Saudi Arabia on Wednesday executed a US national convicted of torturing and killing his father, the official SPA news agency reported.
“Bishoy Sharif Naji Naseef, an American national, was executed in the Riyadh region,” the agency announced, citing a statement from the Interior Ministry of the Saudi kingdom, one of the countries that uses capital punishment the most in the world.
A Saudi court found that Bishoy Sharif Naji Naseef, whose age was not specified, had beaten, tortured and strangled his Egyptian father and mutilated his body, the same source said. He had also taken drugs and tried to kill another person.
The method of execution was not specified, but beheading is often used when carrying out the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters the US government was aware of the information about the execution and was monitoring the situation but had no details. He said a US consulate official had last visited Bishoy Sharif Naji Naseef in July.
More than 1.000 death row inmates have been executed since King Salmane and his son Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, came to power in 2015, according to an assessment by British organisation Reprieve and the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, published earlier this year.
Saudi Arabia has executed 91 death row inmates since the start of the year, according to a count by French news agency AFP, based on official announcements.
In 2022, 147 people had been executed, more than double the previous year. They included 81 convicted terrorists whose execution, on the same day, sparked an international outcry.
