Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it executed a record 81 people in one day for a variety of terrorism-related offences, exceeding the total number it sentenced to death last year.
All had been “found guilty of committing multiple heinous crimes”, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported, saying they included convicts linked to the militant Islamic State (IS) group, or Al Qaeda, Yemen’s Houthi rebel forces or “other terrorist organisations”.
Those executed had been plotting attacks in the kingdom — including killing of a large number of civilians and members of the security forces, the SPA statement read.
“They also include convictions for targeting government personnel and vital economic sites, the killing of law enforcement officers and maiming their bodies, and planting land mines to target police vehicles,” the SPA said.“The convictions include crimes of kidnapping, torture, rape, smuggling arms and bombs into the kingdom,” it added.
Of the 81 people killed — the kingdom’s highest number of recorded executions in one day — 73 were Saudi citizens, seven were Yemeni and one was a Syrian national.
SPA said all those executed were tried in Saudi courts, with trials overseen by 13 judges, held over three separate stages for each individual.
“The kingdom will continue to take a strict and unwavering stance against terrorism and extremist ideologies that threaten stability,” the report by SPA added.
The wealthy Gulf country has one of the world’s highest execution rates, and has often carried out death sentences by beheading.
Saudi Arabia has been the target of a series of deadly shootings and bombings since late 2014 carried out by IS fighters.
Saudi Arabia is also leading a military coalition that has been fighting in Yemen since 2015 to support the government against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, and who have launched strikes on the kingdom.
Saturday’s announcement of 81 deaths came against the backdrop of a total of 69 executions in all of 2021.
Iran strongly condemned Saudi Arabia’s mass execution of convicted criminals over the weekend, saying the move violates “basic principles of human rights and international law.”
In a statement late Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the mass execution Saturday by Saudi authorities of 81 men reportedly convicted of terrorism and capital crimes was carried out “without observing fair judicial processes.”
Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 81 people — the largest mass execution in the country’s history — accusing them of crimes including murder, rape, arms smuggling and ties to terrorist groups.
Most of them were Saudi nationals, and more than half of them belonged to the Shia Muslim community, according to reports.
In a strong protest, Khatibzadeh said the executions and violence “were not a solution to the crisis of their own making,” accusing the Saudi government of “covering up political and judicial turmoil” and “repressing the people.”
The statement came hours after Iran temporarily suspended a fifth round of tension-easing talks with Saudi Arabia brokered by Iraq which were set to resume Wednesday after a long pause.
While it did not cite any reason for the unilateral decision, observers believe the executions could have been a trigger.
The two Persian Gulf neighbors fell out in January 2016 following attacks on two Saudi diplomatic missions in the cities of Tehran and Mashhad which were triggered by Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shia cleric and activist Sheikh Baqir Nimr al-Nimr.
Efforts to repair the ties started in April last year, with four rounds of talks taking place so far brokered by Baghdad.
An attack Saturday on an Israeli facility in the Iraqi city of Erbil for which Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility could also have led to the suspension of talks, according to observers.