RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Washington Insider Magazine) – Saudi Arabia hanged 81 individuals on Saturday, the greatest known mass execution in the kingdom’s modern history, for offences ranging from murder to affiliation with terrorist groups.
The number of those hanged topped the 63 insurgents convicted of capturing the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979, the biggest terrorist attack on the monarchy and Islam’s holiest site, who were executed in January 1980.
It’s unclear why the monarchy chose Saturday for the mass executions, given that most of the global attention is still centered on Russia’s aggression in Ukraine — and the United States is hoping to decrease record-high gasoline costs as global oil prices rise. Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, is allegedly planning a visit to Saudi Arabia upcoming week to discuss oil pricing.
According to ABC NEWS, the number of death sentences in Saudi Arabia reduced during the coronavirus outbreak, but the country continued to behead criminals under King Salman and his aggressive son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
According to the Saudi Press Agency, those executed on Saturday were guilty of a variety of offenses, including the killing of innocent children, women and men.
Some of those executed, according to the monarchy, were militants of the Islamic State, al-Qaida, and supporters of Yemen’s Houthi rebels. A Saudi-led coalition has been attacking the Iran-backed Houthis since 2015 in bordering Yemen in an attempt to restore the internationally accepted government to power.
73 Saudis, 1 Syrian, and 7 Yemenis were among those killed. The location of the executions was not mentioned in the report.
The executions garnered widespread criticism from throughout the world.
The country’s most recent mass execution occurred in Jan 2016, when 47 individuals were executed, along with a major opposition Shiite imam who had spearheaded protests across the kingdom.
In a massive execution throughout the nation in 2019, the monarchy decapitated 37 Saudi citizens, the majority of whom were minority Shiites, for claimed terrorism-related offences. As a message to others, it also dramatically nailed the severed corpse and skull of a convicted terrorist to a pole. Such crucifixions following execution, albeit unusual, do occur throughout the kingdom.