Saudi Arabia’s secret execution

Saudi Arabia’s execution rate has doubled since 2015. On the 12th of March 2022, 81 men were executed. A year on, family members of the deceased don’t know how their loved ones were executed, or if they were buried. Mustafa al-Khayyat was one of these men. 

After engaging in demonstrations against the Saudi government, Mustafa was detained in 2014. Family members reported Mustafa had been tortured through electric shocks while he was in prison. 

Following his death, an official announcement stated that he, and the others executed by his side, had been executed for a range of offences, including attempted murder of security personnel, rape, robbery, bomb-making, stirring up strife and spreading chaos, and trading weapons and drugs. 

To read more, see this article for the BBC by Diplomatic Correspondent, Caroline Hawley.