About the King’s health… Mohammed bin Salman’s first comment after the statement of the Saudi Royal Court

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said on Tuesday that his government had made every effort to prevent the death penalty against one of its citizens living in Saudi Arabia.

In a press release, he described his execution as “a terrible tragedy,” saying, “We have tried everything over many years,” according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.

Philippine officials did not release the name of the executed worker, or details of the crime and date of execution, because the family wanted privacy.

Last Saturday, the Saudi Ministry of Interior announced, in a statement, that a “retaliatory death sentence” was implemented against a Filipino national after he was convicted of murdering a Saudi citizen, by ” hitting him on the head with an iron hammer, as a result of a dispute between them.”

For its part, the Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it had made efforts to prevent the sentence, including submitting a presidential request, but “the family of the person refused -suffer to accept blood money in exchange for pardoning the Filipinos, “and so he was put to death.

Marcos said that the Philippine and Saudi governments held discussions on this issue in the past five to six years, but “unfortunately, the law is very strict,” as he said.

The Philippine President promised to help return the worker’s body to his home country.

Millions of Filipinos work abroad, and a large number of them are based in the Middle East due to limited job opportunities in their country.

On 28 September, Amnesty International said: report Saudi authorities have executed more than 198 people since the beginning of 2024, which is the largest number of executions recorded in the country’s history since 1990.

Saudi authorities increased executions despite repeated promises to limit their use, while consistently failing to comply with international standards and guarantees for fair trials of the accused, according to the report. ‘ said the human rights group.

She explained, “This year saw a significant increase in executions for drug-related offences, with 53 executions so far – an average of one execution every two days in the month of July alone – as that’s up from just two drug-related executions in 2023.”

Likewise, the group continued, Saudi authorities used the death penalty “as a tool to silence political opposition and punish citizens of the country’s Shiite minority who supported the anti-government protests that took place between 2011 and 2013.”