Saudi Arabia Executes 37 Alleged Terrorists

Saudi Arabian authorities have executed 37 citizens over alleged connections to foreign terrorist networks and related activities in the kingdom. “The death penalty was implemented…on a number of culprits for adopting extremist terrorist ideologies and forming terrorist cells to corrupt and disrupt security as well as spread chaos and provoke sectarian strife,” a state-run news agency reported. The bodies of two of the executed men were reportedly hung from a pole in public for several hours as a warning to others. An Interior Ministry spokesman said all of the accused had been found guilty and condemned to death by the Specialized Criminal Court, the Sunni kingdom’s highest legal body. The executions came a day after Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on a Saudi security building in the town of Zulfi. The House of Saud’s human rights record has come under increasing international scrutiny following the imprisonment of numerous female activists and the October murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.