Eighty-one people convicted of a range of crimes were executed in Saudi Arabia on Saturday in the the largest known mass killing carried out in the kingdom in its modern history.
AP reports the number put to death by the Islamic regime surpassed even the toll of a January 1980 mass execution for the 63 militants convicted of seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979, the worst-ever militant attack to target the kingdom and Islam’s holiest site.
Some of those executed were members of al-Qaida, the AP report outlined, including the Islamic State group and also backers of Yemen’s Houthi rebels. 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.
Those executed included 73 Saudis, seven Yemenis and one Syrian. The report did not say where the executions took place.
“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 (SPA) said.
The SPA announced the individual crimes included targeting government personnel, the killing and maiming of law enforcement officers, planting bombs that targeted their vehicles and the smuggling of arms and bombs into the country. Other charges included kidnapping, torture and rape.
A handout picture provided by the Saudi Media Ministry on March 8, 2022 shows Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Abdulaziz (2nd L) receiving Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (L) in Riyadh. (Photo by SAUDI MEDIA MINISTRY/AFP via Getty Images)
An announcement by Saudi state television described those executed as having “followed the footsteps of Satan” in carrying out their crimes.
The kingdom’s last mass execution came in January 2016, when the kingdom executed 47 people, including a prominent opposition Shiite cleric who had rallied demonstrations in the kingdom.
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. It also publicly nailed the severed body and head of a convicted extremist to a pole as a warning to others. Such crucifixions after execution, while rare, do occur in the kingdom, according to AP.
Activists, including Ali al-Ahmed of the U.S.-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, and the group Democracy for the Arab World Now said they believe some three dozen of those executed Saturday also were Shiites.
The Saudi statement, however, did not identify the faiths of those killed.
A Britain-based campaign group advocating for justice and human rights, Reprieve, condemned the mass execution.
“The world should know by now that when Mohammed Bin Salman promises reform, bloodshed is bound to follow,” Reprieve said in a series of tweets condemning the mass execution on Saturday.
“Just last week the Crown Prince told journalists he plans to modernize Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system, only to order the largest mass execution in the country’s history,” Reprieve continued. “There are prisoners of conscience on Saudi death row, and others arrested as children or charged with non-violent crimes. We fear for everyone of them following this brutal display of impunity.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia “soon, to beg for Saudi oil to replace Russian gas,” Reprieve added.
“We cannot show our revulsion for Putin’s atrocities by rewarding those of the Crown Prince,” Reprieve said. “Johnson must speak up and condemn these killings.”
AP, UPI contributed to this story