Saudi Arabia has executed 81 men in a single day, in what was the kingdom’s largest mass execution in its modern history. According to kingdom’s state media, 73 Saudis, seven Yemenis and one Syrian were found guilty of for terror offences, with some being part of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State group and backers of Yemen's Houthi rebels.
“13 judges and a three-stage judicial process sentenced the 81 men to the death penalty,” said the state media Saudi Press Agency (SPA) in its report.
“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. Those executed as having 'followed the footsteps of Satan' in carrying out their crimes,” the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said that executions were carried out on Saturday.
“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 SPA said.
It is unclear how the men died but Saudi Arabia tends to behead people under its death penalty.
The number is astounding when you consider that Saudi Arabia executed 67 people in all of 2021 and 27 in 2020. The number is even higher than the 63 people Saudi Arabia executed in January 1980 after convicting them of seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979.
The number of death penalty cases being carried out had dropped during the coronavirus pandemic, though the kingdom continued to behead convicts under King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Several international rights groups criticized the executions. “There are prisoners of conscience on Saudi death row, and others arrested as children or charged with non-violent crimes. We fear for every one of them following this brutal display of impunity,” AP quotes the statement of Reprieve, a London-based group.
Rights groups have called on the Saudi leadership to end the death penalty and make improvements to the country’s justice system to provide for fair trials. Saudi authorities deny flaws in the system.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said he was working to change the law to reduce the punishment for some crimes from execution to life in prison. In keeping with Islamic law, he said, the death penalty would remain in place for murder, rape, incest, apostasy and terrorism.
“Well about the death penalty, we got rid of all of it, except for one category, and this one is written in the Quran, and we cannot do anything about it, even if we wished to do something, because it is clear teaching in the Quran,” AP quoted Prince as saying in his interview with Al-Arabia news channel.
Also Read : Saudi Arabia bans Tablighi Jamaat, calls it a gateway to terrorism
