# Saudi Arabia executes 81 people in one day

Date: 2022

On 12 March 2022, Saudi Arabia executed 81 people after convictions on a range of charges. Amnesty International reported that some of the executed men had been convicted on charges connected to expression, peaceful assembly and dissent, including language concerning sit-ins and protests, and said that 41 of those executed were from the country’s Shi’a minority. The record is limited to the mass execution and the rights concerns documented by the cited source. It does not claim that all 81 cases had the same evidentiary record or that every conviction concerned protected activity. The event matters because capital punishment was used at exceptional scale in a system where rights organizations documented fair-trial concerns and politicized use of terrorism-related charges. The responsibility attribution is institutional and executive: the executions were carried out by the Saudi state during [Mohammed bin Salman](/people/mohammed-bin-salman)’s period of de facto executive control.

## People

- Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud: https://factrail.ai/people/mohammed-bin-salman

## Drivers

- State Repression: https://factrail.ai/drivers/state-repression

## Sources

- https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/03/saudi-arabia-mass-execution-of-81-men-shows-urgent-need-to-abolish-the-death-penalty/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/sa-mass-execution-81-2022