GENEVA: Saudi Arabia reiterated on Wednesday its commitment to hold fast to the Shariah principles in all walks of life especially in applying the law for death penalty, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Rebuffing calls for lifting the death penalty, Bandar Al-Aiban, president of the Human Rights Commission, said the Kingdom cannot forget the rights of the victims encroached by criminals while listening to calls for abrogation of capital punishment.
Al-Aiban made the remarks while addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“The Kingdom is keen to protect the rights of both the offenders and the victims. This is the underlying spirit while carrying out the penalty for criminals convicted of murder,” he said, while drawing attention to the fact that there are several other countries that apply the death penalty.
Al-Aiban said the Kingdom applies the death penalty only in rare cases and for grave crimes that infringe on the rights of individuals and threaten the safety and security of society.
"We carry out the death penalty only after it was upheld by at least 13 judges at three levels of courts from the preliminary court to the Supreme Court," he said, while emphasizing the Kingdom’s keenness to hold fast to principles of justice and international obligations.
