Crown Prince bin Salman announces intention to decrease number of executions

On 5 April 2018, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said in an interview with Time magazine that the Saudi authorities have a plan to decrease the number of executions, but that they would not limit executions to people convicted of murder.

Nearly all executions in Saudi Arabia that are not for murder are for non-violent drug crimes.

The Prince said the country would consider changing the penalty from death to life in prison in some cases, but not in murder cases.

Despite this declaration, executions for drug amounted to 57 in 2018, a very little decrease (0,05%) if compared to least 60 in 2017.

(Source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/04/25/saudi-arabia-executions-drug-crimes)