Eighty-one executions in 24 hours in Saudi Arabia, HRW denounces

The execution of 81 men in a single day in Saudi Arabia is a “brutal demonstration of their autocratic regime,” denounced the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday, stressing that it is “very unlikely” that these people have had a fair trial.

More than half of the men executed on Saturday belonged to the Shia minority “who have long suffered systemic discrimination and violence by the government,” HRW said in a statement.

This is the largest number of executions announced in a single day in the country, one of the most resorting to the death penalty in the world.

In 2021, the total number of executions in the kingdom exceeded 69.

According to Riyadh, the executed men, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian, were convicted of crimes related to “terrorism” and their trials were “supervised by a total of 13 judges”.

But for HRW, “it is highly unlikely that any of these men have ever had a fair trial,” given “widespread and systemic abuses of the Saudi criminal justice system.”

HRW claimed to have obtained the judicial decisions of five of the Shiite men, all of whom stated that they had “been tortured and ill-treated during interrogations and that their confessions had been obtained by force.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, expressed concern about possible violations of international law and even war crimes.

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