Saudi Arabia needs to review more than just individual death sentences; its justice system has no penal code at all

Abdullah al-Shammari was scheduled to be executed shortly after this month's Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Holiday of the Sacrifice, but King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia decided to grant him a reprieve and study his case. This is welcome, but King Abdullah should not only halt al-Shammari's execution. He should abolish the death penalty in his kingdom.

Many nations have abolished capital punishment, recognising its inherent cruelty and finality. Some nations that still have such sentences have strict legal rules and precedents for their use. But in Saudi Arabia, trials are often unfair, and sentences are based on judges' personal interpretations of religious teachings rather than on law. The nation has no penal code, no formal definitions of what constitutes a crime, and no tradition of following established legal precedent. It is also one of the very few countries that continue to execute juveniles.

On the issue of equal justice and legal standards, al-Shammari's conviction is a case in point.
The courts found that he killed another man in a fight in Ha'il in 1983, hitting the man on his head with a metal object. A decade later, he was found guilty of "quasi-intentional murder" and ordered to pay blood money. He paid, was freed, married, and fathered children. However, a review court objected and a new set of judges then ruled the murder "intentional," confirming head injuries as the cause, and condemned him to death.

In another case in Saudi Arabia the religious police beat and kicked a man until he died. A coroner found the cause of death to be a blow to the head. But in late December 2007, a court found the policemen not guilty saying that under the Hanbali tradition of Islamic law a person could not suffer a fatal injury to the head.

In a third case based on interpretations of religious mandates, judges in Quraiyat convicted Fawza Falih of witchcraft in April 2006 based on evidence such as substances found in her jars and the claims of a man who said he became impotent from her spell. The judges, who sentenced her to death, reached their conclusion not on Quranic verses or even examples of the Prophet Muhammad, but quoted unspecified actions of unspecified companions of the Prophet.

Saudi trials often violate the most fundamental standards of fairness. Two young men, Muhammad Kuhail, a Canadian, and Muhanna Sa'd, a Jordanian, were sentenced to death in Jeddah for "intentionally killing" another youth in a schoolyard brawl in 2007. A blow to the stomach had caused internal bleeding, leading to death from a pre-existing heart condition. The trial judges barred the lawyer for one of the men from attending court sessions and from presenting several defence witnesses and cross-examining prosecution witnesses. But a review court still affirmed the verdict.

The review court judges conceded that the youth who died and his companions started the fight and that witnesses contradicted one another. Nevertheless, the judges vaguely invoked the writings of a 13th-century Islamic scholar to sentence the men to death for "intentional killing," saying that "ignorance of an illness" is no excuse.

Sultan Kuhail, Muhammad's Canadian brother, who was 16 years old at the time of the fight, now faces a possible death penalty in the case because the review court ordered him retried in an adult court after a juvenile court had sentenced him to one year in prison and 200 lashes for his role in the brawl.

Saudi Arabia is among only five countries that retain the death penalty for juveniles in contravention of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, to which the kingdom is a party. In July 2007, a 16-year old was executed for a crime he allegedly committed when he was 13. In June 2007, a court sentenced 17-year old Sri Lankan domestic worker to death after a four-month old infant in her care choked to death. Saudi Arabia's Shura Council, an appointed parliament, recently passed a law to raise the age of majority from puberty to 18. But even if it is ratified, the consequences for the criminal justice system remain unclear.

Saudi Arabia has executed at least 92 persons so far in 2008, most by public beheadings without warning to them or their families. Two recent beheadings were for dealing amphetamines, which is not among the severe crimes for which international law still permits the death penalty. The government would do well to take a hard look at whether the death penalty is just and whether it actually reduces crime or serves justice for victims of crime.