Saudi Arabia crucifies, beheads and tortures under the nose of the international community

The use of capital punishment in Saudi Arabia is allegedly based on Shari’ah (or Islamic law) however, it is condemned internationally because of the wide range of crimes which can result in the death penalty and because it is usually carried out by an outrageous public beheading.

In 2011, the Saudi government reported 26 executions in the country. Amnesty International counted a minimum of 79 in 2013. Foreigners are not exempt either, accounting for “almost half” of executions in 2013 without even giving them the option to be deported and face trial back home. In fact, foreigners (especially those from the developing world) are routinely executed, mainly for drug smuggling and murder. There has not been any report of a Western national though being executed in the recent history of Saudi Arabia.

The death penalty can be imposed for a wide range of offences including murder, rape, false prophecy, blasphemy, armed robbery, repeated drug use, apostasy, adultery, witchcraft and sorcery and can be carried out by beheading with a sword, or more rarely by firing squad, and sometimes by stoning.

The 345 reported executions between 2007 and 2010 were all carried out by public beheading. The last reported execution for sorcery took place in August 2014.

Unlike executions in most other countries that practice the death penalty, executions are not performed privately in prisons, but publicly. It is one of the last four countries to still carry out public executions and the only country to carry them out on a regular basis.

Saudi Arabia and the Islamic State terrorist group ISIS wreaking havoc in Iraq, Syria and Libya have an identical justice system in their interpretation of Shariah law and the use of capital punishment. An interpretation construed from the Wahhabi ideology being propagated by the Wahhabi clerics of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s use of crucifixion came up again in 2014 when Saudi cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr was sentenced to be beheaded and crucified as a punishment for allegedly “waging war on God” and encouraging pro-democracy protests against the Saudi authorities in the restive eastern province, which is home to the country’s substantial Shia minority and which saw violent Saudi oppression in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring. Sheikh Al-Nimr was detained while having a live bullet inside of him and was left 3 days without medical treatment as reported by his family members.

Thousands of people protested in response to the unjustified detention of Sheikh Al-Nimr. Al-Nimr started a hunger strike and appeared to have been tortured. The Asharq Center for Human Rights expressed concern back in 2012 for al-Nimr’s health during his hunger strike on 21st of August, calling for international support to allow access by family, lawyer and human rights activists, a calling which was never answered by the Saudi regime.

On 15 October 2014, al-Nimr was sentenced to death by the Specialized Criminal Court for reportedly “seeking ‘foreign meddling’ in [Saudi Arabia], ‘disobeying’ its rulers and taking up arms against the security forces” and his brother, Mohammad al-Nimr, was arrested on the same day for tweeting information about the death sentence.

That was still not about to be it for AL-Nimr family. Today one young man, Ali Mohammed Al-Nimr, stands to be executed by Saudi Arabia for crimes he did not commit; on account his family dared defy the kingdom’s rule of silence. Arrested at the age of 16 by the Saudi Security Forces, Ali Mohammed Al-Nimr, nephew to prominent Shia cleric and activist Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr was unlawfully arrested and tortured.

Ali Al-Nimr, born December 25, 1995, was a minor when the Saudi authorities arrested him for participating in a peaceful protest. He is now aged 19, and has also been sentenced to execution by beheading and crucifixion.

Ali was held in a juvenile prison and forced by torture to confess to crimes he did not commit. Furthermore, he was held incommunicado for 4 months and was denied legal representation. The teenager has now been moved to a maximum security prison where he is in solitary confinement. There, he awaits alone, knowing that his sentence could be carried out at any minute.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states:

“Article 37 States Parties shall ensure that:(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences committed by persons below eighteen years of age;

(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time;

(c) Every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age. In particular, every child deprived of liberty shall be separated from adults unless it is considered in the child’s best interest not to do so and shall have the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits, save in exceptional circumstances;

(d) Every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action.”

Presenting all of the above does not begin to contemplate the horror and constant apprehension Ali’s mother and father must be feeling. Yet with all the facts stated and the human rights articles detailed by the UN, the unfair acts of the rulers of Saudi Arabia are still condoned by the international community. Better yet, and for the irony of it, the United Nations handed Saudi Arabia a key human rights role in September 2015, even though the Kingdom has “arguably the worst record in the world” on freedoms for women, minorities and dissidents. Such an appointment and recognition by the UN is nothing short than scandalous and means that “oil trumps human rights”.

Will the world leaders ever acknowledge the crimes of Al Saud now that they have come to a point to sentence this innocent boy to a fate so cruel, and so downright ferocious? I am afraid I have to say…I beg to differ!