Saudi Arabia executes 37 men on one day

Saudi Arabia executed 37 people on Tuesday after they had been sentenced to death for terrorism-related crimes.The executions were announced in a statement on the state-run news agency, which said the men had been put to death for “their adoption of extremist, terrorist ideology and forming terrorist cells to corrupt and disturb security, spread chaos and cause sectarian discord.”

Some of the men had been involved in bomb attacks on security headquarters that had killed officers, the agency said.

It listed the 37 men by name but provided little information about what crimes they had committed or when. They include 11 men who were convicted of spying for Iran and sentenced to death after a grossly unfair trial. At least 14 others  were convicted of violent offences related to their participation in anti-government demonstrations in Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a majority Eastern Province between 2011 and 2012.The 14 men were subjected to prolonged pre-trial detention and told the court that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated during their interrogation in order to have ‘confessions’ extracted from them. One of  them was only 16 when he was arrested, said Amnesty International.

Most executions in Saudi Arabia are done by beheading in a public square.
The executions on Tuesday were carried out in cities around the kingdom, the statement said, and one of the condemned was also subjected to crucifixion, which in Saudi Arabia means leaving the body on display after the person has been killed.
All of those executed today were Saudi Arabian nationals. So far this year, at least 104 people have been executed by Saudi Arabia – at least 44 of them are foreign nationals, the majority of whom were convicted of drug-related crimes. In 2018, Saudi Arabia carried out 149 executions during the whole year.

The mass execution is the largest in Saudi Arabia since January 2016, when 47 men were executed in a single day, including an outspoken Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Sheikh Nimr’s execution caused protests in Iran, during which rioters stormed Saudi diplomatic buildings, leading to a breakdown in relations between the two countries.