Saudi Arabia executes 12 people in 10 days by beheading them with swords

Saudi Arabia executed 12 people in a span of 10 days for drug offenses. The executions are mostly beheading the defendants with a sword, despite the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman’s vow to reduce any such form of punishment.

The accused included three Pakistanis, four Syrians, two Jordanians, and three Saudis. They were sentenced to death after being held under non-violent drug charges. In the year 2018, the Saudi administration tried to minimize capital punishment. It was said that only those charged and found guilty of murder or manslaughter shall be subjected to capital punishment.

Even in the year 2020, there was news about Saudi Arabia putting relaxation on non-violent crimes after it was speculating about withdrawing its death penalty law after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Jamal Khashoggi was a US journalist who was murdered in Turkey in the year 2018 allegedly by a Saudi death squad.

After taking the latest executions into count, Saudi Arabia has executed 132 people this year, which is more than the number of executions in the past two years combined. Earlier in March this year, Saudi Arabia executed a total of 81 people who were charged guilty of a variety of crimes which included killings and being part of militant groups. The incident was the largest mass execution conducted by Arabs in its modern history.