[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 25



UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:

Keralite on death row in Abu Dhabi seeks PM's intervention


The family of Ezhur Kalarikal Gangadharan, a janitor at the Al Rabeeh school in 
Abu Dhabi who is accused of raping a seven-year-ld Emirati student of the 
school in 2013 and is facing death sentence if convicted by the UAE Federal 
Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi, sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi 
during his recent visit to Abu Dhabi seeking his intervention in the case which 
they claim constitutes a gross miscarriage of justice.

The letter is with the Prime Minister's Office, and the family is awaiting a 
response.

Mr. Gangadharan's pleas are that the charges were based on a confession 
extracted under torture, and that all evidence, including forensic, that 
disproved the charge were ignored.

The case has gone through several levels of the Emirati judicial system. In 
2013, the Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance convicted Mr. Gangadharan and 
sentenced him to death.

Though he appealed against the conviction, the Abu Dhabi Court of Appeal 
confirmed it in March 2014. He then appealed before the UAE Supreme Court, 
which vacated the death sentence in May 2014 and sent it back to the Court of 
Appeal ordering a new set of judges to reconsider the evidence. The Supreme 
Court specifically asked them to examine Mr. Gangadharan's claim of having been 
tortured into a confession. The reconstituted Court of Appeal re-confirmed the 
death sentence in February 2015.

Final decision

The case is now before the UAE Supreme Court for its final decision on 
September 6.

Mr. Gangadharan, who is from Malappuram, knows a smattering of English, but was 
given a Hindi translator who was later found to be unlicensed by the court. His 
complaint that he was tortured was misrepresented as an expression of 
satisfaction with his treatment.

Reprieve, a London-based international legal action charity that provides 
assistance to people facing the death penalty around the world, is among the 
many organisations fighting Mr. Gangadharan's case.

(source: The Hindu)






BANGLADESH:

Woman gets death penalty for killing husband in Rangpur


A court yesterday sentenced a woman to death for killing her husband on JB Sen 
road in Mahiganj-Satmatha area of Rangpur city on April 4, 2010, over family 
feud.

The convict, Sufia Begum, 45, went into hiding after securing bail on January 
22, 2013.

Sufia spiked a glass of milk with sedative and served it to her husband Ahsanul 
Haque Belal, 50, who was a Bangladeshi expatriate in Saudi Arabia. Later, she 
chopped the body into 3 pieces and was caught by locals when she went to a 
graveyard in Chilahat Jhar area to dump it.

(source: The Daily Star)


CHINA:

New NPC bill proposes life without parole for 'major corruption'


China's legislature is considering a new bill that will ensure that 
perpetrators of "major corruption crimes" will spend the rest of their lives in 
prison, reports Duowei News, a US-based Chinese political news outlet.

Records show that on Aug. 24, the 16th conference of the standing committee of 
the National People's Congress, China's rubber-stamp legislature, introduced a 
draft amendment to the country's criminal code.

One of the amendments introduces a new clause stating that perpetrators found 
guilty of major corruption crimes are to be sentenced to life in prison without 
the possibility of parole.

A 2nd amendment in the bill would give courts, when handing out suspended death 
sentences, the power to simultaneously rule that the defendant must serve a 
life sentence after 2 years without a chance of parole or a reduction in 
sentence. Under current laws, suspended death sentences are typically commuted 
to life imprisonment after 2 years, leaving open the chance of reduced 
sentences or parole in the future.

Expressly stipulating life without parole for major corruption crimes or 
suspended life sentences is not adding a new form of punishment, though it 
would prevent instances where corrupt officials later receive pardons, reduced 
sentences, or otherwise manage to serve less than the punishment that was 
handed down to them.

The proposed amendments are even stricter than recommendations issued by 
China's Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission last February, which 
suggested that corrupt officials who receive suspended death sentences need to 
serve at least 22 years before they can be eligible for parole.

Huang Jingping, a law professor from Renmin University of China in Beijing, 
told reporters that the proposed changes are significant because life 
imprisonment means one day the prisoner might be set free, whereas life without 
parole ensures that they will die in prison.

Huang notes, however, that the new law, if passed, would have a very narrow 
application to just major corruption cases and those involving a suspended 
death sentence. The amendment is also not retrospective and would not apply to 
previous sentences such as those recently handed down to former deputy 
logistics chief Gu Junshan and retired oil and security tsar Zhou Yongkang.

