Mar. 18, 2022

Mass execution shows Saudi Arabia will act with impunity

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Saudi Arabia executed 81 people on Mar. 12, the largest known mass execution in the Kingdom’s history. Those put to death were all Saudi nationals except for seven Yemenis and one Syrian. The charges against them included murder and having alleged links to organizations such as the Islamic State group (IS) and Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, better known as the Houthis. Others were convicted of holding “deviant beliefs,” having “foreign loyalties,” targeting “vital economic sites,” and smuggling weapons “to destabilize security, sow discord and unrest, and cause riots and chaos.”

The mass execution dwarfs the beheadings of 47 people in Jan. 2016 and another 37 in Apr. 2019. Saudi authorities have not announced how the recent executions were carried out.

 

A family member speaks out

Amwaj.media spoke with Hamza Al-Shakhouri, whose brother Mohammad Alawi and cousin Asaad Makki Shubbar were among those recently executed. Shakhouri, a member of the Arabian Peninsula Opposition Bloc which is critical of the Saudi government, said the families of those executed were “not given a chance to bid their final farewells” and “found out about the executions through media outlets.”

“We also do not know when or where the executions were carried out, or how they were buried and whether [Islamic] funeral prayers were carried out,” Shakhouri lamented. He dismissed the charges against those executed as “arbitrary” and said most were from the Qatif region in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, which is home to most of the country’s Shiite minority.

“They were activists who took part in the peaceful Qatif movement which lasted for six years,” Shakhouri stated, referring to anti-government demonstrations in the region which gained momentum after the 2011 Arab Spring protests. “They participated in demonstrations and held up anti-government signs and slogans. Their demands were political and for better services and livelihoods.”

According to Human Rights Watch, the Kingdom’s Shiite minority has “long suffered systemic discrimination and violence by the government” and 41 of the men recently executed were Shiites. Most of those put to death in the 2016 and 2019 mass executions were also Shiites.

Shakhouri said the country’s prosecutor-general executed the Shiite men in retaliation for their political activism. He added, “Their confessions were obtained under torture. They had all spoken openly in court rooms, and announced that the confessions were extracted under torture, force, and coercion. However, the court dismissed their testimonies.”

Shakhouri further explained that the trial was carried out in secrecy and that the lawyers for the detainees were not given enough time to meet with their clients and litigate in the courtroom. “The conditions under which the trials were carried out were marred by legal flaws,” he stated, “And not to mention, the judiciary is not independent and is docile towards security apparatuses. It receives direct instructions from the political authority.”

 

Global reactions

The mass execution sparked an outcry across the globe. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet underscored that many of those executed were Shiite activists who had “taken part in anti-government protests in 2011-2012 calling for greater political participation.”

Bachelet asserted that the men were executed following trials which “did not meet fair trial and due process guarantees, and for crimes that did not appear to meet the most serious crimes threshold, as required under international law.” She further expressed concern for the “extremely broad definition of terrorism,” which she said includes “non-violent acts that supposedly ‘endanger national unity’ or ‘undermine the State’s reputation.’”

Western countries allied with the Saudi government have, however, been more circumspect. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price stopped short of condemning the executions, stating only that “we continue to raise with Saudi Arabia the need to ensure fair trial guarantees, freedom from arbitrary and extrajudicial detention, transparency, the rule of law, and freedom of religion and belief.”

The mass execution notably took place ahead of visits to Saudi Arabia by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The two western leaders seek to convince Riyadh to increase oil production in a bid to reduce global energy prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Johnson said in response to criticism of his visit to the Kingdom days after the executions, “I've raised all those [human rights] issues many, many times over the past … and I'll raise them all again today. But we have long, longstanding relationships with this part of the world.”

 

Saudi activists react to muted western criticism

Saudi journalist and filmmaker Safa Al-Ahmad told Amwaj.media that it was “easier” for Saudi authorities to carry out the executions while the world’s attention is focused on the Ukraine crisis. She also charged that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MbS) seeks to strong-arm US President Joe Biden. Ahmad referred to a recent interview that MbS did with US media, in which he said in response to a question on whether Biden misunderstands him, “Simply, I do not care. It’s up to him to think about the interests of America.”

Ahmad said that MbS’s comments “can be considered a threat and a message to Biden, that it is either me or no one, and that he [MbS] is the only strongman Biden can deal with in the Kingdom whether he wishes to or not.”

Taha Al-Haji, a Saudi lawyer and rights activist based in Germany, says the rulers of Saudi Arabia believe they are in a position of strength for the time being because the world needs more oil. “If reactions to the executions are made, they will be no more than denouncements which will last for several days only,” Haji stated, “After which things will be back to normal because the world needs oil.”

Haji also asserted that the Saudi government does not heed criticisms of its human rights abuses because of its ability to influence perceptions through the media. “Saudi leaders feel that through their significant media machine, and through buying silence, loyalty and [journalists’] pens, they can change how [people] think and limit criticism and portray themselves as if they executed terrorists, murderers, and menaces.”

Prominent Saudi activist Lina Al-Hathloul, head of monitoring and communications at ALQST for Human Rights, agrees that Saudi rulers believe the Ukraine crisis gives them more room to violate human rights with impunity. “Their message to the world is that they will not cooperate with any party regarding oil prices if they put conditions related to the human rights situation in the country,” she told Amwaj.media. Of note, the activist is a sister of prominent former Saudi political prisoner Loujain Al-Hathloul.

Hathloul elaborated that now is a “convenient” time for the Saudi government to “get rid of” its opponents without having to deal any international pressure. In this vein, she charged that the mass execution shows that the authorities will “deal with prisoners of conscience in a monstrous way and will continue to use the specialized criminal court, which uses counterterrorism for political purposes, to try whoever the government wants to get rid of.” In other words, she explained, the Kingdom “considers any activism for rights as an act of terror, hence the [Saudi government’s] definition of terrorism may include peaceful acts as well as acts which we all acknowledge as acts of terror.”

Shakhouri, the relative of two of the men who were recently executed, said he was not “shocked by the massacre” because “this regime finds international cover and the entire world stands idle vis-à-vis its crimes.” He concluded, “Although there are condemnations being voiced, they are only momentary and for media consumption, after which alliances, deals, and visits are back to normal.”

Nazeeha Saeed
Nazeeha Saeed
Nazeeha Saeed
Nazeeha Saeed is a journalist and international correspondent from Bahrain. As an advocate, she also won ... Full Bio
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