A Saudi prince has been executed after he was convicted of murder, a punishment that’s being seen by some as an attempt to assure Saudis that all are equal before law at a time of unprecedented change in the conservative kingdom.
Prince Turki bin Saud Al Kabir was found guilty of shooting dead another man after a fight. The sentence was carried out Tuesday after a royal order. While it’s unclear if the timing was related to reforms in the kingdom, what’s certain is that capital punishment for a royal is rare. One of the last known executions was that of a prince who killed his uncle, King Faisal, in 1975.
The announcement came as many Saudis come to terms with a new era of relative austerity following decades of shared prosperity. The kingdom is struggling to rein in its fluctuating finances after a prolonged oil price slump and has already suspended bonus payments for state employees and cut energy subsidies. In a sign of how times are changing, Saudi Arabia is planning a $17.5 billion bond sale, the biggest ever by an emerging market country.
Convicted murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and armed robbers both locals and foreigners are often beheaded in Saudi Arabia. Death sentences for murder can be put aside if the family of the victim accepts blood money and the killing is unrelated to other crimes, such as drug trafficking or terrorism.
While the execution may be aimed at showing a fairer kingdom, the timing could also be coincidental.
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.