According to Duowei, there have been many instances of corrupt officials 
finding ways to reduce their sentences in recent years. One example is former 
Guangdong Jianlibao Group chairman Zhang Hai, who was sentenced to 15 years 
imprisonment in 2007 for corruption but was released in January 2011 following 
2 reductions in his sentence.

Tsinghua University law professor Zhou Guangquan said he believes the proposed 
measures reflect the resolve of the Communist Party leadership in cracking down 
on corruption. He also said that it is very rare to see criminals executed for 
corruption unless lives are lost, adding that no corrupt official has been 
executed since the generational leadership changeover of the 18th National 
Congress in November 2012.

Legal experts do not think the proposed law has anything to do with calls to 
abolish the death penalty in China, which remains one of the 36 United Nations 
member countries that continues to practice capital punishment. However, the 
country has been taking steps in recent years to curb the number of death 
sentences handed down. In May 2011, a legal amendment canceled 13 death 
sentences, reducing the total number of death row inmates in the country from 
68 to 55. At the third plenum of 18th National Congress in November 2013, it 
was recommended that fewer death sentences be handed out. Last October, another 
proposed amendment suggested abolishing nine death penalty sentences where the 
crime was not violent in nature.

(source: Want China Times)






PAKISTAN:

PHC halts death penalty awarded by military court


The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday suspended a death sentence passed by one of 
the country's new military tribunals, officials said.

Lawmakers voted in January to set up military courts to hear terrorism cases, 
prompting criticism from lawyers and rights activists concerned about the 
hearings, which are held in secret.

The Supreme Court backed the move earlier this month, rejecting claims it was 
unconstitutional, but said defendants had the right to challenge sentences in 
civilian courts.

The high court in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which has borne the brunt 
of the violence that has wracked Pakistan over the last decade, on Tuesday 
stayed a hanging imposed by a military tribunal.

"The Peshawar High Court has ordered the military court to halt the execution 
of my client Haider Ali, who was awarded the death sentence by a military court 
on August 13," Ajmal Khan, lawyer of the death row convict told AFP.

Khan said the military personnel came to visit Ali s parents to inform them of 
the sentence but did not say what the conviction was for.

On the same date, the military announced the death penalty for 6 militants 
linked to an assault on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar that 
killed 151 people in the country s deadliest terror attack, but Ali s name was 
not included on that statement.

He said Ali was handed over to the military in 2009 by a local council of 
elders, known as a jirga, and his family has not heard from him since.

"The family of my client was never allowed to meet him since the military took 
him into custody in 2009 -- they won t even say anything about where he is to 
his parents," he said.

Khan said the family only heard about the death sentence through the media.

"My client was a grade 10 student at the time of his arrest and was around 15 
years old," he said.

A court official confirmed details of the case, saying Ali was listed as a 
missing person and a petition for his recovery had been with the court for 5 
years.

The military courts were established as part of a crackdown on militancy 
following the massacre at the Peshawar school on December 16 last year.

Parliament has approved the use of the courts for the coming 2 years, and cases 
are referred to them by provincial governments.

But some have called for the trials to be more transparent.

The International Commission of Jurists has condemned the military courts as 
"secret, opaque" and in violation of fair trial obligations.

(source: Agence France-Presse)






IRAN----executions

5 Prisoners Executed and 1 Prisoner's Life Spared in Rajai Shahr on August 20


Since Iran Human Rights published a report on Thursday August 20 about the 
execution of 4 prisoners in Rajai Shahr Prison on that day, state run media has 
brought the number up to five prisoners and also reported that 1 prisoner 
sentenced to death was spared his life by the plaintiffs on his case.

Iran's Javan newspaper has identified and described the prisoners as: Safdar, 
charged with murdering three members of a family; a 42-year-old man, whose name 
was not published, charged with murdering his wife; a middle aged man, who name 
was not published, charged with murdering his wife; Parviz, 30 years old, 
charged with murdering a 31 year old man on Tehran street; and Yavar, charged 
with murdering a man. According to Javan News, Parviz had stated in his 
confessions that he was drinking alcohol with the victim and they were 
intoxicated when they got into a fight in the street.

Javan News also reported on a prisoner who had been transferred to solitary 
confinement with the five prisoners but had his life was spared by the 
plaintiffs on his case file. The prisoner's name is reportedly Ardeshir, 33 
years old, charged with murdering an 18 year old.

