2021 was not a better year for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia due to the deficient policies of the Saudi Crown Prince. The European Saudi Organisation expressed its concern over the lack of transparency of the Saudi government in dealing with the executions in minor cases. The executed death sentences confirmed the falsehood of Saudi allegations regarding the reforms of the judicial system, as the numbers of execution sentences doubled from 2020, as those carried out in 2021 increased from 27 to 66, i.e. an increase of 144%, including at least one minor.
The moratorium on death sentences for drug crimes has not been legalised, and the current sentences have not been replaced, the detainees are still facing an unknown fate, and minors facing death sentences will be retried, so that the maximum penalty does not exceed 10 years.
After dozens of executions, the lives of at least 5 minors are still under threat of execution, including Abdullah Al-Huwaiti, who was arrested at the age of 14.
Saudi Arabia also received several international messages laden with criticism due to the ruling against Al-Huwaiti, despite his young age, as well as the impurities in the case. The Supreme Court overturned the death sentence issued against Al-Huwaiti and started new trial sessions however the Public Prosecution did not change its allegations during the first session held after the verdict was revoked.
The European organisation monitored the cases of four other minors at risk of execution; Hassan Zaki Al-Faraj, Sajjad Al-Yassin, Yousef Al-Manasif, and Jalal Al-Labad.
The European Saudi organisation has also documented numerous violations of all stages of Al-Mohsen's arrest and trial, including torture to extract confessions and deprivation of his right to self-defense.
The organisation indicated that Saudi Arabia had executed a number of people, including Adnan Al-Sharfa, Ahmed Al-Janabi, and Makki Al-Obeid, whose names were not seen in the lists of those threatened with death or arrested before. This would compound the fears for the lives of other individuals who were hadn’t their cases documented due to the silencing of civil society.
The organisation was able to monitor 42 cases, including the two young men, Asaad Shuber and Mohamed Al-Shakhouri, whom the United Nations called on Saudi Arabia to stop the death sentences against them, coinciding with the Public Prosecution’s demand to carry out executions against dozens, including Salman Al-Awda and Hassan al-Maliki.
Saudi Arabia continues to threaten the lives of dozens of detainees, despite serious violations documented by the organisation, including torture and ill-treatment, in addition to arbitrary rulings, failure to inform families of the date of implementation of the ruling, and depriving them of saying goodbye to their families. Saudi Arabia continuously uses psychological torture with the families of death sentences victims, as it holds the bodies of those executed, and deprives the families of their right to burial, as Saudi Arabia is holding 91 bodies of people killed since 2016, according to the organisation.
