Saudi Arabia criticised for 48 beheadings in 2018

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Pic/AFP

Saudi Arabia has executed 48 people in the past four months, half on non-violent drug charges, Human Rights Watch said, urging the kingdom to improve its "notoriously unfair" criminal justice system.

"Saudi Arabia has executed 48 people since the beginning of 2018," the US-based rights group said in a report published late last night. "Many more people convicted of drug crimes remain on death row following convictions by Saudi Arabia's notoriously unfair criminal justice system." The ultra-conservative kingdom has one of the world's highest rates of execution, with suspects convicted of terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking facing the death penalty.

Rights experts have repeatedly raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom, governed under a strict form of Islamic law. The government says the death penalty is a deterrent for further crime.

"It's bad enough that Saudi Arabia executes so many people, but many of them have not committed a violent crime," said HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson.

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