SAUDI ARABIA: THE WAVE OF EXECUTIONS CONTINUES, ANOTHER FOUR BEHEADED FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

August 18, 2014: Saudi Arabia beheaded four nationals from the same family in the city of Najran for drug trafficking, amid a surge in executions in the country since the end of Ramadan.
The four executed men – brothers Hadi bin Saleh Abdullah al-Mutlaq and Awad bin Saleh Abdullah al-Mutlaq along with brothers Mufrih bin Jaber Zayd al-Yami and Ali bin Jaber Zayd al-Yami – were found to have smuggled “a large quantity of hashish” into the kingdom, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. The Interior Ministry added that King Abdullah is “keen on combating narcotics due to their great harm to individuals and the society.”
The four were arrested and detained by members of the Ministry of Interior’s General Directorate of Investigations (known as al-Mabahith) on several occasions after their alleged offence in 2007, Amnesty International reported. They were reportedly tortured during interrogation, including with beatings and sleep-deprivation, in order to extract false confessions. They were referred to trial and sentenced to death largely on the basis of these ‘confessions’.
Both Associated Press and Agence France Presse tallies show their deaths bring to 32 the number of people executed this year in the kingdom, while at least 34 people have been executed so far in 2014, according to Amnesty International.
There has been a surge in executions in Saudi Arabia since the end of Ramadan on 28 July, with 17 announced executions between 4 and 18 August, compared to 17 confirmed executions between January and July 2014. (Sources: AFP/AP/AI, 18/08/2014)