Saudi Arabia has executed one of its own young princes for the first time in 40 years, sending what analysts described as a “strong message” to younger royals that they are not above the law.
Prince Turki bin Saud bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabeer was beheaded on Tuesday afternoon for murder after he shot another young man during a brawl at a desert camp in 2012.
His death sentence was confirmed by a royal decree issued by King Salman himself, who is a distant cousin of the executed man.
While criminal acts committed by Saudi royals are sometimes censored, the execution of Prince Turki was widely reported through the state media.
The interior ministry released a statement saying the royal death was proof of the government’s commitment to “implement the rules of Allah everywhere and against anyone who kills civilians and commits bloodshed”.
The prince, who was in his twenties, was one of an estimated 6,000 Saudi royals. He hailed from the al-Kabeer branch of the family, which is not directly in line to throne but nonetheless holds a prominent position with Saudi Arabia’s complex constellation of royalty.
The two young men were involved in a fight at a desert camp where many young Saudis go to drive their cars and get away from their parents.
According to one report, the prince became enraged after an argument and went to his Lexus and returned with a Glock pistol. He killed Mr Mohaimeed and injured another man.
A grainy video published on Iranian television claimed to show the quarrel that led to the shooting. In the unconfirmed footage a group of men can in traditional Saudi garb can be seen milling around before one figure in dark clothing begins firing bursts of shots.
“This ruling and execution was a strong message sent to the royals, young royals and to Saudis in general that no one is above the law,” said Fahad Nazer, senior political analyst at JTG Inc, a analysis firm.
ABOUT | Human rights in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has long been criticised for its harsh social codes and punishments, imposed under its puritanical version of Sharia law.
Flogging
Raif Badawi, a blogger, received 50 lashes in January of a sentence of 1,000 lashes and ten years’ jail for criticising the religious establishment. He has received no more since his case was raised by international human rights groups, and even the Prince of Wales at a meeting with the new King Salman in February.
In October 2015 it also emerged that Karl Andree, a 74-year-old Briton, would not receive the flogging to which he had apparently been sentenced for being in possession of home-brew alcohol.
Beheading
Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in February 2012 when he was just 17 and accused of organising protests. He was sentenced to death by beheading and crucifixion, along with his uncle, a leading Shia cleric.
Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, said last month he did not expect the sentence to be carried out. However, murderers, drug dealers and others convicted on purely criminal charges are often beheaded in public.
Women’s rights
While women did in 2015 get to register to vote and can stand for local elections, they are still required to have permission from a “guardian” such as a father, husband or brother to travel freely.
Wearing modest clothes and a headscarf in public is compulsory. They are also banned from driving – subject of the country’s most visible civil disobedience campaign in recent years.
The execution came a few weeks after King Salman gave a high-profile address in which he declared that no member of the royal family, including himself, was immune from prosecution or lawsuits in the civil courts.
The Saudi government is also grappling with how to reduce the country’s generous welfare payments in response to the falling price of oil. The Arab kingdom has for decades kept its population in line with salaries and subsidies but a reforming new deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has cut those back.
The execution may be a way of signaling to the public at a time of austerity that the royal family is being treated no differently from the general public.
The last execution of a royal was in 1975 when a prince was killed for assassinating King Faisal, his uncle.
The prince, Faisal bin Musaid, shot the monarch inside his own palace and was later beheaded in front of a crowd in Riyadh. It remains unclear to this day whether the 27-year-old assassin was mentally unstable or had a grudge against the king.
Prince Turki faced a similar fate according to a description of his final hours given by Mohammed Almsalokha, an imam at a mosque next to the square where he was killed.
Several members of his family came to the square and pleaded with the father of the dead man to pardon the prince in exchange for several hundred thousand pounds in compensation, according to Akbaar 24 News.
But the father refused to accept the blood money and a heavyset swordsman arrived at 4.13pm to behead the prince. His own father watched as his son was executed.
Prince Turki was the 134th person executed in Saudi Arabia this year.
Amnesty International said the kingdom carried out at least 158 death sentences in 2015, the third-highest rate of known executions after Iran and Pakistan.
Amnesty’s figures do not include numbers for China, which does not announce its executions but is believed to be the world’s largest state killer with more than a thousand executions a year.
Who rules Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, ruled by the al-Saud family in alliance with the Wahhabi clerical hierarchy. In its modern form, its first ruler was King Abdulaziz, known as Ibn Saud, who conquered and united the current kingdom and died in 1953.
All subsequent rulers have been chosen from among his estimated 45 sons by different wives.
When King Abdullah died in January 2015, his half-brother and successor, King Salman, for the first time appointed an heir from the next generation, his nephew, who is now known as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.
He subsequently appointed his own son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as deputy crown prince. This meant that for the first time the three most powerful men in Saudi Arabia were all from the same branch of the royal family – son and grandsons of Ibn Saud by one of his favourite wives, Hassa al-Sudairi.
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King Salman bin Abdulaziz
Age: 80
Other titles: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
Said to be conservative. He was involved with Islamic charities later accused of funding terrorism, and was forced to issue a statement dissociating himself from their activites “if they had turned to evil activities”.
On the other hand, his branch of the royal family owns a number of newspapers, which have employed liberal journalists.
Before becoming Crown Prince, he had a reputation as the royal family’s “fixer”, negotiating compromises between different branches of the family.
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Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef
Age: 56
Other titles: First Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Minister
As well as being heir to the throne, “MBN” as he is known is in charge of internal security.
He has won admiration from the United States for his success in breaking up al-Qaeda cells in the country – with a personal interest, having survived an al-Qaeda attempt on his life.
He has also been criticised by human rights groups for his uncompromising line on law and order, including the use of the death penalty, a stance inherited from his late father. Prince Nayef, as interior minister for 37 years, was seen as the “hard man” of Saudi Arabia.
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Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Age: 30
Other titles: Second Deputy Prime Minister, Defence Minister
The young prince has had a meteoric rise to power. He has been handed responsibility for all matters relating to defence and also the economy. On the former, he has aggressively pursued a war in Yemen to reinstate the internationally recognised president.
On the economy, he has announced sweeping reforms designed, so he says, to reduce the kingdom’s dependence on oil revenues. This will include privatisation of state assets and some taxes. He has been criticised as “impulsive”.
