Saudi Arabia executes 81 people in one day; No reaction from Western Democracies

 Saudi Arabia beheaded at least 81 people in one day, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian, state media reported on Saturday. 

Activists said, 41 of them were Shia Muslims from the eastern Qatif region.

The mass carrying out of capital punishment appears to be the largest execution in the kingdom in its modern history. The total number of those put to death surpassed that of the January 1980 mass execution of militants convicted of seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which saw 63 people beheaded.

Human rights group Reprieve condemned the executions and said it feared for prisoners of conscience, including individuals arrested as children, on Saudi death row. 

"The world should know by now that when Mohammed bin Salman promises reform, bloodshed is bound to follow,"  said Reprieve deputy director Soraya Bauwens in a statement. 

"Just last week the crown prince told journalists he plans to modernise Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system, only to order the largest mass execution in the country’s history.

Since taking power, Crown Prince Mohammed under his father has increasingly liberalized life in the kingdom, opening movie theaters, allowing women to drive and defanging the country's once-feared religious police.

However, U.S. intelligence agencies believe the crown prince also ordered the slaying and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, while overseeing airstrikes in Yemen that killed hundreds of civilians.

World reacts--or not

Other than Iran, no government, including Western democracies, reacted to the mass killing.  Iran has unilaterally suspended talks aimed at defusing longstanding tensions with regional rival Saudi Arabia, Iranian state media reported on March 13.

The New York Time noted the silence of Western demcracies linking it to events in Ukraine.

Noting that Western countries were looking to Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest oil producers, to help make up for the shortfall in oil supplies as many countries shun energy from Russia because of President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, she added, “We cannot show our revulsion for Putin’s atrocities by rewarding those of the crown prince.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/12/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-executions.html 

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