Why doesn't Saudi Arabia hand over the bodies of those sentenced to death to their families?
Author, Hana Zeratsyon
Designation, BBC News
and
Author, Swaminathan Natarajan
Designation, BBC World Service
Published 1 minute ago
Reading Time: 8 minutes
"We performed all these rituals so that the family could be consoled and we could accept his death. But this will not give me peace." This is what Kinfe Aregawi has to say, who is saddened by the death of his son Kibrom.
He says, "This regret and sorrow will last a lifetime."
Kibrom Kinfe Aregawi was one of five Ethiopians who were sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia in June this year for marijuana smuggling.
Saudi Arabia is among the countries in the world that impose the maximum death penalty. In this matter it is at third place after China and Iran.
For many Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, a full funeral rites is an important part of their faith. In this, the body of the deceased person is wrapped in a special shroud. After this it is kept in a wooden coffin.
But this could not happen at the funeral of 25-year-old Kibrom. His body was not brought back to Ethiopia.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Saudi Arabia has given death sentence to 116 people till July 27 this year.
Dua Dhaini, senior researcher at the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), says, "Refusing to return the body is not just an administrative matter. It means that you are punishing not only the person but also his family."
Skip to Most Read Skip to content
most read
finished
His organization is associated with the campaign to protect people facing gross violations of human rights.
Nazila Ghanea, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, described Saudi Arabia's practice of withholding bodies as "torture and abuse".
The five Ethiopians who were executed on June 23 at the Khamis Mushait facility in Asir province in southern Saudi Arabia were given no warning and their families were not given their personal belongings, relatives say. Their family members were not even given their death certificate.
skip ahead podcast
Dinbhar: Same voice, new style
Big news from the country and the world that made headlines.
episode
finished
Kibrom Kinfe Aregawi first went to Saudi Arabia in 2020 with his father (also named Kinfe) without a valid visa. He was arrested, kept in jail for 15 months and then deported.
However, due to the ongoing civil war in Ethiopia, Kibrom decided to return to Saudi Arabia. They boarded a packed boat to cross the Red Sea and travel on foot into Yemen.
Kibrom was arrested again by Saudi authorities while crossing the border in 2023 and charged with drug trafficking. Kinfe says that after spending three months in jail, his son was convicted and sentenced to death. After spending three years in jail, he was suddenly given death sentence in June.
"He didn't even get a chance to talk to us. I learned of his death through social media," he told the BBC.
Kinfe believes that his son was innocent and was wrongly convicted in Saudi Arabia.
Kinfe says, "There is no evidence to prove that my son has been involved in marijuana smuggling."
On the same day and in the same prison, Tsigabu Gebremariam was also executed after being convicted of the same crime.
Gebremariam, 26, was from a rural area in Ethiopia's central Tigray region and was the eldest of eight children.
According to his father, Hagos Gebremeskel, he left home after turning 18 to escape poverty and civil war.
Hagos says, "There are not many jobs for youth in our area. He went to Saudi Arabia to help me."
Tsigabu was convicted of drug trafficking and spent three and a half years in prison. He last spoke to his family in February.
"He said he would return home soon and get married," Hagos told the BBC.
His mother, Latechristos Gebretsadik, was looking for a girl for him but ultimately had to organize the funeral.
She says, "I have all daughters, he was the only boy. My daughters had full hope that their brother would return home soon. They were making preparations for his marriage. Their grief is greater than mine."
After learning of Tsigabu's death sentence from relatives living in Saudi Arabia, his Orthodox Christian family decided to hold a symbolic funeral and mass at their local church.
"I want to know why his body didn't come home," says Latechristos.
Tsigabu's parents want Saudi authorities to provide evidence of their son's crime. He suspects that other people took advantage of his son by framing him.
A report released last year by human rights group Amnesty International said that 75% of those sentenced to death for drug-related crimes were foreign nationals. Dhaini says that criminal gangs exploit vulnerable people.
"In some cases in Ethiopia, detainees reported that they were persuaded to carry goods in exchange for help crossing the border," Dhaini says. "While some Pakistani nationals were forced to ingest contraband, sometimes under duress or in exchange for the promise of employment."
According to ESOHR estimates, the total number of people executed in Saudi Arabia since the accession to the throne of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in 2015 has exceeded 2,000, of whom 42% were foreigners.
The organization estimates that Saudi Arabia will execute 356 people in 2025, which is the highest number of death sentences given in a year.
Under Saudi law, officials are allowed to repatriate bodies at the embassy's expense, but Dhaini says this never happens.
She says, "We are not aware of any case in which the body of an expatriate citizen has been returned to his family after the death sentence. The situation is similar in the cases we have recorded involving Saudi citizens."
Dhaini further says that earlier also some families had launched a campaign demanding the return of the bodies of prisoners, which also included citizens of Türkiye and Jordan. But he did not get success.
The BBC sought a response from the Saudi government on this matter through the Home Ministry, Foreign Ministry and the Embassy in London, but did not receive any response.
Announcing the death penalty for a Saudi national convicted of marijuana-related offenses in June, an Interior Ministry statement cited Quranic verses calling for harsh punishment for those who "spread corruption on earth."
The statement said the government is "committed to protecting citizens and residents from the menace of drugs. It is also committed to providing the harshest punishment under the law against those involved in drug trafficking and illicit trade. Drugs cause loss of innocent lives and fuel serious corruption."
Comment on this matter has also been sought from the Ethiopian Embassy in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia does not disclose how many prisoners are currently awaiting death sentence. But human rights activists say that this number could be in hundreds.
Joy Shea, a researcher in the Middle East and North Africa division of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, says, "In Saudi Arabia, executions are carried out secretly or without any prior notice. This does not give the prisoner and their family enough time to prepare for death. This is a violation of their rights."
'Praying for a miracle'
Due to secrecy, life of death row prisoners becomes even more difficult.
A prisoner told the BBC about his life in prison. Their identity and address cannot be disclosed due to security reasons.
He was arrested in 2023. He had accepted the charge of drug trafficking. He says that he was found guilty and sentenced.
This year he has seen 15 of his fellow prisoners given death sentence. Now he himself is afraid of being given the death penalty.
We used AI to translate this article, which was originally written in English. A BBC journalist checked this translation before publication. Learn more about how we're using AI.
