Dubai: Saudi Arabia executed 81 people last week convicted of crimes ranging from killings to belonging to militant groups, the largest known mass execution carried out in the kingdom in its modern history. The executions carried out 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.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency announced executions, saying they included those “convicted of various crimes, including the murdering of innocent men, women and children”. 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. A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Iran-backed Houthis since 2015 in Yemen in an effort to restore the internationally recognised government to power. Of the 81 people, 73 were Saudi citizens, seven were Yemeni and one was a Syrian national.
“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 SPA said.
“The kingdom will continue to take a strict stance against terrorism and extremist ideologies,” the report added. It did not say how the prisoners were executed, though death-row inmates typically are beheaded in Saudi Arabia. An announcement by Saudi state TV described those executed as having “followed the footsteps of Satan”. The kingdom’s last mass execution came in January 2016, when the kingdom executed 47 people.
