Earlier this year, Amnesty said in a report that court proceedings in Saudi Arabia “fall far short” of global norms of fairness.
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Concerns over the increase in executions have been compounded by the apparent use of the death penalty as a political tool to clamp down on Shi’a Muslim dissidents.
Nabi Baksh, Mohammd Balouh and Omeed Bouledah were executed in the Eastern Saudi port of Dammam, Sabq newspaper said.
Saudi executions are usually carried out by beheading with a sword although sometimes a firing-squad is deployed.
The majority of people are executed on charges relating to drugs or murder. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Iran will take part in the Syria talks in Vienna on November 12. In 2014 the total number of executions carried out was 90 – meaning that so far there has been a 68% increase in executions over the whole of a year ago.
Nearly half of the 151 executions were for offences that do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” which involve intentional killing and for which the death penalty can be imposed under worldwide human rights law, Amnesty said.
Out of the 151 executed so far this year in Saudi, 71 are foreign nationals, said Amnesty. It added that foreigners, who are mostly guest workers from poor countries, are particularly vulnerable as they typically do not understand the Arabic language and are denied adequate translation in court.
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Influential conservative Iranian MP and member of the Foreign Policy and National Security Committee Ismael Kowsari accused Iran’s Foreign Ministry of putting all of its efforts into the nuclear negotiations and neglecting relations with regional countries, causing “countries such as Saudi Arabia to behave in an undiplomatic manner”.
