in 1987 that in Saudi Arabia "in contrast to the tribal rights of a father to put to death a daughter who violated her chastity, death sentences under Qur'anic law [for adultery] are extremely rare." McKay explained that "[with] the harges of adultery is never made easy. Because the punishment is so severe, women are protected from unsubstantiated allegations of sexual harassment.” In a human rights dialogue with European jurists that took place a few years before 1987, the Saudi delegate acknowledged that it is difficult to have a person convicted of adultery. According to McKay, in a 20-year period ending in 1987, one woman "confessed" to have been executed by stoning for adultery.

These are not isolated cases. According to Amnesty International, at least 27 migrant workers were executed in 2010 and, as of January 2013, more than 45 foreign maids were on death row awaiting execution.

In practice, the death penalty was also used to sentence political protests. Ali al-Nimr and Daoud al-Marhoon were arrested at the age of 17 in 2012 during the Arab Spring protests in Eastern Province, tortured, forced to confess, and sentenced to beheadings in 2014 and 2015. Sheikh al-Nimr NIMR, an independent sheikh critical of the Saudi government and popular with youth and uncle Ali al-NIMR, was also arrested in 2012 and sentenced to death by a specialized criminal court in 2014 for his role in spurring political protests. Nimr al-Nimr was executed on January 2, 2016, along with 46 other people, mostly terrorists, arrested in the 2000s. From the available sources about the Nimr al-Nimr case, it appears that Saudi officials are using the term "terrorism" as a cover label for "thinking crimes" that would be in other countries regarded as the normal work of an opposition politician. Nimr al-NIMR's list of accusations mentions "taking up arms against the security forces" but details of what exactly happened are missing. It is not clear if any member of the Saudi military was injured or killed by Nimr al-NIMR and what happened prior to this incident.

Although there is no precise definition of the term "terrorism", the most common meaning is "to use intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror and fear, in order to achieve a political, religious or ideological goal... against civilians or non-combatants". In addition, most terrorist attacks characterized by long-term planning so clearly there is a subtle difference between general crime (even fatal) and an act of terrorism. Based on previous experience with human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, there are good reasons to accept claims by Saudi officials that Nimr al-Nimr has been convicted terrorist with suspicion. This is supported by the fact that in the list of crimes committed by Nimr al-NIMR most of them are purely "thought crimes", like "disobeying the ruler", "inciting sectarian hatred" and "encouraging, leading, participating in demonstrations".

Execution, noose cutting off the eggs (continued)

Pedophiles beheaded in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia banner

Coat of arms of Saudi Arabia

King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah

The country's Constitution and the Criminal Code are based on Sharia norms and dogmas of Wahhabism. The crimes carrying the death penalty in Saudi Arabia include: premeditated murder,homosexuality,armed robbery,adultery,rape,religious apostasy, smuggling, trafficking, possession and use of drugs and the organization of groups in opposition to the authorities. There are no political parties in Saudi Arabia. Thus, sexual crimes are classified as very serious crimes. Previously, criminals were stoned to death, now more often they are cut off with a sword. In the mild case, pederasts are sentenced to severe flogging (up to 7,000 lashes).

In Saudi Arabia, there is a position of state executioner. The position of chief executioner of Mecca is hereditary in the al-Bishy family, and each heir is approved for the position by the king himself. Currently, the chief executioner is Abdullah ibn Said al-Bishi. Executions in Mecca are carried out in the square in front of the gates of Abdulaziz, before that they were held in front of the Al-Haram mosque.
In 2002, 47 people were executed (45 men, 2 women), in 2003 - 53 (52 men, 1 woman), in 2004 - 36 (35 men, 1 woman), in 2005 - 90 (88 men, 2 women), in 2006 - 39 people (35 men, 4 women). ...

EXECUTION PROCESS
“The execution process itself in Saudi Arabia is a whole ceremony, the traditions of which have been kept and replenished for hundreds of years.
All executions are carried out after midday prayers in the central square. Condemned to death is delivered to the place blindfolded. Law enforcement forces clear the square of cars and passers-by, after which they spread a piece of blue cloth or plastic on the ground.
The officer of the muttawa (muttawa is the police of morality) leads the convict to the center of this matter, the convict kneels facing Mecca. If the execution takes place in Mecca - facing the Kaaba. The policemen read out the verdict and give the order to carry it out.
The executioner receives the sword from the hands of a police officer, approaches the convict from the back, and before cutting off the head, makes several swings of the sword in the air. To stop the flowing bleeding as soon as possible, a physician is always present at the execution. The headless body is buried without a coffin and tombstone on the same day.
Until the early 90s, only men were executed in Saudi Arabia, but by the beginning of 2007, 40 women had been executed.
There are entire dynasties of executioners in the country who, like the al-Bishi family, pass their business from generation to generation. The death penalty also affected the culture of the Arabs. So, for example, the popular folk “Dance of War” al-Arda is largely derived from the movements of the executioner.Funeral portal. Middle East and Asia. http://www.funeralportal.ru/article.php?ObjectId=915 ...

