Saudi Shiite man is put to death in flawed trial taipeitimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from taipeitimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
LONDON The prominent Saudi women s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul was released from prison on Wednesday, according to her family, but human rights organizations have warned she is still banned from leaving the Kingdom and faces a suspended sentence.
Al-Hathloul, 31, was arrested in May 2018, along with 11 other women s rights campaigners. She had been vocal for women s rights and had repeatedly called for an end to Saudi Arabia s male guardianship system.
A little over a month later, women in the Kingdom were allowed to drive for the first time after three decades of campaigning, but al-Hathloul s arrest highlighted the extent to which reforms in the Kingdom were limited with Saudi authorities still facing intense criticism of their human rights record.
January 20, 2021 10:34:40 am
Five people in Saudi Arabia who committed crimes as minors are still awaiting execution, despite the kingdom’s April announcement that juvenile offenders would no longer face the death penalty, rights groups said Monday.
In April, Saudia Arabia’s government-operated Human Rights Commission (HRC) announced that a royal decree from King Salman had eliminated the death penalty for people who had committed crimes while underage. Instead of execution, these individuals would now face “a prison sentence of no longer than 10 years in a juvenile detention facility.” HRC president Awwad Alawwad said that “[m]ore reforms will be coming” and that the HRC is “confident that Saudi Arabia will live up to its objectives in creating a better quality of life for all of its citizens and residents.” However, the announcement did not give a timeline for the decree and neither it nor the royal decree were ever properly published or promulgated in state media
The number of executions in Saudi Arabia fell dramatically last year after the kingdom stopped carrying out the death penalty for non-violent drug-related crimes.
The Saudi government s Human Rights Commission (HRC) said Monday it documented 27 executions in 2020. That s compared to an all-time high of 184 executions the year before as documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
The change represents an 85 per cent reduction in the number of people put to death last year, compared to 2019. The sharp decrease was brought about in part by a moratorium on death penalties for drug-related offences, the Saudi rights commission said.
While it s not clear who ordered judges to cut down on executions, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman s pledged in 2018 to minimise the use of the death penalty as part of sweeping social reforms to modernise the country.
Saudi executions hit decades-low after laws changed in 2020 laprensalatina.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from laprensalatina.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.