In a mass execution around the country, Saudi Arabia publically beheaded 37 Saudi citizens and as a warning to others, pined the severed body and head of one convicted to a pole on April 23.
Most of those beheaded were minority Shiites and the one pinned to the pole was a Sunni extremist.
“This is the largest mass execution of Shiites in the kingdom’s history,” said Ali Al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident who runs the Gulf Institute in Washington.
Based on the names announced by the Interior Ministry, Al-Ahmed identified 34 of those executed to be Shiites.
“The death penalty was implemented on a number of criminals for adopting extremist terrorist ideologies and forming terrorist cells to corrupt and disrupt security as well as spreading chaos and provoking sectarian strike,” the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said in a tweet.
تنفيذ حكم القتل تعزيرا وإقامة حد الحرابة في عدد من الجناة لتبنيهم الفكر الإرهابي المتطرف وتشكيل خلايا إرهابية للإفساد والإخلال بالأمن وإشاعة الفوضى وإثارة الفتنة الطائفية والإضرار بالسلم والأمن الاجتماعي وجميعهم من الجنسية السعودية.https://t.co/fpadnfMTA4#واس pic.twitter.com/Qey1Gy81Vn
— واس (@spagov) April 23, 2019
The SPA, the official news agency of Saudi Arabia said the executions were ratified by “the pertinent court of appeals as well as the supreme court and a royal order.”
Messages to Iran
The kingdom and its Sunni-led Arab allies have also been emboldened by U.S. President Donald Trump’s unwavering dedication to pressuring Iran’s Shiite clerical leadership, which includes his decision to pull out of a nuclear agreement with Iran and reimpose punishing sanctions to cripple its economy.
Al-Ahmed said that the executions are politically motivated.
“This is political,” he said. “They didn’t have to execute these people, but it’s important for them to ride the American anti-Iranian wave.”
The statement was carried across state-run media, including the Saudi news channel al-Ekhbariya. The statement read on the state-run news channel opened with a verse from the Quran that condemns attacks that aim to create strife and disharmony and warns of great punishment for those who carry out such attacks.
This latest mass execution comes days after four ISIS gunmen were killed by Saudi security forces while trying to attack a security building north of the capital, Riyadh.
It also comes on the heels of Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday attacks that killed over 300 people, including two Saudi nationals. The attack was claimed by the ISIS group.
Response by Amnesty International and UN
The Amnesty International said in a statement that one of those executed was a young man convicted of a crime that took place when he was under 18.
“Today’s mass execution is a chilling demonstration of the Saudi Arabian authorities callous disregard for human life. It is also yet another gruesome indication of how the death penalty is being used as a political tool to crush dissent from within the country’s Shi’a minority,” Lynn Maalouf Middle East research director at Amnesty International said in a statement.
Amnesty said the trials conducted violated international fair trial standards as they relied on confessions extracted through torture.
@Amnesty International: #SaudiArabia: 37 put to death in shocking execution spree; one was under 18 when he committed a crime https://t.co/ImbGorpyb0
— Linda Hemby (@LindaHemby) April 23, 2019
“They include 11 men who were convicted of spying for Iran and sentenced to death after a grossly unfair trial. At least 14 others executed were convicted of violent offenses related to their participation in anti-government demonstrations in Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a [Shiite] majority Eastern Province between 2011 and 2012,” said Amnesty in the statement.
14 other #Saudi men executed today were sentenced to death in an unfair trial for participation in anti-government protests in the Shi’a majority Eastern Province since 2011. They told the court they were tortured to have ‘confessions’ extracted from them https://t.co/I7wuBEfWzF
— Dana Ahmed (@danaahm_) April 23, 2019
The families of those executed were not informed in advance. “Instead of stepping up executions at an alarming rate in the name of countering terrorism, Saudi Arabia’s must halt this bloody execution spree immediately and establish an official moratorium on executions as a first step toward abolishing the death penalty completely,” said Lynn Maalouf.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet condemned the beheadings on Wednesday, in a statement.
“I strongly condemn these shocking mass executions across six cities in Saudi Arabia yesterday in spite of grave concerns raised about these cases by numerous U.N. special rapporteurs, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of child and others,” said Bachelet.
She said that international human rights laws and standards strictly restrict the use of the death penalty.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
