Saudi Arabia mass execution

2022 - 3 - 13

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.

Mass execution in Saudi Arabia as 81 people put to death (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Johnson is expected to travel to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in the coming week for meetings with the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ...

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. He received 50 lashes in 2015. Badawi set up the Free Saudi Liberals website, which he used to criticise the Saudi clergy and call for changes in the way religion is treated in Saudi Arabia. “Raif Badawi is still blocked in Saudi Arabia, as he is banned from leaving the country for the next 10 years,” Amnesty International said in a statement. Dubai: Saudi Arabia on Saturday put 81 people to death in the largest mass execution in the kingdom’s modern history. The number put to death surpassed that of the January 1980 mass execution of those convicted of the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which saw 63 people beheaded.

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.

UN human rights chief condemns Saudi Arabia's mass execution of ... (The Times of Israel)

Bachelet says executions may be related to the ongoing conflict against Iran-backed Houthis and to attempts to silence 'freedom of expression and peaceful ...

Every day, our journalists aim to keep you abreast of the most important developments that merit your attention. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that among those beheaded, 41 belonged to the Shiite minority, and had taken part in anti-government protests in 2011-2012. “I call on the Saudi authorities to halt all executions, immediately establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, and commute the death sentences against those on death row,” Bachelet said.

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”.

Iran temporarily suspends diplomatic talks with Saudi Arabia after execution of 81 people (unknown)

The Baghdad-mediated talks started last year as Saudi Arabia sought a way to end its war against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Iranian news website ...

The pause in diplomatic talks between the countries that have long competed for influence across the Middle East comes at a tense time for the region. Iran, the largest Shiite Muslim country in the world, and Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties in 2016 after Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi Arabia's executions of Shiites have stirred regional unrest in the past.