According to state media, Saudi Arabia has reportedly carried out the execution of five people on Monday. They had been convicted of perpetrating a deadly attack on a place of worship, making it the most extensive group execution of the year.
The trial of four Saudi nationals and one Egyptian citizen took place in response to an attack in Saudi Arabia’s eastern region, which is home to both the majority of the nation’s oil reserves and a Shiite minority. The attack claimed the lives of five people and left an unknown number injured.
The official statement from the interior ministry, published by the Saudi Press Agency, did not contain any information about the timeframe in which the attack happened or the specific religious site that was the object of the attack
Also, the statement did not clarify the execution method employed, but past practices have indicated that the kingdom has carried out beheadings as a form of capital punishment.
With this execution, the number of people executed by Saudi Arabia has risen to 68, resulting in recurrent criticism from rights groups who oppose the country’s prolific application of capital punishment.
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For terrorism-related offenses, over 20 executions have been implemented since early May, with the majority of these executions being carried out in the eastern province.
Two Bahraini nationals were executed by authorities in late May after being found guilty of terrorism. Amnesty International criticized the case for relying on ‘torture-tainted confessions’.
Based on an AFP tally, Saudi Arabia conducted a total of 147 executions last year, a number that surpassed the 2021 figure of 69, effectively more than doubling the previous year’s count.
Within the yearly total for 2022, there were 81 executions carried out on a particular day in March for terrorism-related crimes, leading to an international outcry.
A report published earlier this year by Reprieve and the European-Saudi Organisation for Human Rights disclosed that more than 1,000 death sentences have been executed since King Salman took office in 2015.
The recent spike in executions in Saudi Arabia is occurring simultaneously with the kingdom’s attempts to present a more lenient image, undertaking far-reaching social and economic transformations as part of its ‘Vision 2030’ reform plan, despite its reputation for strict adherence to Islamic Sharia law.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and King Salman’s son, stated in an interview with The Atlantic magazine, as documented in a transcript published by state media in March 2022, that the kingdom had eliminated the death penalty, except for cases of murder or when someone poses a significant threat to the lives of numerous individuals.