This was the first execution since the country’s Human Rights Commission announced a moratorium on the use of the death penalty for drug-related crimes in January 2021.This startling increase in the country’s use of the death sentence this year exposes the real Saudi government the world is seeing behind the so-called progressive reform plan. They blatantly violated the government ban on drug-related offences by killing two Pakistani citizens at random.
The lives of those sentenced to death for drug-related and other offences are at danger. Whoever committed the offences should not be subjected to this cruel punishment.
To abolitionize the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, an official moratorium on executions must be put in place right now. All inmates who are currently serving death sentences must have their cases reviewed by the authorities, and they must either offer them a fair retrial without the death penalty or commute their sentences. Additionally, they need to align all laws and judicial procedures with the guarantees of a fair trial.
The Saudi Human Rights Commission reported in January 2021 that the kingdom has put a ban on drug-related offences into effect and that “the Kingdom and its justice system are focusing more on rehabilitation and prevention.”
