Saudi Arabia said Saturday it had executed a record 81 people in one day for terrorism-related offences, exceeding the total number killed last year and sparking criticism from rights activists.
All had been “found guilty of committing multiple heinous crimes”, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported, saying they included convicts linked to the Islamic State group, Al-Qaeda, Yemen’s Huthi rebel forces or “other terrorist organisations”.
The wealthy Gulf country has one of the world’s highest execution rates, and has often carried out previous death sentences by beheading.
Those executed had been sentenced over plotting attacks in the kingdom — including killing “a large number” of civilians and members of the security forces, the SPA statement read.
“The convictions include crimes of kidnapping, torture, rape, smuggling arms and bombs into the kingdom,” it added.
Of the 81 people killed, 73 were Saudi citizens, seven were Yemeni and one was a Syrian national.