(source: Iran Human Rights)


IRAQ/SYRIA:

Islamic State has killed at least 30 people for sodomy, UN told ---- US 
ambassador tells security council meeting it is ???about time??? the issue of 
violence and discrimination towards LGBT people is highlighted


Islamic State has claimed responsibility for killing at least 30 people for 
sodomy, the head of an international gay rights organisation has told the 1st 
UN security council meeting in New York to focus on violence and discrimination 
against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

"It's about time, 70 years after the creation of the UN, that the fate of LGBT 
persons who fear for their lives around the world is taking centre stage," said 
the US ambassador, Samantha Power, who organised the meeting with Chile's UN 
envoy. "This represents a small but historic step."

Diplomats said 2 of the 15 council members, Chad and Angola, had not attended 
the informal closed meeting.

Jessica Stern, the executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian 
Human Rights Commission, told the council that courts established by Isis in 
Iraq and Syria claimed to have punished sodomy with stoning, firing squads and 
beheadings and by pushing men from tall buildings.

Fear of the extremist group, which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq, 
was fuelling violence by others against LGBT individuals, she said.

Subhi Nahas, a gay refugee from the Syrian city of Idlib, told the council that 
President Bashar al-Assad's government "launched a campaign accusing all 
dissidents of being homosexuals" when the country's uprising started in 2011. 
Soon afterwards gay hangouts were raided and many people were arrested and 
tortured. "Some were never heard from again," he said.

When the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front took Idlib in 2012, he said, its 
militants announced "they would cleanse the town of those involved in sodomy". 
Arrests and killings of accused homosexual people followed. In 2014 when Isis 
took the city, the violence worsened, he said.

"At the executions hundreds of townspeople, including children, cheered 
jubilantly as at a wedding," Nahas said. "If a victim did not die after being 
hurled off a building, the townspeople stoned him to death. This was to be my 
fate, too."

He was able to escape to Lebanon, then to Turkey, where he was threatened by a 
former schoolfriend from Idlib who had joined Isis. Finally he reached the US.

Stern stressed that persecution of LGBT people in Iraq and Syria began long 
before the emergence of Isis, and called for UN action to relocate LGBT persons 
most in need and to bring the gay community into broader human rights and 
humanitarian initiatives.

(source: The Guardian)






GAZA:

Palestinian sentenced to death in Gaza for providing info to Israel


A Hamas military court in the Gaza Strip on Monday sentenced a Palestinian to 
death for allegedly providing information to Israel said to have led to 
Palestinians being killed, judicial sources said.

The 28-year-old man was identified only by the initials N.A. and no other 
details on the accusations against him were provided by Hamas, the Islamist 
movement that rules the Palestinian territory which has seen three wars with 
Israel in 6 years.

According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 157 people have been 
sentenced to death in the occupied territories since the creation of the 
Palestinian Authority in 1994.

32 have been executed, including 30 in the Gaza Strip.

All execution orders must in theory be approved by Palestinian president Mahmud 
Abbas before they can be carried out, but Hamas no longer recognises his 
legitimacy.

In Gaza, beyond death sentences handed out by courts, Hamas has also carried 
out summary executions for collaborating with Israel, sometimes in public 
places.

The most prominent occurred during last summer's 50-day war between Palestinian 
militants in the territory and Israel, when a firing squad of men in uniforms 
from Hamas' armed wing s hot dead six people in front of Gaza City's main 
mosque.

Under Palestinian law, collaborators, murderers and drug traffickers risk death 
sentences.

(source: al-monitor)






SAUDI ARABIA:

One of the World's Most Prolific Executioners


Saudi Arabia remains one of the most prolific executioners in the world. 
Between January 1985 (the earliest year from when information on executions is 
available) and June 2015, it executed at least 2,200 people, almost half of 
whom were foreign nationals.

Over 1/3 of these executions were carried out for offenses that do not meet the 
threshold of "most serious crimes" for which the death penalty can be imposed 
under international law. Most of these crimes, such as drug-related offenses, 
are not mandatorily punishable by death according to the authorities' 
interpretation of Sharia law.

Saudi Arabia also continues to sentence to death and execute individuals for 
crimes committed when they were below 18 years of age, in violation of the 
country's obligations under international customary law and the Convention on 
the Rights of the Child. Also in violation of international law, the death 
penalty in Saudi Arabia continues to be used against people with mental 
disabilities.

The death penalty is also used disproportionately against foreign nationals, 
the majority of whom are migrant workers with no knowledge of Arabic - the 
language in which they are questioned while in detention and in which trial 
proceedings are carried out. They are often denied adequate interpretation 
assistance. Their country's embassies and consulates are not promptly informed 
of their arrest, or even of their executions. In some cases, their families are 
neither notified in advance of the execution nor are their bodies returned to 
them to be buried.

