Saudi Arabia executed four people on Thursday, bringing the number of executions since the start of the year to 100, according to AFP tally based on official statements.
The latest executions, reported by the official Saudi press agency, come amid renewed condemnation of human rights abuses in the kingdom after 81 people were executed in a single day last week.
Of the 100 executions, three on Wednesday coincided with a visit by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was in Riyadh to lobby for more oil production to help stabilize markets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s execution of 81 people in one day – on various charges, including terrorism-related offenses – surpassed the total of 69 people killed in all of 2021.
Human Rights Watch said a fair trial for the 81 men was “highly unlikely”, calling it “a brutal display of autocratic rule”.
More than half of them, aged 41, belonged to the kingdom’s Shia Muslim minority, “which has long been subjected to systematic discrimination and government violence,” according to a New York-based human rights group.
Saudi Arabia said the men, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian, belonged to either the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, the Yemeni Houthi rebels, or “other terrorist organizations.”
These are the faces of 31 of the 81 men executed by Saudi Arabia in one day over the weekend.
Asaad Makki al-Shubbar Ali Asaad Shuber Ali, 37, was arrested while taking his wife to the school where she worked and charged with participating in demonstrations and chanting political slogans, as well as possessing a photograph of a human rights activist and joining a terrorist organization.
Half of those executed were from a Shiite minority region that has seen anti-government demonstrations since the Arab Spring swept through the region in 2011.
Riyadh authorities said Saturday’s mass execution involved foreign terrorists and people convicted of “killing innocent men, women and children.”
Others killed included prisoners accused of “deviant beliefs”.
The 31 people were executed in a bloody crackdown on Shia Muslims from the eastern region of Qatif, which has historically been a point of conflict between the locals and the Sunni government.
Trouble erupted in 2017 when police evicted residents from Awamiya, home to about 30,000 people, turned violent, resulting in 25 deaths.
Asaad Makki al-Shubbar Ali, 37, was arrested while driving his wife to the school where she worked and charged with participating in demonstrations and chanting political slogans, as well as possessing a photograph of a human rights activist and joining terrorists. organization.
Brothers Hassan Mohammed al-Faraj and Jaafar Mohammed al-Faraj were sentenced to death over the weekend.
According to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR), his torture included “beating, kicking, lashings, wire and other instruments all over his body and face with an emphasis on the small of his back, because the investigator knew that he had a back.” injuries of the vertebrae, as well as beatings in sensitive areas of the body.
Another person executed was Mohammed al-Shahouri, aged 27, who was tortured and held in solitary confinement. According to ESOHR, relatives have not had contact with him for six months.
The trial against him began in 2019, initially without representation and using “confessions extracted under torture”.
He was sentenced to death last year on charges such as attempting to destabilize the social fabric.
Another person killed was Akil Hassan al-Faraj, 30, who was beaten and held in solitary confinement before being charged with facilitating a terrorist cell and arms dealing.
The Saudi authorities did not say whether the executed men were killed in the traditional way, by beheading or by firing squad.
Syed Mohammed Alawi Al-Shakhoury, 27, was tortured and held in solitary confinement. According to ESOHR, relatives have not had contact with him for six months.
But relatives say their bodies are not being returned to their families, fearing that the funeral will cause new unrest.
Ali Adubousi, director of ESOHR, said: “We have details on some of the cases, and according to official documents, there is not a drop of blood in the accusations of many of these men.
“These executions are contrary to justice. Some of these men were tortured, most of the trials took place in secret.
“This horrific massacre comes days after Mohammed bin Salman announced that the number of executions would be limited. This is the third massacre in the seven years of the reign of King Salamn and his son.”
Soraya Bauwens, deputy director of charity campaign Reprieve, said: “There are prisoners of conscience on death row in Saudi Arabia and others arrested as children or charged with non-violent crimes. We fear for each of them after this brutal demonstration of impunity.”
On Monday, Downing Street said the government would “raise” the mass execution of 81 people in Saudi Arabia with the regime.
The announcement came as Boris Johnson was preparing to visit the desert realm to try to persuade him to increase oil production to make up for a shortfall in Russian fuel imports resulting from the sanctions that followed the invasion of Ukraine.