Saudi Arabia execute three people for killing security officer

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia

Saudi authorities, yesterday, executed three Saudi men who were convicted of killing a security officer and establishing an alleged terrorist cell.

In a statement yesterday, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said that the three men had killed an officer in the capital, Riyadh, and burned his body by setting fire to his vehicle. 

They were also convicted of financing terrorism and possessing weapons, ammunition and "material used in the manufacture of explosives".

The execution of the three men comes after three other men – from the Kingdom's Shia-majority Eastern Province – were also executed earlier this month by Saudi authorities after it found them guilty of "joining a terrorist cell, possessed and been trained in the use of weapons, attacking security centres and security men with the intent of killing them".

Such executions are the latest of a slew of executions for "terrorism"-related offences in the Kingdom, over which critics and human rights groups express scepticism due to Riyadh's lack of transparency in its legal procedures and court trials.

That scepticism is particularly based on the prevalence of Saudi authorities' use of the terrorism-related charges to convict and sentence individuals who are critical of the government or protest against it, with rights groups accusing the Kingdom's security forces of using torture to secure forced confessions of crimes from those individuals.

According to the AFP news agency, Saudi authorities have executed 52 people since the start of this year, including 20 over terrorism-related offences.