The authorities recurrently fail to abide by international standards for fair 
trial and U.N. safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing 
the death penalty. Too often trials in death penalty cases are held in secret, 
and their proceedings are unfair and summary with no legal assistance or 
representation through the various stages of detention and trial. Defendants 
may be convicted solely on the basis of "confessions" obtained under torture or 
other ill-treatment, duress or deception.

The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to claim that they apply the death 
penalty only for the "most serious crimes" and only following the most rigorous 
and thorough judicial proceedings. They have argued that the death penalty is 
an integral component of Sharia law that guarantees the rights of perpetrators 
and victims alike, and that the death penalty and public executions serve as a 
deterrent to crime. The authorities??? claims on the use of the death penalty 
contradict its practice in reality.

The scope of the death penalty in Saudi Arabian laws is a major cause for 
concern. In both Sharia and statutory laws, offences that are not 
internationally considered "most serious crimes," such as drug-related 
offences, are punishable by death. There is, however, no evidence to support 
the Saudi Arabian authorities' argument that the death penalty prevents crime 
more effectively than other punishments.

Saudi Arabia also continues to impose the death penalty on those convicted of 
"offenses" that are not recognizably criminal offenses under international 
human rights law. These include apostasy, adultery, witchcraft and sorcery.

In August 2014, Saudi Arabia executed 26 people in a sudden surge in executions 
that has persisted since then, with the total number of executions in the first 
6 months of 2015 reaching 102. In the space of less than a year, from August 
2014 to June 2015, therefore, the Saudi Arabian authorities executed at least 
175 individuals, an average of 1 person every 2 days. Of the total number of 
recorded executions since 1991, executions for drug-related offenses 
constituted 28 % and have been steadily rising in the past 5 years.

Foreign nationals, particularly migrant workers from disadvantaged economic 
backgrounds who moved to Saudi Arabia from countries in Africa, the Middle East 
and Asia, comprise a high and disproportionate number of those executed in 
Saudi Arabia. Of the total 2,208 executions recorded between January 1985 and 
June 2015, at least 1,072, or some 48.5 %, were of foreign nationals. During 
their trial, their foreign nationality and the fact that they often lack Arabic 
language skills place them in a particularly disadvantageous position.

Saudi Arabia continues to carry out executions, mostly by beheading but some 
also by a firing squad, in public and, in some cases, to display executed 
bodies after death in public. The authorities often fail to inform those under 
the sentence of death and their families of their imminent execution or to 
return the bodies of those executed to their families after death.

The situation is compounded by the fundamentally flawed nature of Saudi Arabian 
legal and judicial safeguards. In terms of the legal provisions, the lack of 
specificity in the definitions of most crimes renders them open to wide 
interpretation by the judicial authorities. Those authorities also frequently 
fail to apply both national laws and international human rights law standards 
during trials. Notably, they too commonly deny detainees the right to a lawyer 
and to a meaningful appeal. One of the most significant concerns remains the 
fact that "confessions" extracted under torture, duress or coercion are often 
the sole evidence in cases of those sentenced to death.

The Saudi Arabian authorities also fail to consistently apply safeguards to 
ensure that 2 categories of individuals - juvenile offenders and people with 
mental and intellectual disabilities - are not subjected to the death penalty. 
Individuals in both categories have been executed in recent years.

The case of Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr illustrates a number of these concerns. 
On May 27, 2014, the Specialized Criminal Court in Jeddah convicted him and 
sentenced him to death for offenses committed when he was 16 or 17 years old 
and which included participating in demonstrations against the government, 
attacking the security forces, possessing a machine gun and armed robbery. The 
court seems to have based its decision primarily on signed "confessions" that 
al-Nimr claims were extracted under torture and other ill-treatment and which 
the judge has refused to look into.

In the past 2 years, conducting human rights research on Saudi Arabia has 
become increasingly difficult. As well as continuing to prevent Amnesty 
International and other international human rights organizations from visiting 
the country to conduct human rights research, the Saudi Arabian authorities 
have taken measures to silence independent activists in a bid to prevent cases 
and evidence of human rights violations from reaching the outside world.

The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny Amnesty International access to 
the country for research purposes. The organization has therefore had to 
conduct research for this briefing remotely.

