Saudi Arabia executes 134 people so far this year including six who were children when they were arrested
- Human rights organisation Death Penalty Project accused the country of abuse
- Victims are killed using methods including beheading and crucifixion
- Sentencing someone under 18 to death is illegal under international law
Saudi Arabia has executed 134 people so far this year, six of whom were children when they were arrested.
The shocking report, given at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, comes after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman vowed to reduce the use of the death penalty.
At least another 24 people, including three children, are at imminent risk, according to human rights organisation The Death Penalty Project.
Saudi Arabia has executed 134 people this year, six of whom were children when they were arrested. Pictured is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
The shocking report comes after Mohammed bin Salman vowed to reduce the use of the death penalty. Pictured is an executioner showing off his sword
Brutal killing methods include beheading and crucifixion, with some victims’ mutilated corpses being left on display. Pictured is the execution of a convicted drug dealer in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Sentencing someone under the age of 18 to death is illegal under international law.
Brutal killing methods included beheading and crucifixion, with some victims’ mutilated corpses being left on display rather than buried with dignity.
The Death Penalty Project spoke of one mass killing in April this year where 37 men were put to death in public.
The organisation claims Saudi Arabia are abusing human rights and performing ‘illegal and arbitrary executions.
They added that the abuses have been ‘exacerbated by the systematic torture of detainees and grossly unfair trials culminating in death sentences’.
Two of those killed were teenagers Abdulkareem al-Hawaj and Mujtaba al-Sweikat, who were just 16 and 17 at the time of their arrests.
Two of those killed were teenagers Abdulkareem al-Hawaj (left) and Mujtaba al-Sweikat (right), who were just 16 and 17 at the time of their arrests
Al-Hawaj was arrested for attending an anti-government protest when he was 16 and was convicted of being a ‘terrorist’.
He was beheaded alongside 36 other men.
Al-Sweikat was also arrested for attending an anti-government protest and was tortured into confessing to ‘crimes against the state’, according to human rights charities.
The report claimed that al-Sweikat was held in pre-trial detention without charge for three years, and was subjected to torture by al-Mabahith officers including beatings, foot whipping, and cigarette burns.