Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said it executed 81 men on Tuesday, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian. It was the largest execution in Saudi Arabia in decades.
Saudi Arabia executed 67 people in 2021 and 27 in 2020.
The Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement that those executed ranged from joining militant groups to having “deviant beliefs”, “These people, 81 in all, were convicted of various crimes, including the murder of innocent men, women and children. “.
“These individuals also committed oaths of allegiance to foreign terrorist groups, including Islamic State, al-Qaeda and the Houthis,” the statement said.
But the Home Office statement did not say how the executions were carried out.
Those executed included 37 Saudis convicted in a single case with intent to assassinate security officials and attack police stations and motorcades, the statement said.
As the world’s major powers focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the mass executions might bring renewed attention to Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
Human rights groups have accused Saudi Arabia of imposing legal restrictions on political expression and religious belief, and criticized the kingdom’s use of the death penalty, including for defendants who were underage at the time of their arrest.
Soraya Bauwens, vice-president of the anti-death penalty charity Reprieve, said in a statement that “there are prisoners of conscience on death row in Saudi Arabia, and there are children and people arrested for non-violent crimes”.
Saudi Arabia denies allegations of human rights violations, claiming that the laws are used to protect national security.
The Saudi state news agency SPA pointed out that these defendants have the right to hire a lawyer, and all rights in the judicial process are also guaranteed in accordance with the law.
In 1980, Saudi Arabia executed 63 people in one day, according to state media, when militants occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca. In 2016, there was also a record of 47 executions on one day.
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