Death Penalty: The Criminal Justice System of Saudi Arabia
Death penalty in Saudi Arabia The criminal justice system of Saudi Arabia is based on the Sharia law of Islam.
The death penalty can be imposed for a wide range of offences including murder, rape, false prophecy, armed robbery, repeated drug use, apostasy, adultery, witchcraft and sorcery and can be carried out by beheading with a sword, or more rarely by firing squad, and sometimes by stoning. In the case of adultery, if an unmarried man or woman commit adultery the punishment should be 100 lashes and banishment for a year, and if a married man or women commit adultery the punishment should be 100 lashes and then stoning to death. Converting to another religion (Apostasy) is punishable by death as the government of Saudi Arabia see it as treason and it is strictly forbidden. Murder is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. If a murderer pays a family of the victim blood money, and the family approves of the choice, the murderer will not be executed. The criminal justice system waits until the family makes a decision on whether the family of the victim will accept blood money. If the family of the victim chooses to have the murderer executed, the family has the right to execute the convicted.
There were 345 reported executions between 2007 and 2010; they were all carried out by public beheading. There was a reported execution for sorcery that took place in 2012. There were no reports of stoning between 2007 and 2010, but between 1981 and 1992 there were four cases of execution by stoning. Crucifixion of the beheaded body can sometimes occur (publically displaying the beaded body).
In 2003, Muhammad Saad al-Beshi, whom the BBC described as "Saudi Arabia's leading executioner", gave a rare interview to Arab News. He described his first execution in 1998: "The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the sword I severed his head. It rolled metres away...People are amazed how fast [the sword] can separate the head from the body." He also said that
The death penalty can be imposed for a wide range of offences including murder, rape, false prophecy, armed robbery, repeated drug use, apostasy, adultery, witchcraft and sorcery and can be carried out by beheading with a sword, or more rarely by firing squad, and sometimes by stoning. In the case of adultery, if an unmarried man or woman commit adultery the punishment should be 100 lashes and banishment for a year, and if a married man or women commit adultery the punishment should be 100 lashes and then stoning to death. Converting to another religion (Apostasy) is punishable by death as the government of Saudi Arabia see it as treason and it is strictly forbidden. Murder is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. If a murderer pays a family of the victim blood money, and the family approves of the choice, the murderer will not be executed. The criminal justice system waits until the family makes a decision on whether the family of the victim will accept blood money. If the family of the victim chooses to have the murderer executed, the family has the right to execute the convicted.
There were 345 reported executions between 2007 and 2010; they were all carried out by public beheading. There was a reported execution for sorcery that took place in 2012. There were no reports of stoning between 2007 and 2010, but between 1981 and 1992 there were four cases of execution by stoning. Crucifixion of the beheaded body can sometimes occur (publically displaying the beaded body).
In 2003, Muhammad Saad al-Beshi, whom the BBC described as "Saudi Arabia's leading executioner", gave a rare interview to Arab News. He described his first execution in 1998: "The criminal was tied and blindfolded. With one stroke of the sword I severed his head. It rolled metres away...People are amazed how fast [the sword] can separate the head from the body." He also said that