DUBAI: Amnesty International has reported that a man faces crucifixion next week in the ultra-conservative Gulf country of Saudi Arabia. He joins another 6 men who are facing execution in the country after they were convicted of armed robbery at a number of jewellery shops. The London-based human rights organization said that the crucified man would have his body shown publicly following the execution in a public square “to act as a supposed deterrent to others.” It comes as the Saudi government has been executing on average two people per week already this year, mostly by beheading. The men, including two who may have been juveniles at the time of the alleged crime, were arrested in 2005 and 2006. They are said to have been severely beaten, denied food and water, deprived of sleep, forced to remain standing for 24 hours and then forced to sign “confessions" during their interrogation at the Criminal Investigation Department in Abha. “They were detained for over three years in the General Prison in Abha before they went on trial and were convicted in 2009 after a short trial that used “confessions" allegedly extracted under torture as evidence against them. The men were not allowed legal representation and were denied the right to appeal the sentence,” said Amnesty in a statement on the matter, calling on the Riyadh government to cancel the executions. The two men, “who are possible juvenile offenders” were believed to have been held in the juvenile section of the Abha prison and later transferred to the adult area. King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud reportedly intervened to review their case. Most legal proceedings in Saudi Arabia take place behind close doors. Defendants are rarely allowed formal representation by a lawyer, and may be convicted solely on the basis of confessions obtained under torture or other ill-treatment, duress or deception. In many cases they are not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them. Saudi Arabia has a high rate of executions. In 2011 at least 82 executions took place; more than triple the figure of at least 27 executions in 2010. In 2012, a similar number of people were executed. Out of the 10 executed in the first five and half weeks of 2013, four were executed for drug related offences, and four were foreign nationals, including Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan domestic worker, who was only 17 at the time of her alleged crime. As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Saudi Arabia is prohibited from imposing the death penalty on persons who were under 18 years old at the time of the alleged offense for which they were convicted. Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of crimes, including drug offences, apostasy, sorcery and witchcraft. Such offenses do not fall into the category of “most serious crimes" embodied in international standards, which require that the scope of crimes punishable by death must be limited to those involving intentional killing. Offenses such as apostasy, sorcery and witchcraft have been used to punish people for the legitimate exercise of their human rights, including the rights to freedom of conscience, religion, belief and expression. The high rates of execution in the Kingdom are attributable to the wide scope of application of the death penalty. Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Director Philip Luther said “the execution of these men must be immediately stopped. They should be granted a new trial and the torture allegations must be investigated. “Saudi Arabia's legal system is fundamentally flawed. The fact that someone can be executed after, it seems, being tortured to ‘confess' to a crime and as a result of a trial where no defence was allowed is, simply, illegal," he added. BN
