The report, Affront To Justice: Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia, describes how foreign nationals are at a severe disadvantage in Saudi courts. Foreign nationals are often not represented by lawyers. Confessions are often obtained under duress, torture or deception. Trials are carried out in secret and are conducted with no translation from Arabic.

Furthermore, foreign nationals, the majority of them from Asia and Africa, lack the financial means or the social contacts to arrange pardons via ‘diya’ or ‘blood money’ arrangements. Saudi Arabia has no official records of its use of capital punishment, but Amnesty has recorded 1,695 cases since 1985 of which 830 were made against foreign nationals. Saudi Arabia executes with beheadings and ranks third in the world in its use of the death penalty behind China and Iran. Recently there has been an extension in the use of the practice with executions for non-violent crimes.

Don’t Panic profiles foreign nationals who have been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia:

1. A 39-year-old Indian woman (whose name has not been given) is currently under sentence of death by stoning for alleged adultery, apparently following a process during which she had no legal representation.

2. Rizana Nafeek is a young Sri Lankan woman who moved to Saudi Arabia to work as a maid. Rizana, who was 17 when she started work in Saudi Arabia, was convicted of killing a four-month-old baby boy in her care just two weeks into her job. Ritzana is believed to have confessed to police but she has since retracted her confession saying that the baby died choking on milk.

An appeal is in progress here:

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=8979

3. Sabri Bogday is a Turkish man who had moved to Jeddah to run a barbershop. Sabri was arrested after his Egyptian neighbor accused him of “cursing the name of Allah.” Saudi authorities have condemned him to death.

An appeal is in progress here:

http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa10808.pdf

4. Suliamon Olyfemi was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia after he was convicted of the murder of a policeman in 2004 or 2005. Olyfemi is a migrant worker who was one of 13 nationals arrested and charged in connection with the murder. Olyfemi has been consistently denied any legal access as well as any translation services. There is concern that he has signed with fingerprints documents that he did not understand.

An appeal is in progress here:

http://blogs.amnestyusa.org/death-penalty/archive/2007/05/12/take-action-to-stop-executions-in-saudi-arabia.htm

5. Mustafa Ibrahim was an Egyptian who was executed in Riyadh on 2 November 2007 for what the Saudi Minister of the Interior described as "sorcery" and "witchcraft". Following the execution, the Saudi Press Agency stated that Ibrahim had been accused by another foreign resident of practicing magic in order to separate him from his wife. Evidence was alleged to have been found in his home, including books on black magic, a candle with an incantation "to summon devils" and "foul-smelling herbs".

6. Six Somalis were publicly beheaded on 4 April 2005. The six had been arrested in 1999, convicted for robberies and sentenced to five years' imprisonment and flogging. The Interior Ministry accused the men of robbery and piracy but the Saudi government has not produced any hard evidence. The young men were denied legal representation. Neither they nor their relatives had been aware that they would receive a death sentences until the morning of their execution.