Saudi Arabia says executed US citizen convicted of killing his father

The interior ministry identifies the executed man as Bishoy Sharif Naji Naseef and said he beat and then strangled his Egyptian father to death.

It also added Naseef used narcotics, mutilated his father’s body after his slaying and attempted to kill another person before his arrest.

The statement does not identify how Naseef was executed. However, Saudi Arabia typically beheads those sentenced to death.

It’s unclear whether Saudi Arabia has ever executed a US citizen, but the country was responsible for the extra-judicial killing of Saudi-American journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey in 2018.

Saudi Arabia ranked third among the nations with the worst record for executions, according to statistics from Amnesty International.

The Persian Gulf kingdom is frequently criticized for its prolific use of capital punishment, which human rights groups say undermines its bid to soften its image through a sweeping ‘Vision 2030’ social and economic reform agenda.

Its annual rate of executions has nearly doubled since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father gained power, according to a report from British human rights group Reprieve.

More than 1,000 death sentences have been carried out since 2015, the report claimed.

A total of 91 people — 19 of them foreigners — have been executed so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on state media reports.

In March 2022, the kingdom executed 81 people on the same day, the largest known mass execution carried out in the kingdom in its modern history.

Saudi officials said at the time that the criminals executed included members of Al Qaeda and had “followed the footsteps of Satan”.

A total of 73 Saudis, seven Yemenis and one Syrian died in the mass execution.

The latest execution of a US citizen comes even as Saudi Arabia presses for stronger security guarantees from Washington DC.

Several weeks ago, bin Salman met in Jeddah with President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in a bid to accelerate talks on a deal to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

One of the biggest Saudi demands is a new formal security commitment from the US, including ironclad guarantees of a US response to any “Iranian aggression”.