Of course, the pernicious influence from the USA and Western Europe still takes place. The Minister of Health of Saudi Arabia stated on 12 November 2003 that over 6,700 people living with HIV were registered in the Kingdom. Among them, only 1509 are citizens of the country. That is, the carriers of the virus are mostly foreigners leading a Sadomitic lifestyle. The first case of HIV was reported in Saudi Arabia in 1984. Today, the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia already has 6787 HIV-positive people.

In his statement, the head of the country's epidemiological control noted that in 95% of cases, HIV infection "becomes the result of prohibited sexual relations". By "forbidden relationships" the representative of the organization means "sexual contacts outside of marriage, homosexuality and pedophilia."
http://www.aids.ru/news/2003/11/12-2202.htm

Credit: Reuters Jamaica lifts moratorium on executions

Opponents of the resumption of the death penalty point to the failureAccording to opinion polls, a majority of Jamaica's 2.7 million people support the return of the death penalty. 35 deputies spoke out in support of the death penalty. 15 voted against, 10 abstained. Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding, under pressure from the public due to rising crime, also supported the introduction of the death penalty.
Since 1988, Jamaica has had a moratorium on the death penalty, but the Labor Party, which came to power a year ago, insisted on the resumption of capital punishment.
According to sociological surveys, most of the 2.7 million inhabitants Jamaica supports the return of the death penalty.

The ways of executing this punishment were very diverse: cutting off the head, hanging, drowning, burning (including on a slow fire), pouring molten metal into the throat, quartering, wheeling, burying in the ground up to the shoulders, impalement. IN modern world slightly changed in the method of execution of the convict.

The death penalty is practiced in 68 countries. The most famous are the USA, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa. Basically, the death penalty as a method of punishment is used in Asian and African countries. Now there are 130 countries in the world that have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.

Map. In black are countries where the death penalty is applied.

Execution punishes the most terrible crimes from the position of the state: those related to the security of the country (espionage, treachery, counter-revolutionary activities, terrorism, crimes related to trafficking drugs). In Islamic states, people are killed for such crimes as rape, homosexuality, the marital relationship of a Muslim (ki) and a non-Muslim (ki).

Currently, the world uses the death penalty by hanging, in three countries - by beheading, more often - by shooting. The United States uses lethal injection and the electric chair. Stoning and crucifixion are used in a number of countries.

In the modern world, there are 7 official ways to carry out a death sentence.

1. Among the currently used methods of execution, the most terrible is stoning. It is used in Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan and parts of Nigeria. A group of people gather to pass the verdict, which then stone the victim to death. In this way, mostly women are executed.

2. The most common of them is execution. Execution can be carried out both by one person and by formation. In some countries, participants in the execution are given a mixture of blank and live ammunition so that it is not known who exactly killed the convict. In China, where more than 80% of all death sentences in the world are carried out, public mass executions of corrupt officials, drug dealers and keepers of dens are organized.

3. Hanging. In most cases, the death of a hanged man occurs not at all from suffocation, but from squeezing the carotid arteries that supply blood to the brain. When deprived of support, the hanged man loses consciousness after a few seconds (which reduces the agony), and after a few minutes, biological death can be recorded due to irreversible damage to the cerebral cortex. Cardiac activity continues for some time after respiratory arrest. From the second half.

The countries that use hanging include Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Pakistan, Singapore, Iraq, Japan and some others.

4. The gas chamber is used for deprivation of life only in the USA. A person sentenced to death is led into an octagonal room, tied to a chair, and cyanide gas is released through special pipes. Death occurs after 9 minutes, but even after that, the dead remains for about half an hour in the chamber until it is completely cleared of gas with a special pump.

5. The death row electric chair is only used in the US. This "death machine" was discovered in the 19th century by dentist Albert Southwick.

