Riyadh: Executions almost doubled under Salman's rule

By Zehra Nur Duz

ANKARA (AA) - Saudi Arabia carried out a total of 800 executions since King Salman bin Abdulaziz took the reign in 2015, a London-based human rights group said.

Noting that from 2009 to 2014, a total of 423 executions were reported in Saudi Arabia, Reprieve said the rate of executions has almost doubled since King Salman came to power on Jan. 23, 2015.

Recalling the promises previously made by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to “minimize” the number of executions in the Kingdom, Reprieve said in a statement: “This latest grim milestone shows that the opposite is in fact the case”.

Saudi Arabia executed 185 people in 2019, the most in a year since the organization began tracking executions in the Kingdom.

A total of 37 people have been killed in a mass execution on April 23, 2019, the organization said.

At least 13 other juvenile defendants are at imminent risk of execution, the statement added.

“The targeting of prisoners of conscience and children confirms the retaliatory and political use executions”, the statement quoted Ali al-Dubisi, Director of European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, as saying.