Government Control / Human Rights Violations: 134 people executed in Saudi Arabia this year alone, UN report reveals. On track for over 150 executions in 2019. What do we know about the number Five (5)?

Victoria Bell. Yahoo News UK•September 16, 2019

134 people have been executed this year alone in Saudi Arabia, with six of those killed being children at the time of their arrest, according to a shocking report.

The figures, revealed at at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, emphasised the systematic torture of detainees and grossly unfair trials culminating in death sentences in the country, despite Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s pledge to reduce the use of the death penalty.

Presented by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, at an event hosted by international legal action charity The Death Penalty Project, the report said: ‘So far this year, the authorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are known to have carried out at least 134 executions.

At least 24 are at imminent risk of execution, three of them children.

The report urges world leaders to boycott Saudi Arabia’s turn to host the G20 Summit next year.

“Of these, 37 were political activists killed en masse on 23 April 2019 following lengthy periods of detention in solitary confinement, subjection to torture, and grossly unfair trials.”

In 2018, the country killed 149 people, with 46 left on death row by the end of the year.

The project says that 24 people are ‘at imminent risk of execution’, with prominent political figures, clerics and human rights defenders on the list.

According to Baroness Helena Kennedy’s report many of the 46 have now been killed as the country’s recourse to executions has ‘intensified alarmingly’ in recent months.

Sentencing someone under the age of 18 to death is illegal under international law.

Baroness Kennedy said: “I have been very concerned about the way in which Jamal Khashoggi’s murder is being presented to the world as being some sort of rogue activity and not part of systemic human rights abuses inside Saudi Arabia.

It is alleged that Khashoggi, a journalist for The Washington Post and a prominent Saudi dissident, was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Turkey, in a premeditated attack carried out by Saudi nationals.

Baroness Kennedy’s report states the rise in numbers of executions should be seen “in the context of the extrajudicial execution” of Khashoggi.

“The point of this report is to highlight the extent to which there has been a dramatic escalation of human rights violations by Saudi Arabia,” she said.

“The cruelty of the system is so great… I really hope you will all take this Report to heart, and ensure that something can be done globally.”