Activists Slam Saudi Arabia's Record For Executions

A global outcry against the beheading of five foreigners in Saudi Arabia has been raised by human rights groups. The concern is that this year will be marked by a surge in public executions, as 80 people have already been killed, compared to 88 last year, according to rt.

Hence, in spite of mounting global criticism, Saudi Arabia went ahead with its execution of five foreign men allegedly for murder and theft. Just last month, Amnesty International had slammed the "macabre spike" in state-sponsored executions.

Adam Coogle, a Middle East analyst for Human Rights Watch, said: "From January to the end of July 2014 there were 15 executions, but they finished 2014 with 88, which shows clearly that the spike began last year and has continued," Coogle told the Independent.

It was "shocking", said Peggy Hicks, Global Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch.

Amnesty International said that Saudi Arabia was ranked the third country with the number of executions in the world. In 2014, it was behind Iran, while China is thought to rank the highest. Iraq ranked fourth, and the US stood in the fifth place, said sputniknews.

Amnesty International explained that Saudi Arabia's new leader has not shown a cessation in the execution of capital punishment for a number of offenses, including "blasphemy, treason, murder and drug trafficking."

Hence, the ascent of King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud to the Saudi Arabian throne has not improved human rights in any way.

"Any hopes that the arrival of King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud might herald an improvement in human rights in Saudi Arabia have been crushed," said Philip Luther, Amnesty International's Director of Middle East and North Africa programs. He said that the new king is overseeing an "ongoing crackdown on government critics and peaceful activists, who continue to be intimidated, arbitrarily detained and treated as criminals."

"The first months of his reign have also been marked by an unprecedented wave of executions in a clear signal that the use of the death penalty is thriving in the Kingdom."

Coogle, however, did not feel that reaon for executions was due to the change in royalty.

"Personally, I would hesitate to relate the spike to the change of leadership," he said. "He certainly hasn't done anything to stop it but the high rate really began last August. It could be an issue with a backlog of prisoners or it could just be that they are sentencing more people to death."

Excluding China, where statistics were not released, at least 607 executions were known to have been performed globally in 2014, Amnesty International said in a report released in March, compared to 778 in 2013, which actually showed a decrease of more than 20 percent.

However, the report showed a rise in the number of death sentences handed down in 2014 compared to the previous year - at least 2,466 compared to 1,925 - an increase of more than 25 percent. The watchdog explained that the rise was due mainly to the unrest in Nigeria and Egypt, where hundreds of people were condemned to death.