The capital punishment imposed on 81 people, including eight foreigners, presented as guilty of terrorism and “odious crimes”, arouses the fright of Saudi opponents in exile.
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Far from the eyes, a record sordid. While the attention of its Western partners is covered by the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia proceeded on Saturday 12 March to the execution of eighty-one detainees, sentenced to death. A measure that the Kingdom justifies by saying that the killings were guilty of terrorism and “odious crimes”. “Saudi Arabia announces executions of members of Al-Qaida and Daech,” says Saudi Gazette, an English-speaking daily of Riyadh.
According to the Saudi Official Press Agency, in addition to members of these jihadist groups, the Hushist rebels of Yemen – against which the kingdom is at war – and members “other terrorist organizations” are among the people executed. All had Saudi nationality, with the exception of seven Yemeni and a Syrian. According to the agency, the convicts were guilty of attacks on Saudi sites, “kidnappings, torture, rape and contraband weapons”, and committed crimes that “have made a lot of dead among the civilians and the police “. No more details have been provided.
This wave of crucial sentences, which exceeds in one day the number of persons executed in 2021, arouses the fright and the indignation of Saudi opponents in exile. Some have denounced a “massacre”. This word, which ulcerates the authorities, is used for example by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights. “In the absence of transparency of the judicial authorities, we were able to follow only a limited number of files. On the basis of our research, at least thirty-eight of the executed did not commit a major crime according to international laws,” Duaa Dhairy, researcher in this group. Activists deplore the fact that families have not been informed upstream of the executions, that the mode of killing has not been notified to them, and that they could not recover the bodies.
An internal and external message
According to Duaa Dhairy, these crucial sentences “send an internal and external message – the plan is strong, do not hesitate to resort to blood, acts as good, no matter the international requests [on executions]. Also show that the promises of reforms concerning the death penalty are not serious “. The kingdom had announced in 2020 that it ended this punishment for the perpetrators of crimes committed before their majority. In a recent interview at The Atlantic, an American magazine, Mohammed Ben Salman (“MBS”), the heir prince and de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, who aims to liberalize Saudi society, affirmed its intention to modernize the judicial system. of the kingdom.
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