Saudi executions hit record number under ‘reformist prince’

Rise in capital punishment under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite pledge to cut down on the death penalty

Saudi Arabia has reached a record high for executions despite pledges to cut down the death penalty.
There have been some 208 deaths so far in 2024, eclipsing the 2022 record of 196, 81 in a single day.
The executions have been carried out under reformist Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has overseen at least 1,447 executions carried out since he was made Crown Prince to his elderly father, Salman, in 2015.
It comes as on October 9, UN member states will vote on whether to allow Saudi Arabia a seat on the Human Rights Council.
Reforms made in the kingdom include allowing women to drive and bringing in some of the world’s top names in sport and entertainment.
However, the rise in capital punishment continues, with 32 in September alone, and 41 in August, the 2024 monthly high so far, despite a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in 2020.
Human Rights group Reprieve’s deputy director, Harriet McCulloch, said the death penalty has been used widely to crack down on anyone perceived to be critical of the monarchy. They include children, with three Reprieve clients, Abdullah al-Derazi, Youssef al-Manasif and Abdullah al-Howaiti, all at risk of execution, the charity said.
“Their harsh sentences are a deterrent against others considering speaking out against the ruling family whether it is villagers evicted to make way for [the $1.5 trillion mega-project] Neom, women’s rights defenders, children attending protests or social media influencers,” Ms McCulloch said.
Prince Mohammed had promised to do away with executions for more minor crimes but they still take up a huge proportion of deaths. In September, 16 out of 32 executions were for drug-related crimes and in 2024, around 41 per cent were for crimes not meeting the most serious crimes threshold, according to European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) legal director Taha al-Hajji.
In 2017, the crown prince also arrested about 70 members of Saudi’s political elite, including members of the royal family, in a bid to secure power and weed out dissent.
A US investigation found that it was Prince Mohammed’s instructions to kill US-Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in which his body was mutilated after speaking against the government. He denies being involved.
A former senior security and intelligence official, Rabih Alenezi, now seeking asylum in the UK after having a bounty put on his head for speaking out against Mr bin Salman, said the culture of fear rules under the de facto ruler.
Mr Alenzi, who reached the top echelons of the country’s security establishment, said that the death penalty, often carried out by beheading with a sword or shooting, is a way to “intimidate people and terrorise society because Mohammed bin Salman knows that people hate him”, including ministers.
“He does not believe that people will carry out his orders and accept his projects without fear,” he added.
The crown prince is heading up some of the world’s largest mega-projects in addition to big investments globally, such as shares in Heathrow airport.
Rights lawyer, Mr al-Hajji, said “this high in executions comes in clear contradiction to Mohammed bin Salman’s promises of reform and he has spoken publicly several times that he seeks to fix the situation and limit executions only to murder cases because they are stipulated in Islamic law and do not have the right to cancel them”.
Many of the cases he said are charges related to transporting, smuggling and receiving drugs, with charges of participating in protests and since this year, there has been charges of treason against the homeland.
“The Saudi government spends billions on public relations companies, hosting the world’s most famous artists, and the biggest sporting events to whitewash its image and hide the catastrophic reality of the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia,” he said.