Amnesty International's opposition to all executions is also based on the fact that such irreversible punishment is inflicted despite the risks of human fallibility. The risks inherent in capital cases are compounded in Saudi Arabia by the structural defects of the criminal justice system. It is Amnesty International's belief that had basic safeguards for fair trial been implemented, the number of those executed over the years would be a fraction of the actual total reported. Saudi Arabian officials have often claimed that the use of the death penalty has proved to be a unique deterrent to crime in their country, particularly with regard to drug offences. Amnesty International has not seen any crime figures to support this claim, and its own statistics on executions seem to show that the trend is towards more executions in Saudi Arabia.
Apostasy is renunciation of one's faith.
In almost all cases these were publicly announced by the government and reported by Saudi Arabian newspapers such as Al-Jazeera and Arab News and by international news agencies. Some additional cases were brought to Amnesty International's attention by relatives of those executed. See Summary of World Broadcast of 25 March 1995 reporting on Saudi Arabian TV1, broadcast of 27 March 1995. See report by Agence France Press dated 25 June 1996. All conversions to US dollars are approximate, based on exchange rates as of 8 October 1999.