Saudi Arabia Executes 81 People in Single Day

Saudi Arabia announced on Saturday that it put 81 prisoners to death in a single day. The Interior Ministry said the executed prisoners had been convicted on a variety of charges, including terrorism, espionage, and murder. Some had targeted government personnel and vital economic sites, others had killed law enforcement officers and desecrated their bodies, and still others had planted land mines targeting police vehicles. Other crimes for which executed prisoners were convicted include kidnapping, torture, rape, and smuggling arms and bombs into the kingdom, according to the government-run Saudi Press Agency. The trials were overseen by a total of 13 judges over three separate stages of trial for each individual suspect, and defendants were provided with their full rights, including legal representation, under Saudi law, the ministry emphasized. The ministry also said the kingdom would “continue to take a strict and unwavering stance against terrorism and extremist ideologies that threaten the stability of the entire world.”