It has conducted detailed analysis of over 20 death sentences and executions 
since 2013. In all these cases, Amnesty International acquired information 
either directly from those sentenced to death before their execution, their 
lawyers and legal representatives, or a family member closely following the 
case. In most of the cases, it was able to analyze available court documents, 
which included decisions by different courts, charge sheets and, in rare cases, 
defendants' appeals.

Amnesty International has also reviewed information about executions made 
available by the authorities through statements released by the Ministry of 
Interior, including the names of executed prisoners, their nationality and the 
crimes of which they were convicted, as well as the dates and location of the 
executions.

Recent government initiatives to introduce legal and judicial reforms, even 
though they remain inadequate to address the systematic nature of violations in 
detention and courts, could help to bring Saudi Arabian criminal justice 
standards closer to those of international law if properly implemented. There 
is therefore an opportunity for change.

Pending full abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International recommends 
that the Saudi Arabian authorities:

--Restrict the scope of the death penalty to intentional killing, in line with 
international law and standards on its use.

--Stop using the death penalty on anyone under the age of 18 at the time of 
their alleged offence, in accordance with Saudi Arabia's obligations under the 
Convention on the Rights of the Child.

--Stop using the death penalty on anyone suspected of suffering from mental and 
intellectual disabilities.

--Ensure that foreign nationals have adequate access to consular and 
interpretation services.

--Ensure rigorous compliance in all death penalty cases with international 
standards for fair trials.

--Ensure that all allegations of torture and other ill-treatment used to 
extract "confessions" are promptly and impartially investigated, and those 
found guilty of committing them are held to account. As Amnesty International 
is highlighting, the Saudi Arabian authorities can address many of these 
concerns simply by ensuring application of their own laws and international 
obligations.

This is the executive summary of the Amnesty International report "Killing in 
the Name of Justice: The Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia."

(source: Newsweek)

**************

Rampant executions fuelled by justice system 'riddled with holes'


--Death sentences imposed after unfair trials lacking basic safeguards

--At least 102 executed in first six months of 2015 compared to 90 in all of 
2014

--Average of 1 person executed every two days, most by beheading

--Almost 1/2 of executions in recent years are for non-lethal crimes

--At least 2,208 people executed between January 1985 and June 2015

--Nearly 1/2 of those executed since 1985 were foreign nationals

--Juvenile offenders, people with mental disabilities among those executed

Hundreds of people have been condemned to death after being convicted in unfair 
trials under Saudi Arabia???s deeply flawed judicial system, said Amnesty 
International in a new briefing published today.

'Killing in the Name of Justice': The Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia exposes the 
shockingly arbitrary use of the death penalty in the Kingdom, where the death 
sentence is often imposed after trials that blatantly flout international 
standards.

"Sentencing hundreds of people to death after deeply flawed legal proceedings 
is utterly shameful. The use of the death penalty is horrendous in all 
circumstances, and is particularly deplorable when it is arbitrarily applied 
after blatantly unfair trials," said Said Boumedouha, Acting Director of the 
Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

"Saudi Arabia's faulty justice system facilitates judicial executions on a mass 
scale. In many cases defendants are denied access to a lawyer and in some cases 
they are convicted on the basis of 'confessions' obtained under torture or 
other ill-treatment in flagrant miscarriages of justice."

Use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia

Between August 2014 and June 2015 at least 175 people were put to death - an 
average execution rate of 1 person every 2 days.

1/3 of all executions since 1985 were imposed for offences that do not meet the 
threshold of 'most serious crimes' for which the death penalty may be applied 
under international law. A large proportion of death sentences in Saudi Arabia 
- 28% since 1991- are imposed for drug-related offences.

Nearly 1/2 - 48.5% - of people executed in Saudi Arabia since 1985 were foreign 
nationals. Many of them were denied adequate translation assistance during the 
trial and were made to sign documents - including confessions - that they did 
not understand.

Most executions in Saudi Arabia are carried out by beheading, or in some cases 
by firing squad. In certain cases executions are carried out in public and the 
dead bodies and severed heads are put on display afterwards.

Often, families of prisoners on death row are not notified of their execution 
and only learn of their loved one???s fate after they have been put to death, 
sometimes through media reports.

Flawed justice system

Saudi Arabia's Shari'a law-based justice system lacks a criminal code, leaving 
definitions of crimes and punishments vague and widely open to interpretation. 
The system also gives judges power to use their discretion in sentencing, 
leading to vast discrepancies and in some cases arbitrary rulings. For certain 
crimes punishable under tai'zir (discretionary punishments) suspicion alone is 
enough for a judge to invoke the death penalty based on the severity of the 
crime or character of the offender.