The drunken patient was mistakenly attached to the generator and died immediately. This case became known to the authorities, and they decided to use this "convenient and human method" instead of hanging. However, the first experience of using the electric chair ended in indescribable agony for the suicide bomber.

Nevertheless, this device was not withdrawn from practice and after these events it was improved more than once. The perfect model appeared in the USA only in the 60s of the last century. Since strong resistance can be expected from the condemned, during the start of the current, they are firmly tied with leather straps to the ill-fated chair, and the electrodes are fixed on the head and legs, and a bandage is put on their eyes in advance. No, not so that the suicide bomber could not see anything, but so that his eyes would not pop out of their sockets.

6. Lethal injections to deprive a person of life became widespread in the 80s of the last century. This type of execution is common in the USA, Guatemala, the Philippines, Thailand and is considered a civilized form of punishment there. Injectable Cocktail" consists of the anesthetic sodium pentanol, pavulon and sodium chloride.

Death occurs a few minutes after the injection of poison, and thanks to a large dose of painkiller, a person does not feel pain and, as a rule, just falls asleep.

7. Sword beheadings in our day were carried out in jurisdictions subject to the Islamic Sharia, as well as by militant Islamists during the American invasion of Iraq. According to media reports, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Qatar had laws allowing beheadings, but reliable information about their use exists only in relation to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has one of the harshest punishment systems in the world. The country's constitution and criminal code are dictated by Sharia law. Saudi Arabia remains the only country where people are executed by decapitation.

Most executions take place in public, most often in the central city square.

In Saudi Arabia, there is a position of state executioner. The position of chief executioner of Mecca is hereditary in the al-Bishy family, and each heir is approved for the position by the king himself. Currently, the chief executioner is Abdullah ibn Said al-Beshi.

Executions in Mecca are carried out in the square in front of the gates of Abdulaziz, before that they were held in front of the Al-Haram mosque.

The very process of execution in Saudi Arabia is a whole ceremony, the traditions of which have been kept and replenished for many hundreds of years.

All executions are carried out after midday prayers in the central square. Condemned to death is delivered to the place blindfolded. Law enforcement forces clear the square of cars and passers-by, after which they spread a piece of blue cloth or plastic on the ground.

The muttawa officer leads the condemned to the center of this matter, the condemned kneels facing Mecca. If the execution takes place in Mecca - facing the Kaaba. The policemen read out the verdict and give the order to carry it out.

The executioner receives the sword from the hands of a police officer, approaches the convict from the back, and before cutting off the head, makes several swings of the sword in the air. To stop the flowing bleeding as soon as possible, a medical worker is always present at the execution. The headless body is buried without a coffin and tombstone on the same day.

The executioner, giving an interview, told reporters that the profession of an executioner is an ordinary, normal craft, which also has its own professionals and losers. Al-Beshi - virtuoso; for colleagues, he is a star, although he refuses to be a star. “I am the most ordinary person, I sleep and eat well,” the executioner is modest. “I am a happy father of seven children. Children help me clean the saber. I teach them the peculiarities of the craft - how to strike, for example. Al-Beshi pronounces these phrases with particular pride, writes Gazeta.

According to him, every day he has to cut off from two to ten heads. At the same time, most of all in life, he hates violence, especially against women. "What I am doing is doing the will of Allah," Mohammed justifies himself.

Al-Beshi finds that the profession of an executioner is directly related to both acting and psychoanalyst consultations. So, only a year ago he stopped to fade in front of the audience. It's from acting. As for the psychoanalytic side of the specialty, it lies in the fact that before each execution, Mohammed is obliged to come to the victim's family and ask the relatives to forgive the criminal.

In some cases, their forgiveness may contribute to the abolition of the death sentence. Also, before the execution, he asks the criminal how to kill him - shoot him with a pistol or cut off his head with a saber. "People are more likely to choose a saber," al-Beshi shares his observations.

Mohammed feels sorry for his "clients". According to him, it is very difficult to see how people leave the forces. “Up to the moment I strike, I hope that the perpetrator will be pardoned. Even when I read the order, hope does not leave me. I always pray for them to Allah,” says al-Beshi; his voice sounds sentimental.

True, Mohammed does not always kill criminals: sometimes he cuts off their arms or legs. In this case, it is forbidden to use a saber, he cuts with a penknife. “If I have to cut off my arm, then I myself am free to choose how to cut it. I prefer to separate it from the joint. But where to cut off the leg is the government’s decision in our country,” says Mohammed.

