We executed terrorists, not ordinary criminals, Saudi Arabia fires back

The Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has expressed its displeasure with the large amount of criticism it has received following the recent execution of 47 persons in its country. The executed persons also included a famous Shiite cleric Nimr Baqeer Ameen Al Nimr. The government reiterated that those executed were terrorists and not ordinary criminals.

In a statement signed obtained through the Saudi Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Fahad Abdullah Alsefayan, which was issued yesterday in Abuja, the Saudi government argued that the execution were for terrorism activities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and not for their membership of any religious sect, as is being speculated. 

The statement, which was signed by the Saudi Press Agency said: “The government of Saudi Arabia is strongly opposed to the condemnation and protestations on the attacks it is enduring from people who are least abreast with the Islamic jurisprudence practised in our kingdom,  which says, Allah Almighty says in the Holy Quran that the recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or be exiled from the land. That is their disgrace in this world and a great torment is theirs in the hereafter.

 “The perpetrators were involved in a score of terrorist attacks which resulted in the death of innocent lives and destruction of private, public and military properties including, Al Hamra Housing Complex, in Riyadh, storming the complex of the APICORP the Arabian Company of Petroleum Investment or Sadui’s equivalent of NNPC, poisoning and sabotaging public water supply, kidnapping members of the public with the intention of mutilating their bodies or killing them, manufacturing and smuggling explosives into the kingdom and planning to damage the national economy as well as endangering the lives of the nation’s security personnel, foreign embassies, Saudi ARAMCO and several petroleum facilities of the kingdom,” the statement added.

It also stated that the activities of the individuals included robbery banks and shops and also various kinds of fraud. He said such funds were diverted into financing of terrorism activities against the kingdom, its allies and other innocent members of the human community.

 The Royal Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia argued that no nation would simply sit by and watch people who create chaos, provoke acts of violence, incite disorder and anarchy and spread terrorists’ propaganda in their domain. It added that the Saudi government strongly believed terrorism was a serious crime against humanity and was a great threat to the peace and security of the kingdom and the world.

The statement further explained that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reserves the right to adjudicate according to the basis of its law of governance as stated in the Holy Quran and the Prophets Sunnah and that Shariah Law is its sole authority over the judiciary including those affecting all human beings and properties in its kingdom.

He added that those executed were convicted by properly constituted courts, and were subsequently found guilty of crimes against innocent people, properties and security forces.