Amnesty International says King Salman’s first year in power has been a dark year for human rights

Saud’s first year in power has seen the country’s human rights record deteriorate markedly

King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s first year in power has seen the country’s human rights record deteriorate markedly, Amnesty International said.

Despite limited improvements in the field of women’s rights, the Saudi Arabian authorities have pursued a persistent and ruthless crackdown on all forms of dissent by, among other measures, detaining critics and human rights activists, increased their use of the death penalty and maintained practices that discriminate against the country’s Shi’a Muslim minority. The Kingdom’s military has also repeatedly violated the laws of war in its military campaign in Yemen.

During first year of King Salman’s reign, the Saudi Arabian authorities carried out the highest number of executions in a 12-month period in two decades. Over 151 people were executed between January and November, almost half of them for crimes which under international law must not be punishable by death. Some, such as prominent Shi’a cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, were sentenced to death and executed after grossly unfair trials before the Specialized Criminal Court.