Saudi Arabia executed 81 people in one day, more than in all of 2021 combined. The unfortunates had been convicted of serious crimes and terrorism, authorities say.
According to state news agency SPA, the victims were people “convicted of various crimes, including the murder of innocent men, women and children.” Some of the convicts had ties to terrorist organizations, including Islamic State, al-Qaeda and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. These rebels have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition there since 2015.
The executed terrorists are said to have planned attacks in key places in Saudi Arabia, SPA said. They also allegedly plotted assassination attempts on security officers and attacks on police stations.
The 81 executions are a dubious record, surpassing the mass execution of January 1980. At the time, 63 militants who had occupied the Great Mosque in Mecca a year earlier were executed. Mecca is the holy city of Islam and the most holy place in Saudi Arabia.
Lawyer
It is not clear why Saudi Arabia is suddenly executing so many people and why it has chosen to do so this Saturday. However, significantly fewer death sentences were carried out in the kingdom during the corona pandemic. From 2015 to 2019, Saudi Arabia carried out between 146 and 184 executions per year. In 2020 there were 27 and last year 67, the European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) recently reported.
The kingdom has been criticized for years by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International for the many death sentences and the way in which they are carried out. Most executions take place via beheading with a sword. In some cases, convicts get the bullet. Putting to death is regularly done in public, in the presence of the public.
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‘horrific crimes’
Saudi Arabia has a judicial system based on Islamic Sharia law. “The accused were given the right to a lawyer and their full rights were guaranteed under Saudi law throughout the trial,” state news agency SPA claimed. They were eventually found guilty of “several heinous crimes that killed a large number of civilians and law enforcement officers.”
According to Saudi state television, the convicts “followed Satan’s footsteps in carrying out their crimes.” “The kingdom will continue to take a strict and unwavering stance against terrorism and extremist ideologies that threaten the stability of the entire world.”
History
Although a record, Saudi Arabia has been carrying out mass executions for years. For example, in January 2016 no fewer than 47 people were put to death. Three years later, 37 Saudis were killed in another large-scale execution. Many of them were Shiites and belonged to a minority Muslim movement. This would have involved terrorist crimes.
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