Saudi Arabia executed 102 people in 2008 - report - Culture & Society

Tuesday, 24 March 2009 2:25 PM

Iran and Saudi Arabia executed nearly 450 people between them last year, an Amnesty International report claimed on Tuesday.

In Saudi Arabia, 102 people, including eight juveniles, were put to death. Public beheading was the most common method, with some bodies later crucified.

The figure for Iran was at least 346 people, according to human rights organisation Amnesty International. Most executions either involved stoning or hangings, the group’s Death Sentences and Executions in 2008 report revealed.

The report said mostly poor people or those from minority groups were executed in Saudi Arabia and Iran. These two countries along with Pakistan, China and the US, accounted for 2,390 executions.

China executed 1,718 people in 2008, more than the combined number of people put to death among other nations.

"The good news is that executions are only carried out by a small number of countries, which shows that we are moving closer to a death-penalty free world," Irene Khan, Amnesty International's secretary general, said in a statement.

"By contrast, the bad news is that hundreds of people continue to be sentenced to death and suffer in the many countries that have not yet formally abolished the death penalty."

The death penalty is carried by 59 countries but only 25 performed executions in 2008. Belarus was the sole European country to carry out the death sentence with four people executed last year.

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Posted by: alejandro vairo Wednesday, 25 March 2009 4:19 PM[UAE] - Argentina

In Argentina we do not have capital punishment, and I wish we did, the problem with not having the death penalty is that criminals are the ones doing the capital punishment if you do not have the money they need when commiting the crime, so the death penalty is what we citizens get from criminals, if you kill why you commit a crime you should be killed by citizens..

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Posted by: Sarah Wednesday, 25 March 2009 1:18 PM[UAE] - Saudi Arabia

I come from Canada a country without Capital Punishment (Death Penalty) and see far higher rates of crime and overburdened tax payers who pay to warehouse rather convicted criminals. I firmly believe in the death penalty for certain crimes if there is clear evidence, which, given technology available there usually is. Thinking we can rehabilitate or warehouse people indefinitely does not work. Let us think about the victims of these heinous crimes before we give criminals more rights and benefits than those they harm.

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Posted by: Joe Bazooka Wednesday, 25 March 2009 12:09 PM[UAE] - UK

It would seem that the so called " human rights organisations" like Amnesty International etc, etc, only are concerned about the people who are going to be executed. Havve they ever given a thought to as why these people are being executed. What about the pain and torture these people have inflicted on others. They are not being executed for fun or entertainment. They are probably either drug pushers, murderers, rapists, child molesters, or a combination of all and many other crimes. If these human rights organisations are so much concerned about this, why haven't they raised any voice or concerns about the innocent people simply locked away and tortured in places like Guantanmo Bay or other secret locations etc. It is a well known fact that most of the people in Guantanmo Bay etc have never been charged for any crime to date yet they are still locked for over 6 yrs to date etc. Do these organisations choose their cases according the country where they are held or by some other criteria ? Looks more like a Witch Hunt. Human Rights Organisations have a role to play, but they need to show some logic and reality. What happened to the rule, " An eye for an eye"

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Posted by: Jason Wheatley Wednesday, 25 March 2009 6:40 AM[UAE] - UAE

"By contrast, the bad news is that hundreds of people continue to be sentenced to death and suffer in the many countries that have not yet formally abolished the death penalty." Irene Khan, Amnesty International's secretary general, said in a statement. What a strange comment to make about the suffering of criminals that may have been found guilty of murder, rape, child molestation etc etc. God forbid they should suffer????

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