Saudi authorities executed four citizens on July 24 convicted of killing six members of their tribe, the interior ministry said.
The
killings took place due to a land dispute among members of the Quthami
tribe, the ministry said in a statement on the official SPA news agency.
The
four, including three brothers, were executed in the western city of
Taif, bringing to 105 the number of death sentences carried out in the
kingdom this year.
Saudi
Arabia’s growing use of the death penalty has prompted Amnesty
International to call for an “immediate” moratorium on the practice.
The kingdom imposes the death penalty for offences including murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy.
Most people executed are beheaded with a sword.
On July 21, authorities carried out the 100th execution of the year.
“Saudi
Arabia is speeding along in its dogged use of a cruel and inhuman
punishment, mindless of justice and human rights,” said Amnesty’s Middle
East and North Africa head Philip Luther.
“At this rate, the Kingdom’s executioners will soon match or exceed the number of people they put to death last year,” he said.
Amnesty says the kingdom carried out at least 158 death sentences in 2015, making it the third most prolific executioner after Iran and Pakistan.
Amnesty’s figures do not include secretive China.
“
The
Saudi Arabian authorities must immediately establish an official
moratorium on executions and abolish the death penalty once and for
all,” Luther said.
Murder
and drug trafficking cases account for the majority of Saudi
executions, although 47 people were put to death for “terrorism”
offences on a single day in January.
They
included prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, whose execution prompted
Iranian protesters to torch Saudi diplomatic missions, triggering a
diplomatic crisis between the two arch-rivals.