When asked if Mohammed's neighbors and acquaintances are surprised by his profession, he answers in the negative. "The only thing that really amazes everyone is how they manage to cut off the head in the blink of an eye," the executioner claims.

Mohammed Saad al-Beshi entered the profession in 1998. Then he worked in a prison and was engaged in preparing people for the death penalty: he put on handcuffs, blindfolded them and led them to the executioner. But one day he decided to leave the second roles, sent a resume and began to improve in the deadly art. Al-Beshi's teachers recall that he was a talented student. Now he himself has students, one of whom is his own son, who decided to repeat his father's career.

At least 676 people were executed in 20 countries in 2011, Amnesty International reported. As suggested by human rights activists, most executions are carried out in China. There are no official statistics for this country. There are fewer and fewer states in the world that use the death penalty as the highest form of punishment. Of the 193 UN members, only 20 carried out death sentences in 2011.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a controversial and mysterious country with orders that sometimes frighten a European. A Muslim country where only one religion is recognized - Islam with the dominant trend of Wahhabism. Where believers pray five times a day and live according to religious Sharia law. Mecca of Muslim pilgrimage with hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims. The owner of 25% of the oil reserves on the planet and GDP per capita is not much less than even in the United States. And the country, along with China, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan, is among the top five in terms of the number of cases of execution of the death penalty. In Saudi Arabia, this institution of punishment still exists today.

Public policy

The country is an absolute theocratic monarchy with a current cabinet of ministers. The Quran is the code of practice or, in Western terms, the constitution. Justice is based on a religious foundation and is represented by the Sharia court. The word "justice" is used rather conditionally, since there is no criminal code in the country, and the judge makes decisions based on Sharia law. There are two types of police in the country: ordinary and religious - the commission for the promotion of virtue or mutawa. It is she who is called upon to monitor the observance of the ethical norms of the Koran and the execution of all prohibitions.

Features of Saudi justice

According to Sharia law, there are three types of punishments:

Procedural Features

A confession and an oath are sufficient for an accusation in a Sharia court. There are no restrictions for mentally ill people and underage. There is no difference between citizens of the kingdom and foreigners. A lawyer is an unnecessary and unaffordable luxury, even when it comes to an execution in Saudi Arabia. Recently, there are no differences in punishment based on gender.

Saudi Arabia: lashings

It is this type of punishment that most often gets into the news columns of the Western media. This type of execution in Saudi Arabia is no more common than in all Muslim countries. Although let's not dissemble - here they beat much more often and harder. The record number of lashes - four thousand - was appointed in 1990. Egyptian Muhammad Ali al-Sayyid received such a sentence for robbery. The Shariah judge declared such a punishment to be mercy, because initially they wanted to cut off the hand of the convicted person.

The merciful Themis of Sharia divides the number of lashes and stretches the punishment for long term. Few people can withstand a hundred lashes, so the victim is given a period of rehabilitation, and then the execution is resumed.

Such executions in Saudi Arabia are public, carried out with a crowd of citizens.

Decapitation and other horrors

A terrible public punishment for a Westerner is beheading followed by crucifixion for educational purposes. This is almost a ceremonial murder, which came from the darkness of the Middle Ages. Executions take place in the main square after lunchtime prayers. Cutting off the head is carried out by the executioner - there is such a position in the kingdom, it is inherited in the al-Bishi family. The presence of a doctor is required. Horror!

Prohibition of alcohol - how they are executed in Saudi Arabia

The use, manufacture and possession of alcohol is under the strictest prohibition of Shariah. Punishment is in the form of lashes. The case of Briton Carl Andy is indicative. A seventy-three-year-old man was found to have a bottle of homemade wine. Despite the fact that Carl suffered from asthma and cancer, he spent almost a year in prison waiting for 350 strokes. The pinnacle of diplomacy can be called the efforts of the embassy workers, who, under the threat of worsening relations, were able to take the sick Briton home.

But what is excusable for the allies of the Wahhabi state is completely inexcusable for everyone else and is subject to severe execution in Saudi Arabia. So, a resident of the Philippines, Faustino Salazaro, received four months in prison and 75 lashes just for buying a couple of packages of chocolate with liquor inside in Duty Free Bahrain.

