RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed a Filipino man convicted of murder, bringing to 153 the number of people put to death this year in the ultra-conservative kingdom.
Joselito Lidasan Zapanta, 35, was found guilty of killing Sudanese national Saleh Imam Ibrahim with a hammer following a rental dispute, the interior ministry said in a statement published by the official SPA news agency.
Zapanta, a construction worker, was executed in Riyadh on Tuesday. He was convicted of murder with robbery on April 13, 2010 and was sentenced to death by the Riyadh Grand Court.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said the family of the victim refused to execute an Affiant of Forgiveness for blood money.
“We offer our sincere condolences to his family and loved ones for their loss” the department said in a statement.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, former presidential adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers Concerns, also extended his sympathies to the family of Zapanta, saying his office worked closely with the DFA.
“We exhausted all diplomatic and legal efforts to save the life of Zapanta, including personal written appeal to the king od Saudi Arabia,” Binay said.
“We likewise issued appeals for help in raising the blood money demanded by the family of his victim, in keeping with Saudi law. Despite our best efforts and the kindness and generosity of private individuals, the local government of Pampanga and non-governmental organizations, we were unable to raise the SAR 1.8 million demanded by the family,” Binay said.
Binay, who is running for president, said if he is elected, he would work to create jobs to make overseas employment a choice rather than a necessity.
Zapanta is survived by his father, mother, sister, and two children. The DFA will continue to extend assistance to his family, DFA spokesman Charles Jose said.
Saudi Arabia has executed 153 locals and foreigners this year, against 87 for all of 2014, said James Lynch, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa program.
Lynch said the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year is the highest for two decades, since 192 people were put to death in 1995.
So far, one person is executed every other day in the kingdom, Lynch added.
Saudi executions are usually carried out by beheading with a sword.
Rights experts have raised concerns about the fairness of trials in the kingdom, where the interior ministry says the death penalty is a deterrent to crime.
Amnesty says Saudi Arabia had the world’s third-highest number of executions last year, after China and Iran.
Under the kingdom’s strict Islamic legal code, murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.
Almost half of the executions carried out this year were for offenses that do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes” for which the death penalty can be imposed under international human rights law, Amnesty International said.
Foreign nationals, mostly migrant workers from developing countries, are particularly vulnerable as they typically lack knowledge of Arabic and are denied adequate.
“The use of the death penalty is abhorrent in any circumstance but it is especially alarming that the Saudi Arabian authorities continue to use it in violation of international human rights law and standards, on such a wide scale, and after trials which are grossly unfair and sometimes politically motivated,” Lynch said.