Among the sentenced to death, “convicted of committing multiple odious crimes” in the country, according to the official Press Agency SPA, included men related to the Islamic State, Al-Qaida and Houthist rebels of Yemen.
Le Monde with AFP
Sixty-thirteen Saudi, seven Yemenites and a Syrian. Saudi Arabia performed, in a single day, Saturday, March 12, 81 people sentenced to death for crimes related to “terrorism”. This unparalleled number exceeds that of all death sentences applied in the Kingdom on the year 2021.
Persons executed “were found guilty of committing multiple odious crimes” in the country, the official press agency Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. Among them, men related to the Jihadiste organization Islamic State (EI), the Al-Qaida network and the Hushist rebels of Yemen, said the agency. They had been sentenced to death to have “attacked places of worship, government buildings and vital facilities for the country’s economy”, and for “crimes of removal, torture, rape and smuggling of ‘Weapons, always according to spa. “These crimes have made a lot of deaths among civilians and law enforcement,” she added.
The executions in Saudi Arabia are generally by decapitation.
One of the highest execution rates in the world
For several years, the kingdom has been targeted by a series of deadly attacks perpetrated by the EI. It is also the target of attacks of the Hushists from the neighboring Yemen at war. Riyadh supports the Yemeni government in the face of the Hushists since 2015.
“The Kingdom will continue to adopt a strict and unshakable position against terrorism and extremist ideologies that threaten the stability of the whole world,” said the spa agency.
Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world, with 69 deaths in 2021, according to a count of the France-Presse agency based on official statements. Since 1992, this absolute monarchy has been endowed with a fundamental law – assimilated to a constitution – based on Sharia, Islamic law. Homicide, rape, armed attacks, witchcraft, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality and apostasy are punishable in the ultraconservative kingdom.
In 2020, Saudi Arabia announced that it ended the death penalty for people sentenced for crimes committed when they were under 18 years old.
The executions announced Saturday arise in the aftermath of the release of the blogger and human rights activist Raif Badawi, who had been sentenced to ten years in prison for pleading for the end of the influence of religion on public life. Saudi Arabia.
His purified sentence, the former Winner of the Reporters Without Borders Prize for Freedom of the Press, aged 38, is, however, targeted by a prohibition to leave Saudi territory for the next ten years.