Out of sight, dirty record. While the attention of its Western partners is riveted on the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia on Saturday, March 12, carried out the execution of 81 prisoners sentenced to capital punishment. A measure the kingdom justifies by claiming that those executed are guilty of terrorism and “terrible crimes”. “Saudi Arabia announces executions of al-Qaeda and Daesh members,” says an English-language Saudi Arabian daily in Riyadh.
In addition to members of these jihadist groups, those executed include Houthi rebels from Yemen, against whom the kingdom is at war, and members of “other terrorist organizations”, according to the official Saudi news agency. All had Saudi nationality, with the exception of seven Yemenis and one Syrian. According to the agency, the convicts are guilty of attacks on Saudi facilities, “kidnapping, torture, rape and smuggling of weapons,” as well as crimes that “led to a large number of deaths among civilians and security forces.” No further details were provided.
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This wave of death sentences, which in a single day exceeds the number of executions in 2021, is causing fear and outrage among Saudi opponents in exile. Some condemned the “massacre”. This word, which taunts the authorities, is used, for example, by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights. “Due to the lack of transparency on the part of the judiciary, we were only able to investigate a limited number of cases. According to our research, at least 38 of those executed did not commit serious crimes under international law,” says Duaa Dhairi, researcher for the group. The activists regret that the families were not informed in advance about the shootings, that they were not informed about the method of killing, and that they were unable to collect the bodies.
Internal and external communication
According to Duaa Dhairi, these death sentences “send an internal and external signal that the regime is strong, does not hesitate to resort to bloodshed, does whatever it pleases, regardless of international requests. [sur les exécutions]. They also show that the promise of death penalty reform is not serious.” In 2020, the kingdom announced that it was abolishing this punishment for those who committed crimes before the age of majority. In a recent interview with the American magazine The Atlantic, Mohammed bin Salman (“MBS”), Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto leader who seeks to liberalize Saudi society, confirmed his intention to modernize the Kingdom’s judiciary. .
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