Saudi Arabia executed 81 men on Saturday, March 12, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced, in the country's largest mass execution in decades.

Seventy-three Saudis, seven Yemenis and one Syrian had been "convicted of committing multiple heinous crimes" in the country, the official SPA news agency reported.

Among them, men linked to the jihadist organization Islamic State, the Al-Qaeda network, the Houthi rebels in Yemen and "other terrorist organizations", the agency said.

Saudi Arabia, which has one of the highest execution rates in the world, generally uses beheading to carry out death sentences.

The 81 people had been sentenced to death for "attacking places of worship, government buildings and facilities vital to the country's economy", and for "crimes of kidnapping, torture, rape and smuggling of 'weapons', again according to SPA.

"These crimes have caused a large number of deaths among civilians and law enforcement," added the agency without further details.

"The kingdom will continue to adopt an unshakable position (...) against terrorism and extremist ideologies which threaten the stability of the whole world", continues SPA.

For several years after 2014, the kingdom was targeted by a series of deadly attacks carried out by the Islamic State group.

He is also the target of Houthi attacks from neighboring Yemen at war.

In Yemen, Riyadh has supported the government against the Houthis since 2015.

Sharia applied

By 2021, the kingdom had carried out 69 executions.

And since the start of 2022 and before Saturday's executions, 11 people had been executed, according to an AFP tally based on official statements.

"The world should already know that when Mohammad bin Salman promises reform, bloodshed follows," British NGO Reprieve wrote on Twitter.

"The Crown Prince just told reporters last week that he wanted to modernize the criminal justice system, only to order the largest mass execution in the country's history," the NGO added.

Reprieve statement following news that Saudi Arabia has killed 81 men in a mass execution today.



“The world should know by now that when Mohammed Bin Salman promises reform, bloodshed is bound to follow." 1/4

— Reprieve (@Reprieve) March 12, 2022

De facto ruler of the kingdom, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has launched social and economic reforms since 2017 but at the same time suppressed dissent.

An absolute monarchy, Saudi Arabia has had a Basic Law since 1992, assimilated to a Constitution, based on Sharia, Islamic law.

Homicide, rape, armed robbery, witchcraft, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality and apostasy are punishable by death.

The executions announced on Saturday come the day after the release of blogger and human rights activist Raif Badawi, sentenced to ten years in prison for advocating for an end to the influence of religion on public life in the kingdom.

His sentence served, the former winner of the Reporters Without Borders prize for freedom of the press, aged 38, is however prohibited from leaving Saudi territory for the next ten years.

The death penalty also for minors

As part of the reforms, Saudi Arabia announced in 2020 that it was ending the death penalty for those convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18.

But on Saturday, a Saudi man sentenced to death for crimes committed when he was a minor was hospitalized after he began a hunger strike, according to his family and Reprieve.

In 2017, then 14-year-old Abdallah al-Howaiti was arrested and charged with armed robbery and the murder of a policeman in the northern province of Tabouk.

He was sentenced to death for the second time earlier this month after the Supreme Court overturned an initial verdict handed down in 2019 and ordered a new trial.

The alleged facts "took place when Howaiti was only 14, which shows that the Saudi authorities continue to apply the death penalty to minors", according to the London-based human rights organization ALQST.

With AFP

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