On Saturday, Saudi Arabia performed executions on 81 individuals in the kingdom’s largest known mass execution in modern-day history. Saturday’s mass execution surpassed the record of a January 1980 mass execution of 63 militants found guilty of seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979.
During the height of the pandemic, routine executions by Saudi Arabia were less typical. However, King Salman and his kid, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, were still directing the executionsof wrongdoers who challenged the kingdom’s leadership.
The state-run Saudi Press Firm (MEDSPA) revealed Saturday’s executions, stating they included those “convicted of various crimes, including the murdering of innocent men, women and children.”
“Crimes committed by these individuals also include pledging allegiance to foreign terrorist organizations, such as ISIS [ISIL], al-Qaeda, and the Houthis,” the report mentioned.
The kingdom stated that a few of the performed lawbreakers were members of al-Qaida, the Islamic State group, and likewise backers of Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
According to the SPA report, those performed included 73 Saudis, seven Yemenis, and one Syrian.
“The accused were provided with the right to an attorney and were guaranteed their full rights under Saudi law during the judicial process, which found them guilty of committing multiple heinous crimes that left a large number of civilians and law enforcement officers dead,” the SPA report said.
“The kingdom will continue to take a strict and unwavering stance against terrorism and extremist ideologies that threaten the stability of the entire world,” the report explained.
Saudi Arabia’s last mass execution was held in January 2016, when the kingdom performed the public execution of 47 individuals. In 2019, Saudi Arabia beheaded 37 Saudi citizens in a mass execution for supposed terrorism-related criminal offenses. Executions in Saudi Arabia have usually been performed after midday Islamic prayers. Public display of the bodies of the condemned can last for around three hours until late afternoon prayers.
Human Rights Watch issued a scathing statement in response to the mass execution,
“Saudi Arabia’s mass execution of 81 men this weekend was a brutal show of its autocratic rule, and a justice system that puts the fairness of their trials and sentencing into serious doubt,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The shocking callousness of their treatment is compounded by the fact that many families found out about their loved ones’ deaths just like the rest of us, after the fact and through the media.”
According to the Saudi Interior Ministry, the 81 people were executed for crimes ranging from “monitoring and targeting officials and expatriates.” to targeting “vital economic sites,” smuggling weapons “to destabilize security, sow discord and unrest, and cause riots and chaos,” killing police officers, and planting landmines. as reported by HRW.
H/T Timcast
