Saudi Arabia has executed 47 men for various bombings and
attacks, the interior ministry said on Saturday.
The punishments were carried out in 10 provinces, according to a
statement by the official Saudi Press Agency. While most of the
convicted men were Saudi citizens, the number included one Egyptian
and one Chadian national, it said. Some executions were carried out
by firing squad and some by sword, a ministry spokesman said on
Al-Arabiya TV.
The men were convicted of crimes including bombings targeting the
traffic department and interior ministry in Riyadh, plots to attack
military airports, and other strikes on security forces, the
ministry said. Some of the attacks happened between 2003 and 2006.
Those executed were described as promoters of a “deviant” version of
Islam, a phrase used by Saudi Arabia for al-Qaeda, Islamic State,
and other militant groups.
The kingdom is cracking down on domestic terrorists, who have
staged multiple attacks since Saudi Arabia joined the U.S. coalition
against Islamic State in 2014. Saudi security forces arrested 377
people for joining Islamic State, Al-Jazirah newspaper reported in
December.
Cleric Death Sentence
Nimr al-Nimr, a dissident Shiite cleric from the oil-rich Eastern
Province, was among those executed. Known for sermons which
criticized Sunni rulers in Saudi Arabia, as well as Shiite Iran for
supporting the Syrian regime’s crackdown on its opponents, al-Nimr
was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to death in 2014.
The Saudi government will "pay a heavy price" for pursuing
its policy of execution and suppression of its domestic critics,
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said,
according to the official news agency IRNA. “It is clear that
the outcome of this unproductive and irresponsible policy will
affect those behind it," he said.
While Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia largely escaped the unrest
that spread across the Arab world in 2011, the country’s
minority Shiites, who say they suffer discrimination, have
occasionally protested and fought with security forces. Islamic
State has exploited this fault line, striking Shiite mosques
last year.
Saudi Arabia plans to host a joint operations room in Riyadh
to coordinate a coalition of 34 Muslim nations to combat
terrorism in Islamic countries, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman, who is also the kingdom’s defense minister, said last
month. The decision to form the coalition is part of a broader
effort by Saudi Arabia to establish itself as the leader of the
Sunni Muslim world’s battle against terrorism.
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