Mass execution Saudi Arabia

2022 - 3 - 13

saudi arabia mass execution

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Equal Justice Initiative"

Saudi Arabia Executes 81 People in Largest Mass Execution in ... (Equal Justice Initiative)

The number of people executed on Saturday exceeds the country's two most recent mass executions—47 people were executed in 2016 and 37 mostly minority Shiites ...

Worldwide, 144 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice, in contrast with 55 retentionist countries. “There are prisoners of conscience on Saudi death row,” the group said in a statement, “and others arrested as children or charged with non-violent crimes. CBS News reports that people sentenced to death are typically beheaded in Saudi Arabia. It did not specify the charges in each case but acknowledged that they included nonhomicide offenses like “pledging allegiance” to foreign terrorist organizations and traveling to conflict zones. Human rights groups have widely condemned the executions, which follow Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s promises to reform the country’s criminal legal system and limit its use of capital punishment. In a statement published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, the government did not identify the 81 individuals executed and did not say where or how they were put to death.

Saudi Arabia: Mass Execution of 81 Men (Human Rights Watch)

Saudi authorities' execution of 81 men on March 12, 2022 was its largest mass execution in years despite recent promises to curtail its use of the death ...

While these initiatives can be used for beneficial purposes, Saudi Arabia is using these government-funded events with celebrities, artists, and athletes to whitewash its poor human rights record and deflect efforts to hold its leadership accountable for these abuses, Human Rights Watch said. As part of legal reforms announced on February 8, 2021, the country’s first written penal code for discretionary crimes – crimes under Islamic law that have not been defined in writing and that do not carry predetermined punishments – is being prepared, though apparently without any consultation with civil society. In 2020, Saudi authorities restated a 2018 legal change halting the death penalty for alleged child offenders for certain crimes, though prosecutors can – and still do – seek the death penalty against child offenders for crimes such as murder. Human Rights Watch has documented rampant due process violations in the court and criminal justice system against defendants in criminal cases. Rampant and systemic abuses in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system suggest it is highly unlikely that any of the men received a fair trial. Human Rights Watch has also repeatedly criticized Saudi courts’ reliance on torture-tainted confessions as the sole basis of conviction in certain cases.

Saudi Arabia executes 81 people in its largest mass execution (unknown)

Saudi Arabia said it had executed a record 81 people in one day, exceeding the total number killed last year and sparking criticism from rights activists.

Or if someone threatens the life of many people, that means he has to be punished by the death penalty." Shiites, who live primarily in the kingdom's oil-rich east, have long complained of being treated as second-class citizens. A two-week siege that followed ended with an official death toll of 229 killed. It also publicly nailed the severed body and head of a convicted extremist to a pole as a warning to others. It did not say how the prisoners were executed, though death-row inmates typically are beheaded in Saudi Arabia. Executions of Shiites in the past have stirred regional unrest. Such crucifixions after execution, while rare, do occur in the kingdom. A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Iran-backed Houthis since 2015 in neighboring Yemen in an effort to restore the internationally recognized government to power. The 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque remains a crucial moment in the history of the oil-rich kingdom. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly plans a trip to Saudi Arabia next week over oil prices as well. In 2019, the kingdom beheaded 37 Saudi citizens, most of them minority Shiites, in a mass execution across the country for alleged terrorism-related crimes. The kingdom also said some of those executed were members of al-Qaida, the Islamic State group and also backers of Yemen's Houthi rebels.

UN rights chief decries mass execution of 81 people in Saudi Arabia (unknown)

The UN human rights chief has condemned the beheading of 81 people by Saudi Arabia during the course of a single day, charged with terrorism-related ...

“Authorities should return the bodies of those executed to their families”, underscored the top UN human rights official. She said that failure to provide relatives with information on the circumstances of their loved ones’ executions “may amount to torture and ill-treatment”. Moreover, the death penalty is “incompatible with fundamental tenets of human rights and dignity, the right to life and the prohibition of torture”.

UN rights chief condemns Saudi 'mass execution' (unknown)

Michelle Bachelet said war crimes may have been committed if people were beheaded following court cases that do not offer proper fair trial guarantees. Saudi ...

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Iran condemns mass executions carried out by Saudi Arabia (The Irish Times)

Tehran criticises violation of 'basic human rights' and suspends reconciliation talks.

This was caused by president Joe Biden’s snub of crown prince Mohammad bin Salman over the 2018 brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate. The restoration of ties between Tehran and Riyadh could cool regional tensions. The crown prince and his Emirati ally Mohammad bin Zayed have refused to take Mr Biden’s telephone calls following the outbreak of war in Ukraine. He seeks to persuade them to increase oil exports to make up for a shortfall in Russian supplies due to warfare and sanctions.