Saudi executes fourth detainee in less than 24 hours

The Saudi Interior Ministry yesterday announced that it had carried out the death penalty against Ahmed Al Badr, who is from the Shia minority in the east of the country, making him the fourth detainee to be executed in less than 24 hours.

The ministry explained that Al Badr was found guilty of “communicating with an enemy country, leaving the kingdom illegally, and joining one of that country’s [training] camps.”

He was also found guilty of “receiving training in weapons and bombs, returning to the Kingdom and covering up those who had smuggled him and his companions to receive military training, possessing weapons, and smuggling other weapons to implement his terrorist plan to breach the kingdom’s security,” according to the same source.

The charges are very similar to those attributed to the three young men whom the Saudi authorities executed on Monday.

READ: Egypt, Saudi, Iran account for 90% of global executions, says Amnesty

The European-Saudi Organization for Human Rights said Al Badr’s execution has raised the number of  those executed in the kingdom since the beginning of 2023 to 36.

Amnesty International has recently condemned the high rate of executions in Saudi Arabia. The number of executions in Saudi Arabia has increased from 65 in 2021 to 196 in 2022.