MDE 23/024/2011

SAUDI ARABIA                                                           

 Abdul Hamid bin Hussain bin Moustafa al-Fakki was executed on 19 September 2011.

Abdul Hamid bin Hussain bin Moustafa al-Fakki, a Sudanese man aged around 36, was sentenced to death by the General Court in Madina on 27 March 2007 after being convicted of sorcery. Few details are available about his trial but he is reported to have been tried behind closed doors and without legal representation. 

Abdul Hamid was arrested on 8 December 2005 in Madina by members of the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV), also known as the religious police. He was accused of practicing sorcery, after a man working for the CPVPV asked him to produce a spell that would lead to the man's father leaving his second wife. It was alleged that Abdul Hamid al-Fakki said he would do this in exchange for 6,000 Saudi Arabian riyals (approximately US$1,600). Following his arrest, he was questioned and reportedly beaten, and is believed to have been coerced to confess to carrying out acts of sorcery.

No further action is requested from the UA network. Many thanks to all who sent appeals.        

This is the second update of UA: 114/10. Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE23/008/2010/en, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE23/009/2010/en 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Despite a decrease in executions in the last few years, there has been a marked increase in executions this year, with 15 people put to death in May alone. So far this year, 44 people have been executed, more than were executed in the whole of 2010. Amnesty International is seriously concerned about over 100 prisoners who are currently known to be under sentence of death in Saudi Arabia.

At least 158 people were executed by the Saudi Arabian authorities in 2007, and at least 102 people in 2008. In 2009, at least 69 people are known to have been executed. 

Saudi Arabia applies the death penalty for a wide range of offences. Court proceedings fall far short of international standards for fair trial. Defendants are rarely allowed formal representation by lawyers, and in many cases are not informed of the progress of legal proceedings against them. They may be convicted solely on the basis of confessions obtained under duress or deception. 

In a report published in 2008 on the use of the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International highlighted the extensive use of the death penalty as well as the disproportionately high number of executions of foreign nationals from developing countries. 

For further information please see Saudi Arabia: Affront to Justice: Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia (Index: MDE 23/027/2008), 14 October 2008: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/saudi-arabia-executions-target-foreign-nationals-20081014