Saudi Arabia puts 81 people to death in single day in largest mass execution in decades

Saudi Arabia on Saturday exceeded the total number of executions in the Kingdom in 2021 as it informed that it executed 81 people over the past 24 hours on various terrorism-related charges. According to AP, the number of executions over the weekend largest known mass execution carried out in the Kingdom in its modern history. It even surpassed the toll of a January 1980 mass execution for the 63 militants convicted of seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979. 

On Saturday, the state-run Saudi Press Agency announced the executions, saying that they included those “convicted of various crimes, including the murdering of innocent men, women and children”. The Kingdom also stated that of those executed were members of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State group and also backers of Yemen’s Houthi rebels. As per SPA, those executed included 73 Saudis, 7 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 Saudi Press Agency 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 added. 

The news agency did not say how the prisoners were executed or where they were executed. However, it described those executed as having “followed the footsteps of Satan” in carrying out their crimes. Meanwhile, it is still not clear why Saudi Arabia choose Saturday for the executions, though it came as much of the world’s attention remained focused on Russia’s war on Ukraine. According to reports, the number of death penalty cases being carried out in the Kingdom had dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the Kingdom continued to behead convicts under King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

Saturday’s executions are ‘opposite of justice’ 

Saturday’s execution drew immediate global criticism. Soraya Bauwens, the deputy director of Reprieve, a London-based advocacy group, said that the “world should know by now that when Mohammed bin Salman promises reform, bloodshed is bound to follow”. Separately, Ali Adubusi, the director of the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights, alleged that some of those executed had been tortured and faced trials “carried out in secret”. “These executions are the opposite of justice,” he said.

It is to mention that since taking power, Crown Prince MBS, under his father, has increasingly liberalised life in the Kingdom, opening movie theatres, allowing women to drive and defanging the country's once-feared religious police. However, US intelligence agencies still believe that MBS also ordered the slaying and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. 

(Image: AP)