The last time Saudi Arabia carried out mass executions for security
offences was after a group of Islamist militants seized Mecca's Grand
Mosque in 1979.
Saudi Arabia to execute more than 50 convicted of terrorism, local media say (Times Of Israel)
Saudi Arabia
plans to execute more than 50 people convicted of terrorism, two Saudi
newspapers reported this week, in what appears to be a warning to
would-be jihadists at a time of militant attacks on the kingdom.
Fifty-five people were awaiting execution for "terrorist crimes"
that killed more than 100 civilians and 71 security personnel, the
newspaper Okaz reported on Thursday, without specifying when the
executions would occur.
On Monday, the
semi-official newspaper al-Riyadh reported that 52 people would be put
to death soon, but it later pulled the story from its website without
explanation.
Some of those facing execution were affiliated with al Qaeda,
Okaz said. Others are from Awamiya, a largely Shi'ite town in the
oil-producing Eastern Province where the government has suppressed
demonstrations for equal rights.
Diplomats in Riyadh say their governments have been assured Saudi Arabia will not execute Shi'ites convicted after protests.
Awamiya residents responded to the news by closing off roads leading into the city with burning debris, local activists said.
The
alleged al Qaeda militants stand accused of attempts to overthrow the
government and carry out attacks using small weapons, explosives and
surface-to-air missiles, Okaz said.
One prisoner was accused of trying to buy nuclear material in Yemen worth $1.5 million for use inside Saudi Arabia.
The
charges against the Awamiya residents include sedition, attacks on
security officials and interference in neighbouring Bahrain, which has
also experienced unrest since 2011.
Saudi Arabia
has already executed over 150 people this year, mostly by public
beheading, the most in 20 years, rights group Amnesty International said
this month.
The Saudi monarchy has in recent
years sentenced to death dozens of people convicted of taking part in al
Qaeda attacks in Saudi Arabia from 2003-06 and again in 2009.
Islamic
State sympathisers have killed dozens in Saudi Arabia over the past 12
months with a string of mosque bombings and shootings aimed at members
of the Shi'ite Muslim minority as well as security officers and Western
expatriates.
The Syria and Iraq-based militant
group has called on its followers in Saudi Arabia to stay home and
conduct attacks there instead of travelling to join the caliphate it
declared in 2014.
Saudi police have detained
hundreds of the group's suspected sympathisers and have joined an
international coalition carrying out air strikes against it in Syria.
Riyadh has also deployed state-affiliated clergy to denounce jihadist
ideology.
Saudi courts have also to death this
year seven Shi'ite men convicted of sedition, for taking part in
pro-democracy protests and attacks on police during demonstrations over
discrimination from 2011-13.
Two of those men were
minors at the time of the protests. Sentencing them to death to having
bodies publicly displayed prompted an international outcry.
The last time Saudi Arabia carried out mass executions for security offences was after a group of Islamist militants seized Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979.
The
only people executed so far for al Qaeda attacks in the kingdom in the
last decade, which have killed hundreds, were two men from Chad earlier
this year.
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