Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) confirms that the Saudi authorities’ execution of 81 detainees is a mass crime, stressing that these rulings were unfounded and issued by a judicial system that lacks the minimum standards of justice and independence.
On Saturday, March 12, 2022, the Saudi authorities announced the execution of 81 detainees in various cases, including 73 Saudis, 7 Yemenis, and a Syrian, on charges of terrorism and joining terrorist organisations.
It is worth noting that Saudi regime has always used such accusations to justify its repressive practices against activist, political opponents, intellectuals and scholars.
Rulings of the Saudi judiciary cannot be trusted, since detainees are subjected to a number of human rights and legal violations, deprived of proper legal representation, prevented from submitting their defence, and courts refuse to consider their allegations of torture and disappearance of detainees.
These executions constitute the largest mass killing in the modern history of Saudi Arabia, which took advantage of the timing during which the world is preoccupied with the Russian-Ukrainian war. It was further encouraged to carry out such a crime knowing that it has the support of the international community which continues to cooperate with it and provide it with military and security support, despite its criminal human rights record.
AOHR UK called on the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, and the Human Rights Council, to urgently intervene to pressure the Saudi regime to suspend all death sentences, and to stop the Saudi regime from shedding more blood of the innocent citizens.
