Saudi Arabia executes five men for ‘terrorism’

Saudi Arabia has announced the death of five men — four Saudis and an Egyptian national — convicted of carrying out a deadly attack on a house of worship.

Arab News, a local media, quoted the Saudi press agency as saying that the incident took place in Al-Ahsa governorate and left five people dead and several others injured.

The state media did not specify when the attack took place or the specific house of worship that was targeted.

The Egyptian had been found guilty of targeting a house of worship, shooting at security guards, attempting to blow himself up, and belonging to a terrorist organisation, according to the report.

Three of the other four men were convicted of belonging to the organisation and helping the Egyptian plan and execute the attack, the report added.

The fourth was reportedly found guilty of belonging to the same terror group, failing to inform the authorities about the operation, and inciting another of the men to join the organisation.

SAUDI ARABIA ONE OF THE WORLD’S TOP EXECUTIONERS

In a letter to Amnesty International in May, the Saudi Human Rights Commission said 196 people had been executed in 2022.

The figure was the highest number of annual executions that Amnesty International recorded in the country in the last 30 years.

It was also three times higher than the number of executions carried out in 2021 and at least seven times higher than in 2020.

So far this year, Saudi Arabia has executed 54 people for a wide range of crimes, including murder, drug smuggling and terrorism-related crimes.

Oftentimes, families are not informed when the supreme court and King ratify death sentences and mostly find out about the execution of their loved ones from the media.