Saudi Arabia executions DOUBLE in 2019 with 122 people – including kids – put to death this already this year

SAUDI Arabia has executed 122 people – including children – during the first six months this year, making it one of the bloodiest in the kingdom in five years, according to a new report.

Among the slain were six who were arrested as minors, three women and 51 were facing drug charges that would be considered minor offences elsewhere in the world.

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The latest figure of executions from the oppressive Arab Kingdom is more than double from same period last year – when 55 people were put to death.

The bloodshed comes despite Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s pledge to reduce the use of the death penalty.

The European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, an activist group, released the figures adding they “raise serious concerns about the extent to which the Saudi government will expand capital punishment this year”.

In 2016, the regime executed 41 people in the first half of 2017, 88 during the same period in 2016 and 103 for the first six months of 2015.

If this trend is repeated for the second half of this year then it would mark the bloodiest year for Saudi executioners, the group said.

They added it was aware of at least 23 pending cases for which the death penalty is possible, including at least three children.

It is not clear if the cases involving the minors are still children or were under 18 when they were arrested.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Among the executed, 58 were foreign nationals and most were accused of spreading Shia Islam – a crime in the Sunni Arab state.

There were 21 Pakistanis, 15 Yemenis, five from Syria and four from Egypt.

Two Jordanians, two Nigerians, a Somalian and two from unidentified nations were also included in the figures.

On April 22,  a horrific mass execution was carried out by the savage regime involving 37 men being killed including one being crucified and another having his head impaled on a spike.

Those killed during the beheading bloodbath had all been convicted of “terrorism offences” in the hardline kingdom.

However, one of those beheaded was Abdulkareem al-Hawaj, who was arrested while attending an anti-government protest when he was aged just 16.

He was convicted of being a “terrorist” in a trial branded a “farce” by Amnesty International.

He had his head cut from his body in front of a baying, bloodthirsty crowd along with 36 other men in the medieval country.

At least one of the bodies were reportedly crucified and put out on display after the execution.

‘SHAM TRIAL’

Sentencing a person to death who is aged under 18 is banned under international law.

Another victim, Mujtaba al-Sweikat, was a teenager who was set to start a new life in the US, studying at Western Michigan University, when he was arrested for attending an anti-government protest.

The then-17-year-old – who had enrolled in English language and finance – was badly beaten including on the soles of his feet before he “confessed” to crimes against the state.

Human rights charities claim he was also tortured into confessing and convicted in a “sham trial.”

The alarming figures come despite Bin Salman’s pledge to “minimise” the use of capital punishment.

In an interview with Time magazine in 2018 he said: “There are a few areas we can change (or lower the sentence) from execution to life imprisonment.

“So we are working for two years through the government and also the Saudi parliament to build new laws in that area.

“And we believe it will take one year, maybe a little bit more, to have it finished… We will not get it 100 per cent, but to reduce it big time.”

Handout

Mujtaba al-Sweikat was beheaded this week for spreading information about a protest in Saudi Arabia when he was 17[/caption]

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