Brussels, 14/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 13 March, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton said that she was “appalled” by the executions that day in Saudi Arabia of seven young men all aged around 20, who had been found guilty of armed robbery when some of them were still under age. In a press release, Ashton stated that “the EU had recently made several urgent appeals to the Saudi authorities at various levels calling for the sentences to be commuted”. She emphasised the nature of the crime and the age of the accused and said that she sincerely regretted that “the opportunity was lost for the Saudi authorities to exercise their powers to spare them from the death penalty”. She pointed out the EU's opposition to capital punishment and repeated her appeal for an international moratorium on the death penalty.
In a letter to the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Brussels, the S&D Group at the European Parliament had appealed for the execution of these young people to be halted (see EUROPE 10799). In another letter they “firmly condemned” the executions that had taken place. Speaking on behalf of the group, Ana Gomes, Véronique de Keyser and Maria Muniz de Urquiza said that they had been extremely saddened to learn of the executions and pointed out to the Saudi authorities their obligations under international legislation “to avoid any form of torture as a means to obtain confessions or information in criminal legal proceedings and elsewhere”. The NGO, Amnesty International, also denounced the conditions under which the confessions and the proceedings had been carried out.
The executions of the young men had initially been planned for 5 March but were put back. The men, shot publicly, had been condemned to death in 2009 for armed robbery committed in January 2006. In 2012, Saudi Arabia executed 76 people. (CG/transl.fl)