Fornication and adultery

The prevention of these acts contrary to the Qur'an is an important component of Sharia justice. Moreover, the acts are interpreted ambiguously and very broadly. An illustration is the case that occurred in 2006 and was covered by the Western press as "the rape in Qatif." Seven men stole a couple from a car and abused both of them. The Shariah judge determined the punishment for the rapists in the form of several hundred lashes and long prison terms. But the victims, who were accused of debauchery, also got it, because these people were not spouses. They were also sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes. Western world erupted in outrageous protests. Under pressure from the world community, King Abdullah nevertheless canceled the judge's decision regarding the victim, although he called the judge's actions fair for such a Muslim country as Saudi Arabia. Executions of people for such crimes should be severe, he stressed in an interview with Western journalists.

For same-sex relationship, you can lose your head

Homosexuality is severely persecuted in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Executions for this crime can be the most cruel. And yet this phenomenon is quite common. The education system is based on gender segregation, minimizing contacts between men and women before marriage leads to the development of homosexual manifestations among young people.

In addition, there is, as it were, an unspoken agreement between the LGBT communities and the authorities of the country. Homosexuals openly respect the norms of Wahhabism, and the authorities do not notice the personal life of this category of subjects. Excesses often happen, but more often the sentences of judges are quite mild.

The most brutal executions in Saudi Arabia - for witchcraft

For vigilant neighbors and colleagues in the country, a hotline has been created to report citizens who practice magic or witchcraft. The verdict of the court is unequivocal - chopping off (decapitation) of the head and crucifixion of the body as an edification to all living people and an example of how apostates are executed in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the presence of the Koran in the toilet may be sufficient for prosecution, as happened in 2007 with Mustafa Ibrahim, a pharmacist from Egypt.

More often foreign guest workers suffer from fighters with magic. Two Asian maids in 2013 "got off lightly" with 1,000 lashes and ten years behind bars for inflicting magical damage to an employer, whose mere statement was enough to execute women.

In Saudi Arabia, according to international organization Amnesty International, 154 people were executed in 2016. This figure is not much less than in 2015 (158). The cruel execution in Saudi Arabia, photos of examples of which filled the pages of the media, cannot leave the Western audience indifferent. Asking the question of how this can be in a prosperous state of the XXI century, the answer is found in the Koran - a book written in 600 years of our era. According to this ancient source, all sins are criminal offenses and provide just such severe punishments. What is not in line with the rules? international law and modern ideas about humanism - as they say, "do not go, children, to walk in Africa." Of course, if you are not a Wahhabi Muslim.

On April 24, Saudi Press Agency, the state-run media outlet, reported that Saudi Arabia had carried out one of the most massive series of executions in the country's history, with the authorities carrying out the death penalty against 37 people. One of them was crucified: this punishment is applied in the country only for the most serious crimes, reports Nikita Likhachev from TJournal. Among those executed were those who were accused of killing security officials with explosives, forming terrorist cells, and spreading terrorist ideology. But there were also those who were executed for crimes allegedly committed before adulthood, which is prohibited by international law.

Abdulkarim al-Khawaj (left) and Mujtaba al-Sweikat (right). Photo before detention

The Daily Mail spoke about several of these executed. For example, Abdulkarim al-Khawaj was only 16 years old when he spread information via WhatsApp about the protests. He was publicly beheaded when he was already 21 years old. He was detained at the airport, from where he was supposed to fly to his family. Mujtaba al-Sweikat was 17 when he took part in the protests. He was arrested in 2012, also at the airport - he was supposed to fly away to enter an American university. Munir al-Adam was 23 years old when he was detained in 2012 at a checkpoint. From the age of five, he was deaf in one ear, and after being tortured, he became completely deaf.

Saudi authorities said in a statement that all those executed have confessed to their guilt. CNN with reference to mined court documents reported that some of those executed claimed in court that they were innocent, and their confessions were written by the investigators and only signed by them under torture. In some cases, the suspects were not even required to sign - a fingerprint was put on the paper with the "testimony".

According to Amnesty International, 11 of those executed were accused of spying for Iran, and 14 more of participating in protests in the eastern part of the country between 2011 and 2012. According to the British human rights organization Reprieve, confessions were forced out of all suspects under torture, on the basis of which they were sentenced to death. Executions were carried out in the capital Riyadh and in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Other suspects in similar crimes are still on death row in Saudi Arabia. For example, Ali al-Nimr was sentenced to crucifixion for participating in protests and teaching first aid to protesters, two more young men were sentenced to death for crimes they committed before the age of 18.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia executed 46 people at once, including Shiite leader Nimr al-Nimr. Intolerance towards dissent grew after Prince Mohammed bin Salman became defense minister in 2015. In 2017, he became the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, meaning the current king chose him as his successor.