A group of United Nations experts has called on Saudi Arabia to abolish the death penalty for those convicted of drug offenses, after they expressed concern over the possible execution of a 57-year-old Jordanian national accused of such a crime.
«We respectfully reiterate our call on the Government of Saudi Arabia to consider establishing an official moratorium on all executions with a view to completely abolishing the death penalty (…) for drug-related offenses with prison sentences consistent with international standards,» reads a statement from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
«Under international law, States that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose it for the ‘most serious crimes’ involving intentional homicide. Drug-related crimes do not meet this threshold,» the UN experts said.
The Jordanian national, Hussein Abo Al Keir, was carrying amphetamine pills after being arrested at the Saudi border in 2014. The following year, Abo was sentenced to death for alleged drug trafficking.
While he has been in pre-trial detention, the defendant was allegedly tortured and forced to sign a false confession. Following this, he was allegedly denied health care and access to consular assistance.
«The use of evidence and confessions extracted under torture to convict people on death row not only violates the prohibition of torture, but also conflicts with the right to a fair trial under international law,» criticized members of the working group on Abo’s detention.
The experts further concluded that Abo’s deprivation of liberty is arbitrary, without legal basis, and called for his release.
They have also alarmed that the executions occur without prior notice. «The failure to provide persons on death row with timely notification of the date of their execution constitutes a form of ill-treatment,» they added.
Should the execution of the condemned man go ahead, he would be the 21st person to be executed in the Arabian Peninsula country since the beginning of November. Of the 20 people executed, 12 were foreign nationals.
«We are concerned that a disproportionate number of those sentenced to death for drug-related offenses are migrants. The practice amounts to discriminatory treatment of non-nationals,» they said.
