Mass execution Saudi Arabia

Bachelet says executions may be related to the ongoing conflict against Iran-backed Houthis and to attempts to silence 'freedom of expression and peaceful ...

Every day, our journalists aim to keep you abreast of the most important developments that merit your attention. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said that among those beheaded, 41 belonged to the Shiite minority, and had taken part in anti-government protests in 2011-2012. “I call on the Saudi authorities to halt all executions, immediately establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, and commute the death sentences against those on death row,” Bachelet said.

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”.

Senior Conservative MP Crispin Blunt says the execution of 81 men on one day is of "profound concern" and represents "a new low for human rights and ...

"It operates across a range of sectors. She added the Saudi purchase of Newcastle had been "a commercial matter for the Premier League". A government minister has defended the Saudi Arabian takeover of Newcastle United as MPs described the mass execution of 81 men as a "new low" for the kingdom and urged the prime minister to cancel a visit.

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.