The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, condemned the mass execution carried out by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against 81 people.
In her statement on 14 March 2022, Bachelet indicated that 41 of those executed belonged to the Saudi Shiite minority, and faced charges related to participating in anti-government protests, along with seven Yemenis and one Syrian.
The High Commissioner explained that the monitoring confirmed that some of those executed were sentenced to death after trials that did not meet the conditions of justice and due process guarantees, and for crimes that did not appear to be among the most serious crimes, as required by international law. The statement also expressed concern that some of the executions appear to be linked to the ongoing armed conflict in Yemen, and thus violate international human rights and humanitarian law, which may amount to war crimes.
The statement explained that the mass executions carried out in one day, made the executions in one day exceed the total of 67 executions carried out in all of 2021.
The High Commissioner stressed that the death penalty contradicts the basic principles of human rights, dignity, the right to life and the prohibition of torture. She stressed that failure to provide relatives with information about the circumstances of the execution may amount to torture and ill-treatment, and Bachelet called on the Saudi government to return the bodies of those executed to their families.
The statement expressed the High Commissioner’s concern that Saudi legislation includes an overly broad definition of terrorism, including non-violent acts that are supposed to “endanger national unity” or “undermine the reputation of the state,” stressing that these risks criminalizing people who exercise their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
The High Commissioner called on Saudi Arabia to halt all executions, impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty and commute death sentences for those sentenced to death, and urged it to bring the country's counter-terrorism laws fully in line with international standards.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights welcomes the High Commissioner’s condemnation of the mass execution, and her demand for Saudi Arabia to stop the current executions, ensure fair trials and give families the right to bury their loved ones. The organization notes that Saudi Arabia, through the recent mass execution, confirmed its disregard for all international promises and commitments, including what it has been making public before the Human Rights Council and with representatives of the United Nations. Consequently, the organization believes that international bodies should take more serious and strict measures in the face of Saudi violations of its obligations.