2024-02-27T13:50:48+00:00
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/ Saudi authorities executed, on Tuesday, 7 people convicted of “establishing and financing terrorist organizations,” in the largest execution in a single day since the execution of 81 people in March 2022, according to official media.
This brings the number of executions related to these charges to 11 out of 29 death sentences carried out by Saudi Arabia since the beginning of this year, according to a tally prepared by Agence France-Presse based on official data, noting that the authorities carried out 170 executions in 2023, including 33 people executed for convictions in terrorism-related cases.
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported, quoting the Ministry of Interior, that the defendants, whose nationalities were not specified but whose names and titles indicate that they are Saudis, were convicted of “adopting a terrorist approach that permits the shedding of blood, establishing and financing terrorist organizations and entities, and communicating with and dealing with them with the aim of undermining the security and stability of society, and endangering its national unity.”
The ministry explained in its statement that the defendants were arrested between December 2019 and January 2022, noting that they were executed on Tuesday in Riyadh after the ruling was upheld by the Specialized Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Saudi Arabia faces repeated criticism for its excessive use of the death penalty, according to Agence France-Presse.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia ranked third on the list of countries that carry out the most executions in the world, according to Amnesty International.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 147 people, including 81 in one day, noting that the largest number of executions was recorded in 2019, when it executed 187 people.
The Saudi authorities say that the accused have exhausted all levels of litigation, stressing that “the Kingdom’s government is keen to establish security, achieve justice, and implement God’s rulings on anyone who attacks the safe or sheds their blood.”
Saudi Arabia has carried out more than a thousand executions since King Salman bin Abdulaziz came to power in 2015, according to a joint report published earlier this year by the London-based anti-death penalty organization Reprieve and the Berlin-based European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights.