Saudi Arabia executes US nationwide convicted of homicide, torture of Egyptian father

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday executed a US nationwide convicted of torturing and killing his father, state media reported, bringing to at the very least 19 the variety of foreigners put to loss of life this 12 months.

The loss of life sentence for Bishoy Sharif Naji Naseef was carried out within the Riyadh area, the official Saudi Press Agency mentioned.

The Gulf kingdom is ceaselessly criticised for its prolific use of capital punishment, which human rights teams say undermines its bid to melt its picture by way of a sweeping “Vision 2030” social and financial reform agenda.

A court docket discovered that Naseef, whose age was not given, beat and strangled his Egyptian father to loss of life and mutilated him after he died, and that he additionally used medication and tried to kill one other individual, SPA mentioned.

The mode of execution was not specified, however Saudi Arabia has previously usually used beheading when implementing the loss of life penalty.

Riyadh’s ally the United States didn’t instantly touch upon the execution.

“We are aware of those reports and are monitoring the situation but don’t have any specifics,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel instructed reporters.

He mentioned a US consular official final visited Naseef in July.

Saudi Arabia was the world’s third most prolific executioner final 12 months, Amnesty International has mentioned.

More than 1,000 loss of life sentences have been carried out since King Salman assumed energy in 2015, in accordance with a report printed earlier this 12 months by the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights and the Britain-based group Reprieve.

A complete of 91 folks — 19 of them foreigners — have been executed thus far this 12 months, in accordance with an AFP tally primarily based on state media experiences.

As nicely because the US nationwide, these put to loss of life got here from international locations together with Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Jordan, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Yemen.

Last 12 months’s introduced determine of 147 executions was greater than double the 2021 determine of 69.

Executions for drug crimes resumed in 2022, ending a moratorium that lasted for nearly three years.

The 2022 complete included 81 folks put to loss of life on a single day for offences associated to “terrorism”, an episode that sparked a world outcry.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, King Salman’s son and the de facto ruler, has mentioned on a number of events that the dominion was lowering executions.

In a transcript of an interview with The Atlantic journal printed by state media in March 2022, Prince Mohammed mentioned the dominion had “got rid of” the loss of life penalty aside from circumstances of homicide or when somebody “threatens the lives of many people”.

Published On:

Aug 17, 2023