Saudi Arabia beheads 37 for terrorism, pins one of the headless bodies to a pole

The nation also publicly pinned the executed body and severed head of a convicted extremist to a pole as a warning to others.

According to Saudi dissident Ali Al-Ahmed, 34 of those executed where from the Shiite minority.

“This is the largest mass execution of Shiites in the kingdom’s history,” he said.

Amnesty International has also said many on the list were convicted “after sham trials” which relied on torture.

[The list includes] 11 men who were convicted of spying for Iran and sentenced to death after a grossly unfair trial. At least 14 others executed were convicted of violent offences related to their participation in anti-government demonstrations in Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a majority Eastern Province between 2011 and 2012. The 14 men were subjected to prolonged pre-trial detention and told the court that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated during their interrogation in order to have ‘confessions’ extracted from them.

Amnesty International

According to The Washington Post, one of the people executed on Tuesday was arrested at the age of 17 at an airport in Saudi Arabia as he was “preparing to leave the country for a college visit to Western Michigan University”.

The individual was charged with disobeying the Saudi monarch, attacking security forces, and other offences. He was allegedly also tortured in prison, “denied access to a lawyer during interrogations and forced to sign a confession admitting prosecutor’s charges, including attending protests.”

In response, the UN’s Human Rights Chief called out the imposition of death penalties for minor.

Canada still arming Saudi-Arabia

While the Saudi State holds mass-executions, in some cases for witchcraft and sorcery, kills journalists in their consulate, and actively opposes Canadian economic interests, the Trudeau government interestingly continues a controversial $15 billion arms deal negotiated by the Harper government.

The government in effect has argued that, however controversial, the deal would be too costly to cancel.

What do you think? Should Canada continue its arms deal with Saudi Arabia?

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