Saudi authorities execute 7 people on terrorism-related charges

Saudi authorities executed 7 people on Tuesday on accusations of “establishing and funding terrorist organizations,” in the largest mass execution in a single day since the execution of 81 people in March 2022, according to official media reports.

This brings the number of executions related to these charges to 11 out of 29 death sentences carried out in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of this year, according to a tally compiled by AFP based on official data.

It is worth noting that Saudi authorities carried out 170 executions in 2023, including 33 individuals executed for terrorism-related charges.

The Saudi Press Agency “SPA” reported on Tuesday, citing the Ministry of Interior, that the defendants, whose nationalities were not revealed but whose names and titles indicate they are Saudis, were convicted of “adopting a terrorist approach, establishing and funding terrorist organizations and entities, and spying and dealing with them to undermine the security and stability of society, and endanger its national unity.”

The suspects were arrested between December 2019 and January 2022, and their execution was carried out in Riyadh on Tuesday after their sentences were upheld by the specialized appeals court and the Supreme Court.

Saudi Arabia has faced criticism for its excessive use of the death penalty, as it ranked third in the list of countries with the highest number of executions in the world in 2023, according to Amnesty International, with Iran ranking second and China first.

Since King Salman bin Abdulaziz came to power in 2015, Saudi Arabia has executed over a thousand individuals, according to a joint report by Reprieve, a London-based anti-death penalty organization, and the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights based in Berlin, published earlier this year.