{"id":132526,"date":"2019-04-29T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=132526"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:42:01","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:42:01","slug":"saudi-arabia-beheads-37-people-guilty-of-terrorism-related-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/04\/saudi-arabia-beheads-37-people-guilty-of-terrorism-related-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia Beheads 37 People Guilty of ‘Terrorism-Related Crimes’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The executions are likely to stoke further regional and sectarian tensions between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Saudi Arabian flag is seen behind barbed wire.
Source: Tuck Magazine 2019<\/p><\/div>\n

24 Apr 2019 – <\/em>Saudi\u00a0Arabia on Tuesday [23 Apr] executed\u00a037\u00a0of its citizens convicted\u00a0of\u00a0terrorism, three years after another\u00a0mass\u00a0execution\u00a0that ultimately led to a break in relations with Iran.<\/p>\n

The latest executions were carried out in Riyadh, the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the predominantly Sunni province of Qassim, and in the Eastern Province, home to the country’s Shiite minority.<\/p>\n

The men were executed “for adopting terrorist and extremist thinking and for forming terrorist cells to corrupt and destabilise security”, said the official\u00a0Saudi\u00a0Press Agency (SPA).<\/p>\n

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Bahraini women hold posters of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr during a protest against his execution by Saudi authorities, in 2016. AFP<\/p><\/div>\n

It said one person was crucified after his\u00a0execution, a punishment reserved for particularly serious crimes.<\/p>\n

At least 100 people have been executed in\u00a0Saudi\u00a0Arabia since the start of the year, according to data released by SPA.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s mass execution of 37 people in Saudi Arabia is a chilling demonstration of the authorities’ disregard for human life. It is yet another gruesome indication of how the death penalty is being used as a political tool to crush dissent.\u201d https:\/\/t.co\/09BBTcfDgu<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 Amnesty International (@amnesty) April 23, 2019<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On Sunday, four men were killed in an attack on a security services base north of the capital Riyadh in an assault claimed by the jihadist Islamic State group.<\/p>\n

Saudi\u00a0authorities arrested 13 “terrorist” suspects the next day, but they did not say where the arrests took place or if they were linked to Sunday’s attack.<\/p>\n

‘Sectarian strife’<\/strong><\/p>\n

The interior ministry said some of those executed Tuesday were accused of “inciting sectarian strife”, a charge often used in\u00a0Saudi\u00a0Arabia against Shiite activists.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A protester delivers a speech to the Saudi government regarding the execution of an Indonesian migrant worker Zaini Misirin in 2018. Anadolu<\/p><\/div>\n

Rights group Amnesty International, in a statement, said most of those executed were Shiite men “convicted\u00a0after sham trials that violated international fair trial standards (and) which relied on confessions extracted through torture”.<\/p>\n

The executions were “yet another gruesome indication of how the death penalty is being used as a political tool to crush dissent” from within the country\u2019s Shiite minority, said Lynn Maalouf, Middle East research director at Amnesty.<\/p>\n

The rights watchdog said 11 of those executed were\u00a0convicted\u00a0of spying for Iran, while at least 14 others were sentenced in connection with anti-government protests in the Eastern Province between 2011 and 2012.<\/p>\n

Among those executed was Abdulkareem al-Hawaj, who was only 16 at the time of his arrest, it said.<\/p>\n

The Eastern Province has seen bouts of unrest since 2011 when protesters emboldened by the Arab Spring took to the streets demanding an end to alleged discrimination by the Sunni-dominated government.<\/p>\n

Although no official figures exist, Shiites make up an estimated 10-15 per cent of the ultra-conservative kingdom’s population of 32 million.<\/p>\n

Strict Islamic law<\/strong><\/p>\n

In January 2016,\u00a0Saudi\u00a0Arabia enraged Shiite Iran with the\u00a0execution\u00a0of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, among a group of 47 people\u00a0convicted\u00a0of “terrorism”.<\/p>\n

Saudi\u00a0diplomatic missions in Iran were attacked in violent demonstrations, prompting Riyadh to sever relations with Tehran.<\/p>\n

Riyadh accuses Tehran of attempting to “destabilise” the region and of interfering in other countries’ internal affairs.<\/p>\n

Rights experts have repeatedly raised\u00a0concerns about the fairness of trials in\u00a0Saudi\u00a0Arabia, governed under a strict form of Islamic law.<\/p>\n

Executions in the ultra-conservative kingdom are usually carried out by beheading.<\/p>\n

Last year, the oil-rich Gulf state carried out 149 death sentences, according to Amnesty International, which said only Iran was known to have executed more people.<\/p>\n

People\u00a0convicted\u00a0of\u00a0terrorism, homicide, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking face the death penalty, which the\u00a0Saudi\u00a0government says serves as a deterrent against serious crime.<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

Source AFP – SBS <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 sbs.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

24 Apr 2019 – The executions are likely to stoke further regional and sectarian tensions between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":132527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[120,290,487,1049,651,767,287,107,701,1048,985,126],"class_list":["post-132526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-north-africa","tag-conflict","tag-culture","tag-human-rights","tag-inhuman-punishment","tag-justice","tag-middle-east","tag-power","tag-religion","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-sharia-law","tag-social-justice","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275186,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132526\/revisions\/275186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}