Saudi Arabia executes 5, including 1 Egyptian, for terrorism – News Block

Saudi has executed 5 people, including 1 Egyptian, for terrorism.

• Saudi Arabia carried out the largest group execution of the year, killing five people in the deadly attack on a house of worship.
• The people executed, including an Egyptian national, were convicted of an attack that killed five people in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province.
• Saudi Arabia faces criticism for its frequent use of the death penalty, with more than 20 executions for terrorism-related offenses since May.

Saudi Arabia executed five people convicted of carrying out a deadly attack on a house of worship on Monday, state media said, the largest group execution this year.

The five men, four Saudis and an Egyptian national, were on trial for an attack that killed five people and injured an untold number of others in the eastern part of the kingdom, home to most of Saudi oil and most members of its Shia minority.

An Interior Ministry statement carried by the official Saudi press agency did not specify when the attack took place or what type of place of worship was targeted.

State media said one man was beheaded while the others were executed by other means.

This brought to 68 the total number of people executed so far by Saudi Arabia, a frequent target of criticism from human rights groups opposed to its prolific use of the death penalty.

More than 20 executions have been carried out since early May for terrorism-related offences, the vast majority in the eastern province.

At the end of May, authorities executed two Bahrainis convicted of terrorism in a case Amnesty International said depended on “confessions tainted with torture”.

Last year, Saudi Arabia executed 147 people in total, more than double the figure of 69 in 2021, an AFP tally showed.

The 2022 figure included 81 people executed on a single day in March of that year for crimes related to terrorism, a fact that sparked international outrage.

More than 1,000 death sentences have been carried out since King Salman took power in 2015, according to a report published earlier this year by Reprieve and the Saudi-European Organization for Human Rights.

The recent spike in executions in Saudi Arabia comes as the kingdom, known for its strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, has been trying to soften its image through sweeping social and economic changes as part of its “Vision” reform agenda. 2030″.