The justice system also lacks the most basic precautions to ensure the right to 
a fair trial. Often death sentences are imposed after unfair and summary 
proceedings which are sometimes held in secret. Defendants are regularly denied 
access to a lawyer, or convicted on the basis of "confessions" obtained under 
torture or other ill-treatment. They are also denied the right to a proper, 
thorough appeal.

Saudi Arabia has vehemently rejected criticism of its use of the death penalty 
arguing that death sentences are carried out in line with Islamic Shari???a law 
and only for the "most serious crimes" and with the strictest fair trial 
standards and safeguards in place.

"Claims that the death sentence in Saudi Arabia is carried out in the name of 
justice and in line with international law could not be further from the truth. 
Instead of defending the country's appalling record, the Saudi Arabian 
authorities should urgently establish an official moratorium on executions and 
implement international fair trial standards in all criminal cases," said Said 
Boumedouha.

The case of Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, a cleric from eastern Saudi Arabia and a 
government critic who was sentenced to death in October 2014, clearly 
illustrates these shortcomings. He was convicted of vague offences after a 
deeply flawed and politically motivated trial and was denied the chance to 
prepare an adequate defence. Some of the offences are not recognizably criminal 
offences under international human rights law.

"The fundamentally flawed nature of Saudi Arabia's legal system leaves the door 
wide open for abuse. The authorities are toying with people???s lives in a 
reckless and appalling manner," said Said Boumedouha.

"If the authorities wish to show their commitment to rigorous fair trial 
standards they must implement reforms that will bring Saudi Arabia's criminal 
justice system in line with international law and standards."

Pending full abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International is calling 
on the Saudi Arabian authorities to restrict the scope of its use to crimes 
involving "intentional killing" in line with international law and standards, 
and to end the practise of imposing death sentences on juvenile offenders and 
those suffering from mental disabilities.

(source: Amnesty International)

*******************

Saudi Arabia 'carrying out one execution every 2 days'----More than 100 people 
were executed in the first 6 months of this year compared to 90 in the previous 
year, says a new Amnesty report


Saudi Arabia is carrying out executions at a rate of one person every two days, 
according to a new report.

At least 102 people were executed in the first six months of this year compared 
to 90 in in the whole of 2014, said Amnesty International on Tuesday.

Most executions in Saudi Arabia are carried out by beheading, or in some cases 
by firing squad. Child offenders and mentally ill prisoners are among those who 
have been killed.

The group said the death penalty was being disproportionately used against 
foreign nationals, many of them migrant workers with no ability to understand 
Arabic - the language in which they are questioned while in detention and in 
which trial proceedings are carried out.

Under the conservative kingdom's strict Islamic sharia legal code, drug 
trafficking, rape, murder, armed robbery and apostasy are all punishable by 
death. Rights groups have long criticised the system for its ambiguous nature 
and a lack of due process.

The kingdom is among the world's most prolific executioners, consistently 
featuring in the top 5 countries for capital punishment. The country recently 
advertised for 8 new executioners to cope with the upsurge in work.

Those beheaded this year include Siti Zainab, an Indonesian domestic worker 
convicted of murder despite concerns about her mental health. Jakarta summoned 
Riyadh's ambassador over her case; a rare diplomatic incident linked to Saudi 
Arabia's executions.

The interior ministry has previously cited deterrence as a reason for carrying 
out the punishments.

Death row prisoners and their families are actively discouraged from any 
actions which might draw attention to their campaigns, Amnesty said. They are 
sometimes given assurances that if they do not challenge the authorities' 
decisions or violations in the case, such as arbitrary detention and unfair 
trial, then they might be spared the sword.

A surge in executions began towards the end of the reign of King Abdullah, who 
died in January. The numbers have accelerated this year under his successor, 
King Salman, in what Amnesty has called an unprecedented "macabre spike".

In May, a job advert on a Saudi civil service website advertised for the 
services of eight new executioners. No special qualifications were needed for 
the jobs whose main role is "executing a judgment of death" but also involve 
performing amputations on those convicted of lesser offences, the advert said.

The Saudi record was "utterly shameful", Amnesty said. "The use of the death 
penalty is horrendous in all circumstances, and is particularly deplorable when 
it is arbitrarily applied after blatantly unfair trials," said Said Boumedouha, 
acting Middle East director.

(source: The Telegraph)