Saudi Arabia executions

Saudi Arabia said it had executed a record 81 people in one day, exceeding the total number killed last year and sparking criticism from rights activists.

Or if someone threatens the life of many people, that means he has to be punished by the death penalty." Shiites, who live primarily in the kingdom's oil-rich east, have long complained of being treated as second-class citizens. A two-week siege that followed ended with an official death toll of 229 killed. It also publicly nailed the severed body and head of a convicted extremist to a pole as a warning to others. It did not say how the prisoners were executed, though death-row inmates typically are beheaded in Saudi Arabia. Executions of Shiites in the past have stirred regional unrest. Such crucifixions after execution, while rare, do occur in the kingdom. A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Iran-backed Houthis since 2015 in neighboring Yemen in an effort to restore the internationally recognized government to power. The 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque remains a crucial moment in the history of the oil-rich kingdom. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly plans a trip to Saudi Arabia next week over oil prices as well. In 2019, the kingdom beheaded 37 Saudi citizens, most of them minority Shiites, in a mass execution across the country for alleged terrorism-related crimes. The kingdom also said some of those executed were members of al-Qaida, the Islamic State group and also backers of Yemen's Houthi rebels.

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”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will press Riyadh to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine when he visits Saudi Arabia this week, a Foreign Office ...

But the UK is much less reliant on Russia for fuel than its European allies, taking about 3 percent of gas from Russia, Johnson said. The world cannot be subject to this continuous blackmail,” Johnson wrote. Johnson’s government announced last week that the UK will phase out the import of Russian oil and oil products by the end of the year.

The mass execution of 81 individuals, Saudi and non-Saudi citizens, on Saturday signals an appalling escalation in Saudi Arabia's use of the death penalty, ...

Amnesty International calls on the Saudi Arabian authorities to put an immediate halt to executions, establish an official moratorium on all executions and initiate legislation that would totally abolish the death penalty for all crimes. In early 2021, the Saudi Arabian authorities announced changes in relation to the death penalty, including a moratorium on executions for drug-related crimes, which are death sentences handed down at the judge’s discretion rather than mandated under Sharia law. At the end of March 2022, Saudi Arabian academic Hassan al-Maliki is scheduled to appear before the SCC, in a resumption of his trial where he could face a death sentence on charges relating to his freedom of expression. In a similar case, religious cleric Salman Alodah faces the death penalty also before the SCC for charges related to his alleged support for imprisoned dissidents and the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned political group. The total number of individuals sentenced to death on similar charges is likely much higher. In another case, As’ad Ali, also executed on Saturday, had been sentenced to death by the SCC on 30 January 2021 for similar offences.

Amnesty International has led the calls for Saudi Arabia to abolish the death penalty in the wake of the mass execution, with some of the men executed for ...

We will work with them to ensure regional security, support the humanitarian relief effort and stabilize global energy markets for the longer term.” The government will be raising this with the authorities in Saudi Arabia.” “The U.K. is building an international coalition to deal with the new reality we face,” the prime minister said in advance of the visit. “Criminal groups have strayed from the path of truth, replaced it by desires, and followed the footsteps of Satan,” the interior ministry said in a statement. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are key international partners in that effort. “This country … will not fail to deter anyone who threatens its security and the security of its citizens and residents.”

Half of those put to death were from the country's Shia minority region which has seen anti-government demonstrations since the Arab Spring swept through the ...

On Monday Downing Street said the Government would be “raising” Saudi Arabia’s mass execution of 81 men with the regime. It is the third such mass killing in the seven year reign of King Salamn and his son”. Ali Adubusi, Director of ESOHR, said: “This horrific massacre took place days after Mohammed bin Salman had declared that executions would be limited.