The Saudi regime executed as many as 81 prisoners in a single day on Saturday over what it called “terror-related offenses,” in the largest mass execution carried out in the kingdom in recent memory. As many as 41 of the victims hailed from Qatif.
The executions have been followed by waves of popular protests, especially in the kingdom’s east. Domestic and regional groupings have been issuing condemnatory statements against the regime.
Social media users reported that the kingdom has started summoning some of the families of the victims and threatened them to declare that they were content with the executions or face consequences.
The people of the Eastern Province, on the other hand, have not shied away from commemorating the victims. Religious center owners are apparently organizing a variety of activities to commemorate the individuals who were executed.
In the wake of the kingdom's apparent unwillingness to hand over the bodies of some of the victims, local activists have been publicizing the victims' names and features.
On his Twitter profile, the leading Saudi analyst Ali Abbas al-Ahmed tweeted a list of demonstrators and activists killed by the Saudi regime, and the message went viral.
Plainclothes Saudi security forces have reportedly been deployed across Qatif, preventing gatherings of more than two people from assembling.
The inhabitants of Qatif, on the other hand, have promised to take to the streets as soon as possible to protest the death of innocent people.
In a statement, the Arabian Peninsula Opposition bloc, which is an umbrella for Saudi dissidents, said the 41 executed prisoners, belonged to the peaceful al-Hirak al-Janoubi movement. The bloc of Saudi dissidents called the kingdom’s de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman “nothing more than a murderer, who enjoys shedding the blood of the innocent,” saying the mass execution was carried out against young people, who had exercised their right to express their opinion and had been imprisoned as a result.
Rights groups condemned the executions, saying “they flew in the face of” claims by bin Salman “that the country was overhauling its justice system and limiting its use of the death penalty.”
“These executions are the opposite of justice,” said Ali Adubusi, the director of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, a watchdog group. He said that in many of the cases, the charges against the accused involved “not a drop of blood.”