The prince’s execution brings to 134 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia this year, 24 less than last year’s total, according to Human Rights Watch. They include 47 men convicted of terrorism-related crimes, one of them prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whose death in January sparked a diplomatic crisis between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Nimr’s nephew is also on death row.
“The criticism of the Saudi justice system hasn’t usually been that it favors certain people over others, or that people with connections or people from the royal family get off,” Coogle said from Amman. “The criticism has been about the quality of justice, the fact that there’s no penal code, that judges are able to make rulings according to their own interpretations of Islamic law, that there’s not always conformity in sentences that are handed down.”
Public Reaction
News of the execution was greeted with approval by many Saudis, including members of the royal family, who used social media to praise King Salman’s “decisiveness” and “fairness.”
Tweeting to more than 5 million followers under the hashtags of “justice is the basis of governance” and “decisive Salman orders retribution for a prince,” billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, founder of business conglomerate Kingdom Holding, prayed for mercy for the killer and his victim.
Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, a prominent Saudi lawyer and activist, described the execution as “great news,” saying “the greatest thing is that the citizen can see the law being applied to everyone.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.