Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AP) —Saudi Arabia executed 81 people convicted on Saturday for crimes ranging from murder to belonging to a militant group.
The number of executions exceeded the victims of the January 1980 mass executions of 63 militants convicted of occupying the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979. This is the worst radical attack in history targeting kingdoms and Islamic sanctuaries.
It wasn’t clear why the kingdom chose Saturday for executions, but world attention continued to focus on Russia’s Ukraine war, and the United States had record high gasoline prices as energy prices soared globally. I want to lower. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly planning a trip to Saudi Arabia next week for oil prices as well.
The number of death sentences in Saudi Arabia declined during the coronavirus pandemic, but the kingdom was convicted under King Salman and his assertive son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman. I continued.
Related video: British Prime Minister visits Saudi Arabia after the Kingdom executes 81 people
The state-run Saudi Press Agency announced Saturday’s execution, including those “convicted of various crimes, including the killing of innocent men, women and children.”
The kingdom also said that some of the executed people were members of al-Qaeda, an Islamic State group, and supporters of the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Iran-backed Houthi in neighboring Yemen since 2015 to bring the internationally recognized government back into power.
73 Saudi Arabia, 7 Yemen and 1 Syrian were executed. The report did not say where the executions took place.
“The defendant was given the rights of a lawyer and was guaranteed full rights under Saudi law during the judicial process, resulting in numerous heinous crimes and the deaths of numerous civilians and law enforcement officers.” Saudi Press Agency said. The press said.
“The Kingdom will continue to take a strict and unwavering stance against terrorism and radical ideologies that threaten global stability,” the report added. In Saudi Arabia, convict on death row is usually decapitated, but there is no mention of how the prisoner was executed.
A Saudi state television announcement described those who were executed “following the footsteps of Satan” in committing their crimes.
Executioners immediately called for international criticism.
Solaya Bowens, Deputy Director of Repleve, a London-based advocacy group, said:
Ali Adubushi, director of the European Saudi Arabian Human Rights Organization, claimed that some of the executed were tortured and faced “secret” trials.
“These executions are the opposite of justice,” he said.
The last massacre of the kingdom took place in January 2016. The kingdom executed 47 people, including a prominent opposition Shiite priest A person who gathered demonstrations in the kingdom.
2019, The kingdom led 37 Saudi citizensMost of them are Shiites, a minority, and have been mass-murdered nationwide on suspicion of terrorism-related crimes. Also, as a warning to others, Paul publicly nailed his amputated body and the head of a convicted extremist. Such post-execution crucifixions, although rare, occur in the kingdom.
Activists, including Ali Al-Ahmed of the U.S.-based Gulf Research Institute and the Arab World Democracy Group, say they believe that more than 30 of those executed on Saturday are Shiites. rice field. However, the Saudi statement did not identify the beliefs of those who were killed.
The Shiites, who live primarily in the oil-rich eastern part of the kingdom, have long been dissatisfied with being treated as second-class citizens. Past Shiite executions have aroused local unrest. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia continues diplomatic negotiations with Iran, a rival in the Shiite region, to ease long-standing tensions.
Sporadic protests over mass executions took place on Saturday night in the island kingdom of Bahrain, which is dominated by the Shiite population but is dominated by the Saudi ally Sunni monarchy.
The seizure of the Grand Mosque in 1979 continues to be an important moment in the history of the oil-rich kingdom.
A group of ultra-conservative Sunni radicals from Saudi Arabia visited the Grand Mosque, home of the cubic Kaaba, where Muslims pray for five times a day, and demanded the abdication of the Arsaud royal family. The siege for the next two weeks ended with an official death toll of 229. Kingdom rulers soon further embraced the Wahhabism, a super-conservative Islamic doctrine.
Since taking power, under his father, Crown Prince Mohammed has increasingly liberalized life in the kingdom, opened cinemas, and encouraged women to drive and incite the once-feared religious police of the country. Made possible.
But U.S. intelligence believes the Crown Prince also ordered The Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi is killed and dismantledWhile overseeing an airstrike in Yemen, which killed hundreds of civilians.
In an excerpt from an interview with Atlantic magazine, the Crown Prince discussed the death penalty and said that the “high percentage” of executions was suspended by the payment of so-called “blood money” settlements to sad families.
“I’ve removed all but one category of the death penalty. It’s written in the Koran, and if you want to do something, you can’t do anything because it’s a clear teaching. In the Koran,” said the prince. Said, According to a transcript later published by Saudi Arabia’s satellite news channel Al-Arabiya..
“If someone kills someone or another, that person’s family has the right to apply the death penalty after going to court, unless they allow him, or someone is a lot of people. If it threatens his life, it means he must be punished by the death penalty. “
“I don’t have the power to change it, whether I like it or not,” he added.
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Associated Press writer Aya Batrawi in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.
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