Human rights organizations have once again turned their attention toward Saudi Arabia as the nation announced the mass execution of 81 men March 12 in what is considered the largest mass execution in the kingdom’s modern history. The nation’s current death toll amounts to a total of 92 executions in 2022 — an increase from the 67 executions carried out in 2021 and 27 in 2020.

“Criminal groups have strayed from the path of truth, replaced it by desires and followed the footsteps of Satan,” said a March 12 statement by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior, a government department that deals with domestic affairs and law.

While all men executed — including seven Yemenis and one Syrian — were convicted of crimes, the specific charges vary. According to the statement, some of the convicts were affiliated with the Islamic State group, Al-Qaeda or the Houthi rebel movement, while others were charged with murder, “inciting strife and spreading chaos” or communicating with foreign parties with the intent of harming the country.

“The Ministry of (the) Interior … will not fail to deter anyone who threatens its security and the security of its citizens and residents, or disrupts public life, or impedes an authority from performing duties entrusted to it,” the statement continued after listing the names of 81 convicts and their corresponding charges.

The method of execution has not been disclosed, though the kingdom has frequently opted to behead death-row inmates in the past. 

The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations responded to the mass execution with strong condemnation and calls for reform in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system. 

In particular, Amnesty International — an international human rights organization — noted in a March 15 statement that 41 of the executed convicts were from Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a minority. Only 10% of Saudi Arabian citizens identify as Shi’a Muslims, while Sunni Muslims comprise the remaining 90%. The organization claims that this execution represents a larger push to silence those who dissent against the Saudi Arabian government.

Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in the same March 15 statement that the executions are the result of unfair and deeply flawed trials.

“Verdicts (based) on ‘confessions’ extracted under torture or other ill-treatment,” Maalouf said, are the justifications given for such mass executions.

For Chapman University peace studies and political science professor Art Blaser, executions like these are symptomatic of larger issues in Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system.

“It’s rather ordinary (in light of) what’s been done in the past,” Blaser told The Panther. “There’s been a lot of secrecy surrounding (these trials), (and) the process was pretty obscure. A lot of the human rights organizations just haven’t been able to get any (information).”

When asked to compare the mass execution to policies in other countries, Blaser noted that the scope of Saudi Arabia’s execution was a differentiating factor. 

But Blaser argued that the concerns over Saudi Arabia are also part of a larger dialogue about capital punishment. 

“Globally, the death penalty clearly is a fundamental human rights issue from the time it started,” Blaser said. “Clearly, what human rights groups support is (stopping) executions.” 

In 2020, Amnesty International listed Saudi Arabia as having the fifth highest number of executions of any nation in the world. Though countries like Egypt, with a confirmed 107 executions, and Iran, with at least 246, surpassed the kingdom’s 27 authorized killings that same year.

Since then, executions in Saudi Arabia have been on the rise. Though prior to 2020, the nation used the death penalty even more frequently, with 2019 marking an all-time high of 184 exeuctions.

A March 15 report by the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) has managed to obtain information on the nation’s criminal justice procedures for five of the 81 executed, despite the secrecy both Blaser and the ESOHR itself expressed concern for.

Each of the five convicts were subjected to forms of torture including “sleep deprivation, beatings (and) being forced to stand for a long time” while under arrest.

One inmate, Mohammed Al-Shakhouri, lost several teeth during one of the aforementioned beatings. He was charged with “calling for sit-ins and demonstrations and raising anti-state slogans,” “possession and use of weapons” and “possession of photos and information of individuals considered terrorists by states.”

Another inmate did not see a trial until two years after his arrest. Having been placed under solitary confinement, Yassin bin Hussein Ibrahim was charged with “espionage,” “storing things that would offend public morals” and “communicating with intelligence agents,” although it is unclear which agents are being referred to.

Many national governments, such as the U.S., the U.K., Germany and Belgium have not taken a firm stance for or against the recent mass execution. 

Meanwhile, concerns have been raised both by human rights organizations and the media about these latest executions being overshadowed by a high demand for oil, following an outright ban of Russian oil in the US and a push to decrease Russian oil usage in other NATO-affiliated countries. As of 2016, Saudi Arabia had the second largest supply of oil in the world.

The U.K, for example, has confirmed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson intends to raise concerns about the mass execution, even as he visited Saudi Arabia March 16 to discuss increasing oil business between the two nations. However, British voices like that of Deputy Opposition Leader Angela Rayner, the second highest-ranking member of the country’s Labour Party, consider Johnson to be relying on oppressive dictators to sustain the U.K. 's energy needs.

The U.S, meanwhile, has declined to say whether it has spoken with Saudi Arabian officials specifically about the execution of 81 prisoners, but stated that it will continue to raise concerns about human rights in the country.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price affirmed the government’s stance without specifically condemning the executions in a March 14 press briefing. 

“We have been clear about our concerns about the lack of respect for fair trial guarantees in Saudi Arabia,” Price said, “We’ve documented this in our human rights reports, we’ve raised these concerns with the Saudi government, (and) we’ll continue to do so.”

Both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia remain part of the 55 countries that still actively use the death penalty for domestic crimes.