Those sentenced to death were accused of following “in the footsteps of Satan.”
On Saturday, March 12, Saudi Arabia executed 81 people sentenced to death for various crimes related to terrorism. This is the largest mass execution in the modern history of this Islamic kingdom.
This is reported by the Associated Press, citing the state press agency of Saudi Arabia.
The official statement said that among those executed on Saturday were “those convicted of various crimes, including the murder of innocent men, women and children.” Some of them were members of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State group, and supporters of the Yemeni Houthi rebels.
Among those executed were 73 Saudis, seven Yemenis and one Syrian. The report does not indicate exactly where the executions took place or how they were carried out. However, as you know, those sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia are usually decapitated.
“The accused were given the right to a lawyer and guaranteed their full rights under Saudi Arabian law during a trial that found them guilty of numerous horrific crimes that resulted in the death of a large number of civilians and law enforcement officers,” the official press release said.
The report stressed that the executed “followed in the footsteps of Satan” in committing their crimes.
By the number of executions in one day, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the son of King Salman, Mohammed, who is also the head of the royal court, set a record in the history of the kingdom. Previously, the largest mass execution was the beheading in January 1980 of 63 militants convicted of seizing the Great Mosque in Mecca, the main shrine of Islam.
After coming to power, Prince Mohammed, under the leadership of his father, tried to liberalize life in the kingdom by opening cinemas and allowing women to drive. To reduce the number of executions, the payment of so-called “blood money” to the families of the murder victim was introduced.
“If someone threatens the lives of many people, then he should be punished with the death penalty. We can’t do anything about it, even if we wanted to do something, because this is a clear teaching in the Koran,” he said earlier on about the death penalty in the kingdom, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The last mass execution in Saudi Arabia took place in January 2016, when the heads of 47 condemned were beheaded, including a prominent Shia opposition cleric who had organized demonstrations in the kingdom.
Earlier, the son of King Salman, the second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, told the leaders of Russia and Ukraine that he was “ready to make efforts to mediate between the parties.”
